Last modified: 2000-05-24 by phil nelson
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by Luc-Vartan Baronian
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Saguenay region is on both shores of the Saguenay river in Quebec. It's part of the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean administrative region (is the flag used in Lac-St-Jean also? I don't know...).
The name "Kingdom of Saguenay" takes its origin in a legend from the begining of the French colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the Algonkian Indians, their was a Kingdom of white blond men rich of gold and furs in the north in a place they called Saguenay. French explorers looked for this kingdom in vain... Today, some people think it was an ancient Vicking settlement that the Algonkian oral tradition refered to.
The proportions of the flags I've seen were always 2:3, and the cross including
the red and grey parts is 1/6 of the lenght. This is exactly like the flag
of Quebec. The 4 colors used represent the 4 elements of the richness of
Saguenay : the green is for the forest and is placed on the top to show its
ancienty ; the yellow is for the agriculture and is placed at the bottom
like the ground that provides it ; the grey is for it's industry disposed
as a cross to signify its exploitation and distribution role ; the red is
for the population putting in hilight the other elements.
This flag was adopted in 1938 to commemorate the begining of its colonisation
in 1838. It is still in use.
Luc-Vartan Baronian - 27 January 1997
Was this Kingdom for real? From what I can find out, the Kingdom of Saguenay
was a mythical kingdom filled with gold and gemstones that the explorer Cartier
hoped to find. A kind of northern equivalent of the Eldorado the Spanish
were looking for.
Jan Oskar Engene - 1996-08-15
I don't know about the kingdom but there is a Saguenay Lake on the edge of
the St. Laurence River in Quebec. Perhaps this is the focus of the mithical?
kingdom and an ultra-nationalist region today?
Nathan Augustine - 1996-08-21
I saw that you present the flag of my region of origin, the Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean on your website and I want to thank you for that. I also want to give you more information about it. Its gray cross represents the aluminum, which is an important part of our industry. The red border represents the labor of the inhabitants. The green color represents the forest and the yellow represents the agriculture. This flag was created in 1938, for the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first settlers. Its creator was Mgr Victor Tremblay, a local historian.
There is also a regional day which is celebrated on June 11th and a regional anthem.
The region is divided geographically into two parts: the Saguenay, located
on the Saguenay river and the Lac-St-Jean, located on the Lake St-Jean.
Nelson Belley - 1998-01-12
The Saguenay flag shown on your site is correct, but the accompanying comments need to be rectified.
When the first European discoverers (Jacques Cartier, and others) sailed up the saint Lawrence river, they came upon a very important fjord-like river flowing into the Saint Lawrence, and called the Saguenay river (not a lake). It was immediately believed that it would be an important route of penetration into the continent.
The King of France decreed that the area drained by the Saguenay would remain his personal domain, and that new settlement would not be authorized. Thus the expression " Royaume du Saguenay " or Saguenay kingdom.
In practice, the wealth of the land was then furs, not gold and gemstones.
The French Crown (and later the Hudson's Bay Company) dealt in furs with the small resident amerindian population. European settlement started only around 1845, with agriculture and forestry.
Today, the area supports a population of more than 200,000, with the main activities being forestry, newsprint manufacturing and aluminum smelting.
The region is a very proud and nationalistic one. Around 1950, a regional flag was created by a priest called Mgr Victor Tremblay, who was involved in the regional historical society. The flag design and colors are all symbolic of regional peculiarities :
Jean-François Bouchard - 1998-04-02
Reading the notice about the Saguenay, I thought I could bring some comments,
especially about the region which I know well. The comparison with the Spaniards'
Eldorado is a good one, historically, but the myth did not last very long.
The name stuck, though. There is absolutely no such thing as a Saguenean
nationalism (nobody ever talked of a Saguenean nation), and the people of
the region identify themselves along the same lines as the rest of the population
of Québec. If the electorate of the region favors the option of
Québec's independance from Canada in a larger proportion than anywhere
else in the province (with the notable exception of the French-speaking
Montrealers, might I point out), it would still be unfair to them and totally
inaccurate to speak about ultranationalism in the Saguenay. And if there
were a noticeable lake that would be the "centre" of the Saguenay region,
it would be the Lac St-Jean (Never heard of a lake Saguenay). In fact, the
region is commonly refered to as Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean, inhabited by
"Saguenéens" and "Jeannois"; that last nuance is lost to most
Québécois from outside the region, the distinctive Saguenean
accent is but one variant of the French language.
Éric Mercier - 24 May 1999
by Luc-Vartan Baronian
The blue and white are taken from the flag of Quebec, while the yellow and
green are the main colours of th flag of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. The blue
is for the oceans, the white for the wed, the yellow for the agriculture
and the green for the continents. The presentation reminds the French Tricolore,
the crown has a heart on it and is heart-shaped, because it's a monarchy
based on love ! The fleur the lys is the one from the Quebec
Fleurdelysé.
Luc Baronian and Donald Gauthier - 7 August 1997
I heard on our national news last night of a new kingdom, L'Anse-St-Jean,
located in the Saguenay region of Quebec. The people (1400 of them) had a
referendum to appoint a king for themselves (he is King Denis, formerly Denis
Tremblay), and the referendum succeeded by 72%. He plans to have a crown
made, hold a coronation, and reign. His one biggest concern was he would
no longer be able to go to the bar with his friends.
Rob Raeside - 1997-01-23
As I have said before, there is a new Kingdom in the Saguenay region of Quebec
: the Municipal Kingdom of Anse-Saint-Jean, a small village.
Thanks to the other Quebecois member of this list (that I know of), Mr Gauthier,
I have for you the address of their web site :
You can see the Royal Arms, the text of the Royal Anthem and an advertisement... of the Royal Beer!!
There is no flag on the site (at least, I didn't see one), but accoding to
Mr Gauthier, their flag is Blue with a centered crown (a possible allusion
to the Legendary Kingdom of Saguenay), but they are looking for a new one.
PS : The site is in French only.
Jean-Luc Baronian - 21 April 1997
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