Floating island (fiction)

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The floating islands of Themyscira in DC Comics' book Wonder Woman.

A floating island in fiction is a landmass that floats in a body of water (such as Vadanis in The Guardian Cycle of novels), or in the sky (such as Angel Island from Sonic The Hedgehog and the Kingdom of Zeal from Chrono Trigger). By contrast, a flying island is an island that flies, or floats, above the surface of the earth (such as the flying continent of Laputa in Castle in the Sky). These islands are usually free-floating and are sometimes directed by the whim of their inhabitants, whilst others may be permanently anchored.

Floating islands are usually held aloft by one (or more) of the following means:

Uses in media

Literature

  • The first floating island encountered in literature is the home of the four winds, Aeolia, as recounted in Homer's The Odyssey. However, it is unclear whether this island floated in the water or in the air.
  • Some other mythological islands, such as the Symplegades and the Planctae in Greek mythology or Tír na nÓg in Irish mythology, moved about in the sea and may have been viewed as floating.[1]
  • The book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift features the floating land of Laputa.
  • The second book in C. S. Lewis' science fiction trilogy, Perelandra, features floating islands on the surface of Venus. These play a prominent role in the storyline.
  • An earlier literary example of a floating island is Scotia Moria, from The Floating Island by Frank Careless.
  • Yann Martel's book Life of Pi contains a floating island, inhabited by a kind of meerkat that feeds on fish.
  • Floating islands in children's literature include Sky Island in Sky Island (novel) (1912) by L. Frank Baum, Spidermonkey Island in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922) by Hugh Lofting, Floating Island (1930) by Anne Parrish, (about talking dolls shipwrecked on an island), and The Floating Island (2006) by Elizabeth Haydon
  • In the DC Comics book Wonder Woman, the island of Themyscira (Paradise Island) became a series of floating islands.
  • Jules Verne's Propeller Island is set on an artificially-constructed floating island.
  • Isaac Asimov's short story Shah Guido G. depicts an island not only floating above, but also dominating the world.
  • The Floating Islands (2011) by Rachel Neumeier revolves around a nation of floating islands that the book's protagonist flees to after the death of his family.[2]
  • The science fiction short story A man of the renaissance by Wyman Guin is set in an ocean-covered world displaying a wide variety of floating islands. They vary in size from a few tens of feet to several miles in diameter. These islands play a central role in the plot. The short story was published in Beyond Bedlam (1964).

Television

  • Mount Flatten in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show hovered above Earth's surface, due to its rich deposits of the gravity-defying mineral Upsidaisium.
  • In the anime series Cowboy Bebop, the planet Venus has been terraformed using enormous floating plants that also provide living space.
  • References to floating islands can be found in such science fiction TV series as Star Trek (original; 1966) episode "The Cloud Minders", and the Firefly episode "Trash."
  • Floating islands are present in some episodes of the first season of Beast Wars: Transformers.
  • Noah's Island is a cartoon of the late 90's, about a collection of animals who navigate the sea on a volcano-powered floating island.
  • The television series Skyland, is set on floating islands of rock and earth.
  • The French cartoon series Dragon Hunters takes place in a medieval world of floating land masses that is terrorized by dragons.
  • The Nox from the television series Stargate Sg-1 reveal a floating island to the members of Sg-1 in the episode The Nox
  • SKYPIEA in the ONE PIECE anime

Film

  • Cloud City in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a floating city.
  • In Flash Gordon (film), Arboria appears as a concave floating jungle continent above Mongo.
  • In Castle in the Sky, the castle is built on a floating island.
  • Floating land masses were shown in the 2009 film Avatar.

Video games

Floating islands and continents are too common an element in video games for every appearance to be listed. However, a few examples of video games that have floating islands as a central theme or motif include:


Other

  • Many works by artist Roger Dean depict floating islands, such as those featured on the covers of some albums by the band Yes.
  • The music video for Feel Good Inc. as well as its sequel, El Mañana, by Gorillaz features one of the band members on a windmill-powered floating island.
  • Ancient High Netheril in the Forgotten Realms setting of the Dungeons & Dragons universe contains airborne cities kept aloft by magic.
  • Artist Naohisa Inoue often portrays various types of floating islands in his Iblard series of paintings. One type of island, Laputas, hatch from eggs to become the recognizable floating islands.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Page, Michael; Ingpen, Robert (1987). Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People. New York: Viking Press. p. 191. ISBN 0-670-81607-8. 
  2. ↑ The Floating Islands (2011) Amazon Retail Page
  3. ↑ Naohisa Inoue's Iblard
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