A utopian vision (2006)

Book Review from the February 2006 issue of the Socialist Standard

Omasius Gorgut: Poor Man’s Heaven: The Land of Cokaygne. Past Tense Publications. £1.00. (Available from Past Tense Publications, c/o 56a Info Shop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17. Postage 30p.)

The Land of Cokaygne, reprinted as a modernised verse in this pamphlet, is a 14th century utopian image of an earthly paradise, largely created by serfs, which became a popular song or ballad. This pamphlet puts it into context, linking it with other stories and songs of the time and later.

In the Land of Cokaygne there is “joy and green delight”. There is nothing good but fruit to bight. Indeed,

“In Cokaygne we drink and eat

Freely without care and sweat,

The food is choice and clear the wine

. . .no land is like it anywhere,

Under heaven no land like this

Of such joy and endless bliss.

Many fruits grow in that place

For all delight and sweet solace,

. . .every man takes what he will,

as of right. . .

All is common to young and old,

To stout and strong, to meek and bold.”

The author of Poor Man’s Heaven notes that in most of Europe, in their folk tales and popular songs, the poor of the Middle Ages dreamed up a land where their sufferings were reversed, and where people lived in harmony and plenty without having to work. The Church, however, told them constantly that they could not expect, and should not dream of, a better existence in this life; but that paradise existed for them in another, after death. Utopian dreams appeared not just in England, but in France, in Ireland, in Medieval German legends, in Holland, and in Celtic mythology. The author suggests that early popular medieval utopias may be pre-Christian.

Interestingly, the Land of Cokaygne is enjoyed without effort. It stresses idleness rather than the largely unrewarded labour of the serf. As in much revolutionary utopian thought of the Middle Ages, in Cokaygne there is neither rich nor poor. There is equality says the writer, as in, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman.” Of course, the peasants did not just dream, or sing, of a better world. Often they revolted, as in England in 1381.

The writer of Poor Man’s Heaven links the story of Cokaygne with the modern American songs The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Poor Man’s Heaven, where the barns are full of hay and there are streams of alcohol. “There’s a lake of stew and whisky too.” The singer is bound to stay where they sleep all day”. And in the Poor Man’s Heaven:

“There’s strawberry pie that’s twenty feet high

And whipped cream they bring in a truck. . .

We’ll eat all we please off ham and egg trees

That grow by the lake full of beer.”

This pamphlet is well worth reading, depicting as it does what, in the past, could only be a utopian vision of a better world.

Peter E. Newell

Blogger's Note:.

A longer review of the same book in the February 2014 issue of the Socialist Standard.