Lyonnesse definition
(arthurian legend, place, proper) A region in SW England, apparently near Cornwall, supposed to have sunk beneath the sea.
noun
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Lyonnesse is the scene of many incidents in the Arthurian romances, and especially in the romances of Tristram and Iseult.
Early English chronicles, such as the Chronicon e chronicis of Florence of Worcester, who died in 1118, described minutely and without a suggestion of disbelief the flourishing state of Lyonnesse, and its sudden disappearance beneath the sea.
There is also a very ancient local tradition, apparently independent of the story of Lyonnesse, that the Scilly Islands formed part of the Cornish mainland within historical times.