Floating island (fiction)

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). 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 may be directed by the whim of their inhabitants, whilst others may be permanently anchored.

Floating islands have been found in literature since Homer's Odyssey, written near the end of the 8th century BC. They reappear in Pliny the Elder's Natural History of the 1st century AD, as the island of Laputa in Jonathan Swift's 1726 book Gulliver's Travels, and many times in more recent works.

Floating islands may be held aloft by lighter-than-air gases, such as helium or hydrogen; a lodestone, magnet, crystal, or other mineral; magic; levitation technology such as anti-gravity, propellers or balloons.

Literature

Gulliver discovers Laputa, the flying island in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Illustration by J.J. Grandville, d. 1847.)

Television

Film

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

See also

References

  1. Homer (2008) [8th century BC]. "10.1". In Shewring, Walter. The Odyssey.
  2. Pliny the Elder. "II:209". Natural History.
  3. 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.
  4. Head, Richard (2012) [1673]. The Floating Island. Google Books.
  5. The Floating Islands (2011) Amazon Retail Page
  6. Anders, Charlie Jane (14 January 2010). "Avatar's Designers Speak: Floating Mountains, AMP Suits And The Dragon". io9.
  7. http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27237-the-terrain-of-okinawa-ocean-city-front-mission-3/
  8. Okinawa Ocean City screenshot
  9. Naohisa Inoue's Iblard
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