Probably, everyone at least once in his life heard the words: "mysterious foggy Albion." I immediately recall King Arthur, Merlin and the knights of the round table ...
That's right, it's all from one opera. Or rather, from one country. After all, it is England - foggy Albion. And this is not a coined fairy-tale name, but a figurative expression that has historically entrenched in the British Isles .
So, let's see why England is called foggy Albion.
Albion
First, what does Albion mean? This name has been assigned to Britain since ancient times. But why? There are several versions on this score.
According to one of them, the word "albion" comes from the Roman albus, which translates as "white". When the ancient Roman conquerors swam to the shores of the British Isles, snow-white cliffs emerged from the fog. Therefore, they called the island "Albion."
According to another version, “albion” is a word of Celtic origin, meaning mountains. Like, for example, the Alps. The first official designation of the British Isles as Albion was made by Ptolemy. This fact can be a confirmation for both theories. After all, this scientist was a traveler and knew many languages, including Celtic and Latin.
Misty Albion Island
The famous island, which was the first to meet the ancient Romans, is Dover. It is to him that Great Britain owes the name "foggy Albion". It is located at the extreme point in the southeast of the United Kingdom. If you approach the island from the open sea, the first thing you will see is the snow-white chalk cliffs (White Cliffs of Dover). They stretch over a vast territory along the county of Kent and end at the Strait of Pas de Calais.
The cliffs of Dover are also called the "Keys of England" because they are a kind of gateway to the country. They are the first to meet sailors and amaze them with their cold white beauty. Neighboring France is just over thirty kilometers from Dover. According to local residents, when the weather is fine, from the French coast you can even see the white line of rocks on the horizon.
There are many similar rocks in the southeast of England. However, the Dover ones remain the most popular. Their beauty will not leave anyone indifferent. High (up to 107 meters above sea level), powerful, snow-white. They became a symbol of England, its hallmark. They are dedicated to more than one work of literature and painting.
Nature miracle
Dover cliffs are unusual mountains, which can already be judged by their color. They became white thanks to chalk, which in large quantities is part of their rock, and calcium carbonate. This breed has a very fine structure, therefore it is quite fragile and easily destroyed. And small black blotches in the rocks are flint.
During the Cretaceous, millions of small marine inhabitants living in shells perished and remained on the seabed, thus creating layer by layer. As a result, the chalk layers were compressed into a huge solid white platform. Thousands of years later, when the water left, the platform remained, forming powerful white cliffs. And today we can admire them.
Island in the fog
Foggy Albion got its beautiful poetic name due to its cloudy weather. So, due to the high humidity of the air, the low parts of the island are constantly shrouded in fog, the sky is gray, and it rains.
The extraordinary fogs of Great Britain have become the theme for many paintings and works. Writers and artists specially came to London to see with their own eyes and capture this natural phenomenon.
Sometimes the fog is so thick and impenetrable that traffic on the streets stops. People simply do not see where to go and remain in place, so as not to get lost and wait until the fog dissipates.
Currently, there are significantly fewer foggy days in the UK than in past centuries. So, for example, in London there are not more than fifty of them per year. Most of these days occur in the second half of winter: late January and early February.
Insidious Albion
There is another concept of “foggy Albion,” which has an ironic meaning. This term used to be used in politics. That's what they said about England and its political intrigues. Misty - unknown, hidden, indefinite and changeable.
In France and pre-revolutionary Russia, England was even called the "treacherous Albion." This was the figurative expression of the foreign policy of a country that steadily pursued only its national goals, for the sake of which it repeatedly went on the refusal of previously concluded agreements with other powers.
In general, during the time of the French Revolution, other similar expressions were very popular. For example, "English treachery" or "treacherous island." England betrayed France more than once: it concluded a peace treaty, then it violated it again, etc.
In Russia, this expression became popular during the Crimean War, when Great Britain, which was a coalition of countries (Austria, Prussia and Russia), came out on the side of its former enemies (France) against Russia.
Today, the ironic meaning has long been lost, and the expression "foggy Albion" has, rather, a high style that gives the Kingdom of Great Britain special poetry.