“The Island of Apples, which men call The Fortunate Isle, gets its name from the fact that it produces all things of itself; the fields there have no need of the ploughs of the farmers and all cultivation is lacking, except what nature provides. Of its own accord it produces grain, and grapes, and apple trees grow in its woods from the close-clipped grass. The ground of its own accord produces everything, instead of merely grass, and people live there a hundred years or more. There nine sisters rule, by a pleasing set of laws, those who come to them from our country.”
— Geoffrey of Monmouth, “Historia Regum Britanniae,” 1136
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