Everyone knows that nothing is cooler than a castle that floats in the sky, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I searched the forums nothing came up! I thought it would be a very interesting thing to discuss.

Are you looking for an answer, or just trying to see who has heard of it?

I haven't heard of this though. Is it a place where people can go, or is it a concept of heaven?

Well Laputa is a movie made by the guy who directed Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki, a legend of animation ( I made my final high school essay on him ). I haven't heard of any legend about an actual castle in the sky (expt in the song Xplosivo).

If you want to look it up it's Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986), wasn't his best movie but if your interested he also worked on Lupin (classics) and Mononoke hime (My favorite work of his, Princess Mononoke in english...simply amazing)

There's also a mention of it in Gulliver's Travels.

... I haven't watched that movie in soo long...

I haven't seen that one but I'm going to.(I'm looking for Sherlock in DVD...it's nowhere to be found)...
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I tried to look it up but nothing. Always sent me back to Miyazaki, have any info on the "location". Maybe you should look up the Lemuria thread.

I tried searching for something as I usually find good results with Google but all I'm getting for this is info on "Laputa" the animation film. I'll keep trying too.

Castles in the air might be a mirage (not just desert mirage but the effects of low cloud formed at the base of a hill where the castle is on top), and also it might be a UFO phenomena, which comes from old records and reported as being "flying castles".

Castles in the Air

That's right, the little Laputians lol...all of them tying him to keep him tied to the ground...that's a fantastical idea...and castles in the sky are also in the greek and roman mythologies, where the gods and goddesses live. Olympia wasn't it?

La Puta means something else in Spanish.

yep, the translation I got was "the prostitute." correct me if I'm wrong.

But how do we know that he used this as reference when writing the book? Perhaps it means something else in another language like Latin? Or perhaps, the writer who used the word originally as a floating city used it as a metaphor to mean that it would be regarded as impure or not correct. Something to that affect?

Maybe he didn't know the spanish form of Laputa, allot of words can be miss translated.
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That would be an odd mix, an unpure castle in the most pure of environment.

Lol, thanks for catching on to my point It's like how a translator can see the word "read" and interpret is as "the boy read the book" or "the boy is going to read the book"....past? Present? I think in this case, the fact that la puta means what I found it to mean "the prostitute," it most likely has no relevance to the name of the floating castle in reference. If it did, then this writer must be trying to get away with things like the pope scene in little mermaid (the dude marrying ariel and eric had his wee-wee wiggling at the altar) except this little naughty thing would have been in a literary sense and not a film sense.

kikuchiyo...

If you like Miyasaki there is also Porco Rosso, My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki Delivery Service if I make any mistake with the english title...

Um, the little people in the book are Lilliputians. Laputa is a flying island near the end of Gulliver's travels. The island ruled over the country below, Swift used it as a satirical reference to how government was distanced from the people in England. Also there are no flying castles in greek or roman mythologies as far as I know. You're thinking of the top of Mount Olympus, which was above the clouds.

Also the book was written in English, and it is unlikely Laputa was meant to mean anything bad.

You beat me to it!

There's more to Gulliver's Travels than the edited version that's usually available that has nothing but Lilliput and Brobdignag, and some of the other places he ends up are considerably more interesting. (The Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms are cool... I can think of a number of Yahoos I've encountered.)

Since I'm very acrophobic, I can't say a castle in the sky sounds all that great to me!

i know of a flying castle or two:

in the song "what is and what should never be" by led zeppelin

in the old 80's cartoon, "the lost city" there was a city of gold, and in it there was a castle that floated in the air

in the classicly sweet 8-bit Nintendo Game Rygar, there was a castle that floated in the air, its where the super impossible, throw- your- controller- and- swear- last- boss lived

it is strange that in so many obscure references i have seen a caslte that floats, but no, i do not know of any direct legends where this is a factor.

True however it could also being synical of the control of the worlds higher powers - those in power are the least favourable people to be so. Perhaps this can provide an insight into the legend - misguided power/ambition? (tying nicely into the negative connotation of the spanish translation of the name as well)

I do know that a movie based on this novel of some sort from Disney is being produced "Castles In The Sky"

No castles, but I (and many others around here) have seen the city in the sky. If you happen to be in the country at night away from city lights, and the weather is just right, you can see the lights of a neighboring town reflected off the bottom of low clouds. It appears to be a city in the sky, and will give you quite a start if you don't know what it is.

and then there is the northern lights that ancient people could have confused for city in the sky. or it's just the hollow earth people.

Does anyone else here think that Laputa is a terrible name? If anyone else here speaks Spanish you'll know what I mean.

im sorry the but the idea of a caslte in the sky is jsut for jack and the beanstalk, and mario brothers.

History is full of mysterious and mythical lost cities and citadels...
A castle in the sky could mean a castle on a mountain or a castle that floats around like a space ship.
It is all possible, Machu Picchu is a good example...

A flying castle like "Laputa" could have been an alien mothership of some sort that natives saw thousands of years ago...

We still have yet to find El Dorado...
Hail Pizarro!

Particularly in more ancient times, people regarded the transfer of humankind into the next world as being of entire groups, races, or even cities. ("Houses in Heaven", so to speak). So it is likely that much of the history behind "castles in the sky" stemmed from that spiritual outlook. A figure of speech relating to a house or castle that is of a divine path, rather than actually existing in the sky at the moment.

Rather like how people related to a person who spoke words of knowledge that were too profound for simple folk...as rather them having snakes comming out of their head. So the wrong interpretation of someone in a book called "Medusa" would certainly make good fodder for pre-'stage and screen' entertainment.

Dont believe it...I do believe in many things but this is just the bizarre...Maybe a U.F.O. possibly seen, but I do not like the name of it.

And I'm not Spanish but I'm very well at it..
Laputa = La puta = The hore...
Where'd they get that name from!?

Yay someone else finally got it! Yep thats a terrible name. They should rename it unless its in "the bad part of the sky". If you know what I mean...

Hahaha, gotchya...But I'm sure they didn't mean to name it in the way of using this horrible name...They probably didn't even know the name existed or would soon exist...But I do agree with you, it is a horrible name...