In A Voyage to Sfanomoë, Smith mentions two fabulous countries called Moaria and Antillia, though he describes nothing of them. He mentions Moaria once more in The Infernal Star, as a land which sunk to the ocean floor in the "southern sea."

I'm aware that Antillia is a mythical land of the Seven Cities archetype and a Christian utopia, but I can't find any information on this other land of Moaria. Does anyone have the slightest bit of information on this place? Is it a legendary island like Antillia and Brasil? Is it a realm invented by Smith himself? In The White Sybil, Smith mentions Mu and Antillia together, so could it be another name for Mu or Lemuria?

It is described here: Moarian, and New Latin Moaria

Similar sounding exotic names are Maria (plural word for the dry basins on the Moon and planets) and Moria (used by Tolkien).

The Latin word Mare, meaning sea, is the source word from which all the others are developed, I believe.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 17 May 19 | 01:55AM by Knygatin.

Ah! Thank you so very much!

Out of interest in writing a short story set within a fabulous Moaria, I decided to do a bit of extra research. I found almost nothing about this land, no matter what I tried with Google, except three entries from three dictionaries which explain how its name is derived not from the sea, but from the hypothesis that the gigantic moa birds thrived there! The name itself was proposed by a Dr. Mantell, presumably the geologist and paleontologist Gideon Mantell.

[books.google.com]

This is nothing so important, but Smith mentions the dinornis in a handful of tales, so I wonder if he had a slight fascination for this extinct, exotic bird.