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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== * The first floating island encountered in literature is the home of the four winds, Aiolia, as recounted in Homer's ''Odyssey'': * * * According to Pliny the Elder in his ''Natural History'', c. 77–79 AD, there were floating islands on the Vadimonian Lake. * 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. * The book ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift features the floating land of Laputa. * The second book in C. S. Lewis's science fiction trilogy, ''Perelandra'', features floating islands on the surface of Venus. * Richard Head's 1673 book ''The Floating Island'', features the fictional island Scotia Moria. The island was supposedly "to the eastward of Terra del Templo", and the book was supposedly published by "Franck Careless, one of the discoverers". * 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. * Yann Martel's book ''Life of Pi'' contains a floating island, inhabited by a kind of meerkat that feeds on fish. * ''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.〔( ''The Floating Islands'' (2011) Amazon Retail Page )〕 * 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). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Floating island (fiction)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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