For the Europa 2010 theme of Children's Books Portugal and its autonomous regions decided to go way back in time to traditional tales, rimances and legends.. Rimances is a word I've never heard of before but I learn that they are short epic poems. This miniature sheet contains part of one such rimance from the Azores called the Lake of the Seven Cities (Lagoa das Sete Cidades)."The king was unable to wait
The earth trembled, the sun rose -
and only the nine islands of the Azores
and the Seven Cities remained,
later divided in two, one green and the other blue"
In present times the two lakes inside a massive extinct volcano crater is a must see tourist destination in the Azores but the story which the miniature sheet shows tells the tale of the two lakes, one green and one blue, whose colours were caused by a princess and shepherd weeping when their love was thwarted by the King and the lakes took on the colours of their eyes. (The full legend is here). The Legend of the Seven Cities is similar story to the lost cities of Atlantis. Perhaps these were the seven cities created by Portuguese seamen fleeing from the Moors who went west into the Atlantic and were never seen again.
An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps which this week is "anything you wish"
5 comments:
These are wonderful - I must keep my eye out for them.
and here I thought you had an embarrassing typo... should have known better :)
Beautiful stamps and sheet. It's nice to see an English description included.
Beautiful stamps and mini-sheet.
Thank you for the link to the stories - I enjoyed both of them. And thank you for sharing this beautiful sheet.
My grandson has recently returned from a surfing contest in the Azores with photos of the volcanic lakes.
Fine stamps and mini-sheet.
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