Luthany

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Luthany is an imaginary place name of unknown origin used (and probably invented) by the English Catholic poet Francis Thompson in his long poem "The Mistress of Vision", coupled with the name Elenore. Both are regions of the visionary land of grace in which the Virgin Mary reigns as Queen of Poesy.

In the realm of grace, the land of Luthany, they make poesy who live it, and in this region Elenore they live and sing it all through a country which mortal feet have never explored, real but beyond our geography, the Paradise of God.

from Father John O'Connor's commentary, reprinted in The Aylesford Review, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Summer 1966.

The name was adopted, for a short time, in the early writing of Thompson's admirer J.R.R. Tolkien as the most ancient name for Britain/England in his imagined history (The Book of Lost Tales). The form of the name probably influenced Tolkien's names Lúthien and Leithien.