Quo Fata Ferunt, Bermuda's Motto; Whither the Fates take us...

For more information, see Encylopedia Virginia

Coat of arms of Bermuda

More on the island's motto, Royal Gazette

George L. Cook explains:

"The words of the motto come from Virgil’s Aeneid (Book V: 707-710). Like the voyage of the Sea Venture to Virginia and the wreck on Bermuda, Aeneas was sent on a mission from Troy to found a second home that was to become Rome, but became wrecked on Sicily. Also like Bermuda’s castaways, Aeneas and his fellow Trojans deliberated whether to stay or continue the journey to their destination. Aeneas had a vision in which his father said to him: “ ... Quo fata trahunt (or ferunt) retrahuntque sequamur; Quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.” 

This may be translated as: “ ... let us follow where the Fates take us or take us back; Whatever will be, every fortune/misfortune can be overcome through perseverance.”

See also, Bermuda Legal - Quo Fata Ferunt: Bermuda’s homage to Virgil’s Aeneid

Prospero's Island?


"Whoever sails near to Bermuda coast"

A Sonnet by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628), from Caelica (1633)