Cockaigne: edible paradise and glorious idleness
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 59). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: French account c.1250; English copy 1330–1370
Region: France, Ireland, and wider western Europe
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1250 CE to 1370 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
A reusable fantasy world of abundant food, easy pleasure and freedom from labour. The Land of Cokaygne survives in BL Harley MS 913 ff.3r–6v alongside other comic and satirical texts.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
The Cockaigne fantasy appears in different vernacular texts and contexts.
What remains uncertain
The claim that it directly records a hungry peasantry’s wishes is disputed by manuscript-context scholarship. The earliest full French account can be read as moralised satire; present evidence does not establish a pre-literary working-class origin.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria