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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17343-8.txt b/17343-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03148ab --- /dev/null +++ b/17343-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1373 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brendan's Fabulous Voyage +by John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Brendan's Fabulous Voyage + +Author: John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +Release Date: December 18, 2005 [EBook #17343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +ESSAYS + +BY + +JOHN, THIRD MARQUESS OF BUTE. + + +BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE. + +[A LECTURE DELIVERED ON JANUARY 19, 1893, BEFORE THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF +LITERATURE AND ART.] + +New Edition. + +1911. + + + + +II. + +It has been thought desirable to reprint the Essays and other short +Works of the late Marquess of Bute in an inexpensive form likely to be +useful to the general reader, and thereby to make them more widely +known. Should this, the second of the proposed series, prove acceptable, +it will be followed by others at short intervals. + + + + +BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE. + +[_A Lecture delivered on January 19, 1893, before the Scottish Society +of Literature and Art_.] + + +Brendan, the son of Finnlogh O' Alta, was born at Tralee in Kerry, in +the year 481 or 482.[1] He had a pedigree which connected him with the +rulers of Ireland, and thus perhaps secured for him a social prominence +which he would not otherwise have enjoyed. Nature seems to have endowed +him with an highly wrought and sensitive temperament. Putting aside +altogether the idealism which caused him, like so many others of his +time and race, to give himself to the Church, he displayed throughout +life a restlessness which led him to constant journeys, sometimes of the +nature of migrations, and the constant inception of projects to which he +did not continue long to adhere; and in the statements about him there +are elements from which I conjecture that he was probably of the class +of persons who furnish good subjects for hypnotic experiments. When he +was a year old he was handed over to the care of the nun Ita, when she +dwelt at the foot of Mount Luachra. With her he remained until he was +seven years old, when she sent him to Bishop Erc, by whom he had been +baptized, but during the whole of her life, which lasted nearly as long +as his own, he never ceased to regard and to treat her with all the +affectionate reverence of a son. His education was continued under Erc, +until he grew towards manhood, when he visited other parts of Ireland +for the sake of study, but it was to Erc that he returned to be +ordained to the Presbyterate. At that period there was a sort of passion +among the Celtic clergy for retiring into deserts after the manner of +the monks and hermits of Egypt, and the islands of the Western and +Northern ocean, if they could show nothing like the burning sands of +Africa, supplied deserts enough of a different sort. It was only in +accordance then with a common custom of his day, that Brendan, after his +ordination, set out by sea with a few companions, to find a place where +to found a monastery. It is to be remarked also that this was just about +the time of the migration of the Royal Race of the Dalriads to the +country which has ultimately received from them the name of Scotland, +and the project therefore bears a strong resemblance to that in which +Columba succeeded about 60 years later. If Brendan had not failed, +perhaps Columba would not have come. The wanderings or explorations of +Brendan and his companions appear to have lasted several years, during +which it may be presumed that they were in the habit of laying up +somewhere for the winter. It was doubtless partly owing to the +restlessness which was a part of his nature, that he finally settled +nowhere, and returned to Ireland. + +[Footnote 1: Reeve's _Adamnan_, 221.] + +In Ireland he did a good deal of work, but Ita urged him to try and do +good elsewhere, and he went over with some of his friends to Britain, +possibly in connection with movements affected by the career of the +historic Arthur, who was killed at Camlan or Camelon in 537. The +Christian Irish at that time certainly made endeavours to assist the +Christian party among the Britons. The nun Edana was making her +attempts, either in person or by her disciples, to found her girls' +schools in the south of Scotland, and it is not impossible that Ita +thought that she might also accomplish some good by sending forth a +male emissary. In connection with Brendan's sojourn in Britain, there is +a most curious mention of the use of a Greek Liturgy somewhere in the +British Church. There is a statement that Brendan was at the head of the +celebrated Welsh monastery of Llancarfan. He also went over to Brittany +to see Gildas the Wise, who was bewailing the woes of his native land on +the shores of the Morbihan. He ultimately returned to the Western +Islands, and there succeeded at last in founding two monastic +settlements, one in Tiree, at a place which the writers call Bledua, and +one in an island called Ailech, which it seems to me may possibly mean +Islay. Then he went back to Ireland, and started another monastery in a +desert island in Loch Oisbsen, which was given to him by Aedh, the son +of Ethdach. Hence, however, he again moved in 559, and founded the great +monastery of Clonfert, an act which is the principal achievement of his +life. + +He was friendly with the principal persons of his own race, time, and +class. He seems, as I have said, to have possessed the peculiar +temperament, which some call sensitive and others mediumistic, and which +leads to the phenomenon generally known as second-sight, for, putting +aside all other records about him which point in the same direction, it +is recorded of him, not only by Adamnan, but also by Cuimine the Fair, +that on one occasion when he came over, along with Comgall of Benchor, +Kenneth of Aghaboe, and Cormac o' Leathain of Durrow, to visit Columba, +who was then staying in Himba (Eilean na Naoimh, one of the Garveloch +islands, lying between Scarba and Mull), and Columba at their request +celebrated before them on the Sunday, he afterwards told Comgall and +Kenneth that during part of the ceremony Columba had seemed to him to be +standing at the bottom of a pillar of fire streaming heavenwards. + +He lived to an extreme old age, and was in his 96th year when the end +came. When he felt that it was at hand, he went to see his sister Briga, +and I quote the sentences which follow, on account of the quaint +naturalism which inspires them. 'Among other things, he taught her +concerning the place of her resurrection. "Not here," saith he unto her, +"shalt thou rise again, but in thine own land, that is in Tralee. +Therefore, go thou thither, for that people will obtain the mercy of God +by thy means. This is a place of men, not of women. Now is God calling +me unto Himself out of the prison house of this body." When she heard +that, she was grievously afflicted, and said, "Father beloved, we shall +all die at thy death. For which of us could live when thou wast absent +living? Much less, when thou art dead." Brendan said farther, "On the +third day hence, I shall go the way of my fathers." Now that day was the +Lord's Day. Thereon, after the sacraments of the altar had been +offered, he saith to them that stood by, "In your supplications, commend +my going forth." And Briga speaketh and saith, "Father, what fearest +thou?" He saith, "I fear that I shall journey alone, that the way will +be dark--I fear the unknown country, the presence of the King, the +sentence of the Judge." After these things he commanded the brethren to +carry his body to the monastery of Clonfert secretly, lest, if they did +it openly, it should be kept by them among whom they should pass. Then +when he had kissed them all one by one, he saith unto holy Briga, +"Salute my friends on my behalf, and say unto them to beware of evil +speaking, even when it is true, how much the more when it is false." +When he had so spoken and foretold how some things would be in time to +come, he passed into everlasting rest, in the 96th year of his age.' He +died, May 16, 577. + +By combining with all the collected and credible statements concerning +him illustrative matter from the history of his times and the +biographies of his contemporaries, it would no doubt be possible to +write a life of Brendan, which would be both of considerable bulk and of +considerable interest. But there would be nothing particularly startling +or striking about it. Apart from the interest of public events +contemporary with his long career, the monotonous variety produced by +his vagabond nature, and such psychical interest as might possibly +attach to stories of his mediumistic temperament, it would be rather +hum-drum. Brendan, however, has had the ill luck to be selected by some +unknown antient Irish novelist as the hero of a romance of the wildest +kind, which has certainly spread his name, if not his fame, in quarters +which in all his travels he could never have anticipated. Even in the +Canary Islands, the natives apply the term 'Isla de San Borondon' to a +peculiar effect like mirage, showing a shadowy presentiment of land, +which is sometimes seen off their coasts. His character as an hero of +romance, somewhat of the type of Sinbad the Sailor, if not of that of +Gulliver, has even injured him as a subject of serious study. There has +been a sort of custom, to which may be applied a celebrated phrase of +Newman, 'aged but not venerable,' of confounding the hero of the romance +with the real man. It would be just as proper to identify the hero of +the _Pickwick Papers_ with a certain Mr. Pickwick, whom it was, oddly +enough, the duty of one of Dickens' sons to call as a witness in an +English law-suit not many years ago. Even Homer sometimes nods--at least +according to the critics, of whose opinion Lucian credits him with so +low an estimation--and the great Bollandists had their historical +equanimity--much as experience must have already taught it to bear--so +upset by the brilliancy of the fable that they have omitted to print +the real life at all, a life which is, at the worst, no more startling +than a good many with which they have enriched their pages--e.g., those +of Patrick, Brigid, and Columba--and after a denunciation of what their +authorities call the _vana, fictaque vel apocrypha deliramenta_, 'the +silly, lying, or apocryphal ravings,' simply proceed to give a +compilation of isolated notices drawn from a variety of different +sources. + +Prof. O'Curry, in his _Lectures on the MS. Material of Ancient Irish +History_, page 289, mentions four ancient Irish romances in the form of +voyages, of which the voyage of Brendan is one. He gives an epitome of +that of the sons of Ua Corra, which seems at least in parts to be almost +equally wild. But that of Brendan has certainly been the most popular. +M. Achille Jubinal, who edited one Latin and two French translations of +it, says that it also exists in Irish, Welsh, Spanish, English, and +Anglo-Norman. The Spanish, English, and Anglo-Norman I have never read, +and of the Welsh I have never heard. Of the Latin I once made a complete +translation from the Latin text published by Jubinal, but I have lost +it, and have had to do the work again so far as necessary for the +present lecture. I remember, however, that from several features, I came +to the conclusion that the Latin text was a translation from Irish, and +the Irish text must present considerable variants, as Dr. Todd in his +book on _St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland_, page 460, cites from 'An +Irish Life of St. Brendan,' but which must evidently be the fabulous +voyage, four incidents, of which one is about the finding of a dead +mermaid, another about one of the voyagers being devoured alive by +sea-cats, and the third about an huge sea-cat as large as an ox which +swam after them to destroy them, until another sea-monster rose up and +fought with the cat, and both were drowned, none of which incidents +occur in the Latin. However, to the Latin version my defective knowledge +must confine me, and there is enough of it for one lecture, and to +spare. I may, however, say that by the Latin text I do not here mean +only the text published by Jubinal. The present Bollandists were good +enough, some years ago, to edit for me the 'Codex Salmanticensis,' which +contains both the romance and the Life, and I find in the romance +serious divergences from the text given by Jubinal; they are of a kind +which, in my judgment, stamp it beyond all doubt as a later and corrupt +edition, but I have largely compared the texts, although not word for +word. + +Well, I am now going to deal with the 'silly, lying, or apocryphal +ravings.' The romance relates that on one occasion when Brendan was in a +place called the Thicket, there came to him a man called Barint O'Neil, +of the race of King Neil of IX. Hostages. This man told him that his +disciple Marnock had left him, and founded an hermitage of his own in an +island called Delight some, whither he himself afterwards went to visit +him. While he was there, they were one day together upon the shore, +where there was a small boat, and then, to translate the precise words, +'he said unto me, "Father, go up into the ship, and let us sail westward +unto the island which is called the Land of Promise of the Saints, which +God will give unto them that come after us in the latter time." We went +up into the ship therefore, and clouds covered us all round about us, so +that hardly could we see the stern or the prow of the ship. After the +space, as it were, of one hour, a great light shone round about us, and +there appeared a land wide and grassy, and very fruitful. And when the +ship was come to land, we went out, and began to go about, and to walk +through that land for fifteen days, and we could not find the end +thereof. We saw there no plant without a flower, and no tree without +fruit, and all the stones thereof are precious stones. And upon the +fifteenth day we found a river running from the west eastward. And when +we considered all these things, we doubted what we should do. We were +fain to pass over the river, but we waited for counsel from God. While +we discussed thus between us, of a sudden there appeared before us a man +in great brightness, who called us by our names and saluted us, saying, +"It is well done, good brethren, for the Lord hath revealed unto you +that land which He will give unto his Saints. For it is an half of the +island up to this river; but unto you it is not given to pass over. Go +back therefore whence ye are come." When he said thus, we asked him +whence he was, and by what name he was called. And he said unto me, "Why +dost thou ask me whence I am? and by what name I am called? Why dost +thou not rather ask as to this island? For even as thou seest it now, so +doth it remain since the beginning of the world. Hast thou any need of +meat or drink? Hast thou been overcome of sleep, or hath night covered +thee? Know therefore of a surety: there is always day here without +blindness or shadow of darkness. For our Lord Jesus Christ is the light +thereof, and if men had not done against the commandment of God, they +would have remained in the loveliness of this land." When we heard it, +we were turned to weeping, and when we were rested, we straightway took +our journey, and the man aforesaid came with us even to the shore where +our ship was. But when we got us up into the ship, the man was taken +away from our eyes, and we came into the darkness aforesaid, and until +the Isle of Delight some.' Barint goes on to relate his conversation +with Marnock's disciples, and how they told him that they often knew by +the fragrance of Marnock's garments, when he had been away from them for +a while and returned, that he had been in that garden of God, where, as +it is expressed, 'night gathereth not, nor day endeth ... for the angels +of God keep it.' + +Incited by this narrative, Brendan proposed to some of his disciples to +set out in search of the Land of Promise, and after fasting for forty +days for three days at a time, they finally embarked from the +neighbourhood of Tralee. There is a very curious description of the +_corach_[2] or skin-boat in which they embarked. It was, it is stated, +'very light, with ribs and posts of wicker, as the use is in those +parts, and they covered it with the hides of cattle, dyed reddish in +oak-bark, and they smeared all the seams of the ship without; and they +took provisions for forty days, and butter for dressing hides for the +covering of the ship, and the other things which are useful for the life +of man.' Two of the MSS. add (and are justified by subsequent +passages):--'They set up a mast in the middle of the ship, and a sail, +and the rest of the gear for steering.' The voyagers were fourteen in +number besides Brendan, but at the last moment three other brethren came +and entreated to be taken, saying that if they were left where they +were, they would die of hunger and thirst. Brendan consents, but +predicts that while one of them would come to a good end, two would come +to a bad. + +[Footnote 2: After the manner of the antient Celts, but which is not, I +believe, altogether extinct either in the Highlands or in Ireland, and +of which I remember having seen one once in actual use in Wales.] + +They set off in the direction of the summer solstice, by which must, I +think, be meant the northerly western point where the sun sets in +summer, and are forty days at sea--it will be noticed that the periods +in this story are nearly always of forty days. At the end of this time +they come to a very high and rocky island, with streams falling down the +cliffs into the sea. They search for a landing-place for three days, and +then find a narrow harbour, between steep walls of rock. On landing, +they are met by a dog, which they follow to a town or fort, but see no +inhabitants. They go into a great hall set with couches and seats, and +find water prepared for washing the feet. The walls are hung with +vessels of divers kinds of metal, and bridles, and horns mounted with +silver. Brendan warns the brethren against theft, especially the three +who had come last. They find a table laid, and spread with very white +bread and fish. They eat and lie down to sleep. In the night Brendan +sees a fiend in the shape of an Ethiopian child tempting one of the +three last comers with a silver bridle. In the morning they find the +table again spread, and so remain for three days and nights. Then they +prepare to leave, and Brendan denounces one of the brethren as a thief. +On this the guilty brother draws the silver bridle out of his breast, +and cries out, 'Father, I have sinned: forgive it, and pray for my soul +that it perish not.' The devil is cast out, but the brother dies and is +buried on the island. As they are on the point of embarking, a lad +brings them a basket of bread and a vessel (_amphora_) of water, which +he gives to them with a blessing. + +They start again upon the ocean, and are carried hither and thither, +eating once every two days. At last, on Maundy Thursday, they reach +another island, where are many abundant springs full of fish, and flocks +of white sheep as large as cattle, sometimes so thick as to conceal the +earth. There they remain until the morning of the Eve of Easter, when +they take, and apparently kill and dress, one sheep and one lamb without +blemish. The reference is evidently to an identity of custom with that +which still prevails in all the southern countries of Europe, of +preparing the flesh of a lamb on Holy Saturday, in honour of the Paschal +Lamb, which flesh is blessed on the Saturday, and used to break the fast +of Lent on the next day.[3] When all is ready there comes to them a man +with a basket of bread baken on the coals--evidently meaning Passover +bread. This man now becomes a regular although occasional feature in the +narrative, and is called their provider (_procurator_). He foretells +their journey for some time, and how they will be until a week after +Pentecost in a place which is called the _Eden of Birds_. + +[Footnote 3: In Italy at least, in order as far as possible to combine +the strict fast of the Saturday with a fulfilment of the words of Ex. +xii. 8, 'And they shall eat the flesh in that night.' It is usual to +have an image of a lamb in sugar or other confectionary, which is also +blessed during the day, and eaten at supper.] + +Thus furnished, they go to an island close by, which he has pointed out +to them as the place where they are to remain until the following noon. +This island is destitute of grass, and with but scanty vegetation, and +there is no sand upon its shores. All goes well until the next day, when +they light a fire to boil the pot, whereupon the island becomes restive, +and finally sinks into the sea, although they all manage to escape into +the ship. '"Brethren," saith Brendan, "ye wonder at that which this +island hath done." "Father," say they, "we wonder sorely, and great +dread hath taken hold upon us." He said unto them, "Little children, be +not afraid, for God hath this night shown unto me the secret of this +thing. Where we have been was not an island but the first fish of all +that swim in the ocean, and he seeketh ever to bring his tail unto his +mouth, but he cannot, because of his length. Jasconius is his name."' + +This is the only incident in the whole romance which is actually +grotesque. But from the solemnity with which it is narrated, it is +evident that it did not appear to be grotesque to the author. It seems +to have taken the fancy of the early and mediæval public, and even of +the iconographic public in a special degree. The word _whale_ has +commonly been applied to the beast, and as the same episode occurs in +the story of _Sinbad the Sailor_, Jubinal has set himself to speculate +how that story, or the _Arabian Nights_ in which it is incorporated, +came to be known in Ireland. I confess I do not agree with him. In the +first place, the notion is not particularly recondite, and it has at +least this possible foundation in fact, that, as I have been told by +sailors, the back of a whale of advanced years, when asleep at the +surface, may be and has been mistaken from some distance, greatly owing +to the accretions upon it, for the top of a reef. Again, a somewhat +similar notion occurs in Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_, which was much +more likely to be known to the Irish fabulist. Lastly, I must observe +that all this is gloss. The word _whale_ (cete) is never applied to the +animal but always _fish_ (piscis) or _monster_ (bellua) or _beast_ +(bestie), and the whole thing, with the notion of its vast size, and the +attempt to join the tail to the mouth, which brings it into connection +with the emblem of eternity, which is due, I believe, to the +Phoenicians, but which we ourselves so often use upon coffins and +grave-stones, seems to bring it into connection rather with the idea of +the Midgard-Worm, the great under-lying world-serpent which figures so +largely in the mythic cosmogony of the Scandinavians. I suggest that +this is the notion, of which the romancer may have heard from +Scandinavian sources; and there is even a kind of indication that it was +associated in his mind with the idea of paganism, as Brendan is made to +speak elsewhere of God having made the most terrible (_immanissimam_) of +beasts subject unto them. + +On leaving the spot where the monster had sunk, they first returned to +the provider's isle, from the top of which they perceived another near +at hand, covered with grass and woods and full of flowers, and thither +they went. + +On the south shore of this island they found a river a little broader +than the ship, and up this they towed her for a mile, when they came to +the fountain-head of the stream. It was a wondrous fountain, and above +it there was a tree marvellously beautiful, spreading rather than high, +but all covered with white birds, so covered that they hid its foliage +and branches. (The notion is perhaps taken from a tree loaded with +snow.) 'And when the man of God saw it, he began to think in himself +what or wherefore it should be, that such a multitude of birds should be +gathered together in one place. And the thing distressed him so, that he +wept, and fell down upon his knees, and besought the Lord, saying, "O +God, Who knowest the things which are unknown, and makest manifest the +things which are hidden, Thou knowest how that mine heart is straitened; +therefore I beseech Thee that it may please Thee to make manifest unto +me, Thy sinful servant, this mystery which now I do see with mine eyes. +And this I ask not for an desert of my worthiness, but in respect of Thy +mercy." When he had so spoken, behold, one of the birds flew from the +tree. From the ship, where the man of God was sitting, his wings sounded +as with the sound of little bells. He perched upon the top of the prow, +and began to spread his wings for joy, and looked kindly upon the holy +father Brendan. Then the man of God, when he understood that the Lord +had had regard unto his prayer, saith unto the bird, "If thou be the +messenger of God, tell me whence be these birds, and wherefore they be +gathered here." And it said, "We are of that great ruin of the old +enemy; but we have not fallen by sinning or consenting; but we have been +predestinated by the goodness and mercy of God, for wherein we were +created, hath our ruin come to pass, through his fall and the fall of +his crew. But God the Almighty, Who is righteous and true, hath by His +judgment sent us into this place. Pains we suffer not. The presence of +God in a sense we cannot see, so far has He separated us from the +company of them that stood firm. We wander through the divers parts of +this world, of the sky, and of the firmament, and of the earths, even as +other spirits who are sent forth [to minister]. But upon the holy days +of the Lord, we take bodies such as Thou seest, and by the ordinance of +God we dwell here, and praise our Maker. As for thee, thou and thy +brethren are a year upon the way, and yet there await you six. And where +this day thou hast kept the Passover, there shall ye keep it every year, +and afterwards shall thou find that which thou hast set in thine heart, +even the land promised unto the Saints." And when the bird had so +spoken, it rose from the prow, and returned unto the others. And when +the hour of evening came, they all began to flap their wings, and to +sing as it were with one voice, saying, "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, +in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem, through +our ministry." And they repeated that verse even for the space of an +hour, and the song and the sound of their wings was like harmony (carmen +cantus) for sweetness. Then holy Brendan saith unto his brethren, +"Refresh your bodies, since this day the Lord hath satisfied your souls +by His Divine rising again." And when supper was ended, and the work of +God done, the man of God and they that were with him gave their bodies +unto rest until the third watch of the night. And the man of God woke +and roused the brethren for the watches of the night, and he began +holily to sing that verse, "O Lord, open Thou my lips." And when the +word of the man of God was finished, all the birds sang out with wings +and voices, saying, "Praise ye the Lord, all His Angels, praise ye Him +all His hosts." Likewise at even for the space of an hour, they sang +ever, and when the dawn glowed they began to sing, "And let the beauty +of the Lord our God be upon us," with the same harmony and length of +singing as in the Morning Praises: likewise, at the third hour that +verse, "Sing praises to our God, sing praises, sing praises unto our +King, sing ye praises with understanding:" at the sixth hour, "May the +Lord cause His face to shine upon us, and be merciful unto us:" and at +the ninth hour they sang, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity." So by day and by night these birds +gave praise to God.' + +I have read this passage at length, not only because of its intrinsic +merit, but also because of its evident meaning. It is obvious that it is +meant to propound doctrines similar to those which a distinguished +writer has recently discussed under the title, _Happiness in Hell_. It +is remarkable that the Codex Salmanticensis omits the whole passage in +this sense. Possibly it did not suit the views of the transcriber. + +In a week the provider came to them bringing more food and drink, but +warned them not to drink of the fountain, as its waters were stupefying. +He returned again at Pentecost, bringing more, but bade them now +provision the ship with water, and with dried bread. A week later they +started. When they were on the shore, one of the birds came and perched +upon the prow and said, 'Ye have kept the holy day of the Passover with +us this year. Ye shall also keep the same day with us in the year to +come. And where ye have been in the last year at the Supper of the Lord, +there shall ye be upon the said day in the year to come. Likewise shall +ye keep the Lord's night, the Passover Supper, where ye have kept it +before, that is, upon the back of the monster Jasconius. And after eight +months ye shall find the isle which is called Ailbey. There shall ye +keep the birth of Christ.' And so he flew back, and as the boat sailed +away, all the birds sang, 'Answer us, O God of our salvation, Who art +the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar +off upon the sea.' + +They were wandering upon the sea for three months, and afterwards came +to the isle Ailbey, where they stayed until the middle of January. There +is here described a monastery with twenty-four monks, who were fed on +miraculously provided bread, and, except the Abbat, never spoke. There +is rather a curious description of the church, which was square, with +stalls round the walls. It had three altars, all of crystal, as were +all the altar vessels, and seven lamps which were lit every evening by a +fiery arrow which came in and went out at a window. + +They left Ailbey, and were carried about on the sea until the beginning +of Lent. They then came to an island where there was abundant +vegetation, roots, and streams full of fish, but some of the brethren +became insensible from one, two, or three days, from drinking the water. +I own that this and the remark about the water in the Eden of Birds +seems to me to be very likely plagiarised from the wine-river in +Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_. Hence they went north for three days, were +beating about for about twenty, and then eastward for three more, and +then came back for Maundy Thursday to the isle of the provider, who +again met them. All went on as before, and a week after Pentecost they +started again from the Eden of the Birds. + +It will thus be observed that the real times of voyaging in each year +are limited to the months of February and March, and from about the +early part of June to the middle of December. + +Forty days after starting in this new year they were much alarmed by a +vast fish which seemed to be coming after them to devour them, but it +was killed by another monster, breathing fire, which appeared against it +from the East, and tore it into three pieces. + +The next day they came to a large and grassy island, where they found +the tail portion of the monster fish. On this island they beached the +ship, pitched the tent, and stayed three months, during which the sea +was too stormy for travel. They lived for the three months on part of +the monster, the rest of which was devoured by beasts, but another +portion of a fish was afterwards washed up, and they made a salt +provision of it--though as to Brendan himself, it is remarked that he +was a consistent vegetarian, having never, since his ordination, eaten +anything wherein had been the breath of life. Three days after this, the +sea being stiller, they set out again towards the North. + +One day they saw an island in the distance, and Brendan told them that +there were three companies, of children, of young men, and of elders, +and that one of the three brethren last come was there to make his +earthly pilgrimage. They came to shore. The island was so flat that it +seemed level with the sea. It had no trees nor anything that wind can +shake. It was vast, and was covered with something which the Latin text +calls _scaltæ_--a word which I have failed to find in Ducange or in any +other authority which I have been able to consult. It is, however, +evidently, from the context, some kind of ground fruit, and may perhaps +be the strawberry or the Blaeberry--although the Latin for these seems +to be generally _fragum_ and _bacca myrtilii_. This fruit was white or +_purpureus_--wherein another difficulty arises as to the meaning of +_purpureus_. The individual berries were as big as large balls, and +tasted like honey. In this island were the three companies, who seemed +to be moving and standing in a kind of sacred dance, two moving round +while the one which had taken the farthest place stood still and sang, +'The Saints shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods will +appear in Zion.' It is vexatious that here the question of colour again +arises, as something very picturesque is evidently intended to be +described. The company of children were clad in pure and glistering +white, but the Latin, which is verbally followed by the French, gives +the colour of the young men's garments as hyacinthine, and that of the +elders' as purple. I have consulted all the authorities upon the +question that I can. The result is that it is disputed whether +hyacinthine means red or blue or both, and whether the Latin purple was +red or plum-coloured. I hazard the conjecture that there is here an +attempt to symbolize innocence, vigour, and ripeness, and that as the +first colour is certainly white, the others may be red and what we call +purple. + +The voyagers landed at the fourth hour (10 A.M.) and the dance went on +until noon, when the three companies sang together the lxvii., the lxx., +and the cxvi. Psalms, adding again, 'the God of gods will appear in +Zion.' At 3 P.M. they sang likewise Psalms cxxx., cxxxiii., and what is +called in the Septuagint the cxlvii., viz., the last nine verses of that +so called in the A.V. At even they sang the lxv., the civ., the cxiii., +and then the whole 15 songs of degrees, during which they sat. When this +was done, a bright cloud overshadowed the island, a cloud so bright that +it blinded the sight of the voyagers, but they could still hear the +sacred song going on without ceasing until midnight (_vigilie matutinæ_) +when they heard sung Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., and cl., and then what are +called '12 Psalms according to the Psalter, up to "The fool hath said in +his heart,"'--an apparent reference to the present Roman Breviary +arrangement by which the xth is united (as in the Septuagint) with the +ixth, and the vth transferred out of its order. As day broke, the cloud +passed away from over the island and the companies sang Psalms li., xc., +and lxiii., and at 9 A.M. xlvii., liv., and cxvi. From what this +peculiar arrangement of the Psalms is taken, I do not know. It is not +that of the Monastic Breviary, nor of the Roman, nor of the Greek +Church, nor is it that of the Mozarabic, at least at present, but from +its excessive irregularity, in which it resembles the Mozarabic, I guess +that it may belong to some Ephesine rite, as introduced by Patrick into +Ireland, and that it is here set down at length because it was becoming +obsolete in the days of the writer. Then they went to Communion. After +this, two of the company of young men brought a basket full of the +purple fruit, and put it into the ship, saying, 'Take ye of the fruit of +the strong men's isle, and give us our brother and depart in peace.' +Then Brendan called the brother to him and said, 'Kiss thy brethren, and +go with them that call thee. I tell thee, brother, that in a good hour +did thy mother conceive thee, who hast earned to dwell with such a +congregation.' So they bade him farewell with tears, and when he came to +the companies, they sang, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity,' and then the _Te Deum_, and the +voyagers set out again upon their way. + +The voyage now continues with two or three comparatively trivial +adventures. For twelve days they lived upon the juice of the scaltæ, +after which they fasted for three days. Then a bird brought them a +branch of an unknown tree, bearing a bunch of bright red grapes, whereon +they lived for four days, and then fasted for three more. On the last of +these they sighted the island where grew the grapes. It was thickly +wooded, with trees bending under the weight of the fruit, filled with +all manner of good vegetation, and exhaling an odour like that of an +house full of pomegranates (_mala punica_). Here they landed, pitched +the tent, and stayed for forty days. + +After they left this island they were much alarmed by the sight of a +griffin flying towards them, but it was killed by another bird which +fought it in the air, and its body fell into the sea. They reached the +isle Ailbey in safety, and there passed the midwinter as usual. + +The following years are passed over with merely the general statement +that they went about much in the ocean, and passed the usual seasons in +the usual places. It is mentioned that one midsummer the sea was so +clear for about a week that they could see the marine animals lying at +the bottom; and when Brendan sang, these came up and swam round the +ship. + +It must be, as far as the chronology of the romance can be said to be +fixed, intended to be represented as in the February of the seventh +year, that the narrative again becomes continuous. They saw one day a +pillar standing in the sea, which appeared to be near them, but which +they did not reach for three days. Its top seemed to pierce the clouds. +At the distance of about a mile it was surrounded on every hand by a +sort of network, of a material like silver, but harder than marble. They +drew in the oars and mast, and passed through one of the interstices. +The sea within was as clear as glass, so that they could see the bottom, +with the lower part of the pillar and the network resting upon it. The +pillar was of absolutely clear crystal, so that the light and heat of +the sun passed through it. It was forty cubits broad on every side. On +the south side they found a chalice of the material of the network and a +paten of the material of the pillar. After passing again out of the +network, they sailed for eight days towards the North, and here begins +what may be called the diabolical portion of the story. + +They saw one day a wild and rocky island, without grass or tree, but +full of smiths' forges. The wind bore them past it at about a stone's +throw, and they could hear bellows roaring with a sound like thunder, +and hammers striking upon anvils. Presently they saw one of the +inhabitants come out of a cave. He was shaggy and hideous, burnt and +dark. When he saw the ship, he ran back howling into his workshop. +Brendan immediately bid hoist the sail and have out the oars. While this +was doing the creature appeared again with a glowing mass of fused +metal (_massam igneam de scoria_) in pincers, which he hurled at them. +Where it struck the water about a furlong from them, it made the sea +boil and hiss. They had only escaped about a mile when they saw beings +swarming out upon the shore, throwing about molten masses, some after +them and some at one another, and then all went back into the forges and +set them blazing, until the whole island seemed one mass of fire. The +sea boiled like a boiling cauldron, and all day long the travellers +heard an awful wailing. Even when they were out of sight of the island, +the howls still rang in their ears, and the stench made their nostrils +smart. 'And Brendan said, "O ye soldiers of Christ, make you strong in +faith not feigned, and in the armour of the spirit, for we are upon the +coasts of hell. Watch, therefore, and play the man."' + +The next day but one, they found the wind bearing them down upon +another mountain in the sea, black as coal, reaching steep down to the +sea, and whose top they could hardly see, but yet wrapt in soft mists. +When they came near it, the sole remaining of the three last come +brethren jumped out of the ship and waded to shore. Suddenly he showed +signs of terror, and cried out that he was being carried away and could +not return. The brethren in horror pushed the ship away from land, and +started towards the South. When they looked back they saw flames +shooting up from the top of the mountain, and then sinking in again, and +again surging up. It is a phenomenon familiar to any one who has watched +the top of a volcano--often even of iron-works--and which has been +splendidly described in the account of the burning essence of life in +_She_. From this sight they fled and journeyed for seven days toward the +South. + +We now reach an incident founded upon that fact from the contemplation +of which the human mind perhaps shrinks more than from any other. But +the literary treatment of it is so curious and striking, and is rendered +all the more so, at least to me, because I am aware of only one other +attempt to grapple with it in the whole cycle of human invention, and +that in the very highest sphere of imaginative literature, that I think +that you will forgive me if I deal with it, and give at any-rate a part +of it in full. 'And after these things,' says the novelist, 'the Father +Brendan saw as it were a very thick mist, and when they drew nigh +thereto, there appeared unto them a little shape as it had been the +shape of a man sitting upon a stone, and before him a veil of the size +of a bag hanging between two forks of iron, and thus the waves beat him +about as it were a boat when it is in peril in a tempest. And when the +brethren saw it, some of them thought that it had been a bird, and +others thought that it had been a ship. Then the man of God answered +them, "Brethren, let be this strife, and turn the ship unto the place." +And when the man of God drew nigh thereto, the waves round about stood +still as though they had been frozen. And they found sitting upon a +stone a man shaggy and mis-shapen, and from every side when the waves +came upon him, they smote him up to the crown of his head; and when +again they fell away from him then was seen the stone whereon the +unhappy one sat. And the wind moved about from time to time the cloth +that was before him, and it smote him upon the eyes and upon the +forehead. And when the blessed one asked him who he was, and for what +fault he was set there, and how he had merited such punishment, he said, +"I am that most unhappy Judas, the worst of bargainers. Neither for any +desert of mine do I have this place, but through the pardon and pity of +the Redeemer of the world, and in honour of His holy resurrection, have +I this rest" (now, it was the Lord's Day), "and when I sit here it +seemeth to me as though I were in the Garden of Eden, by reason of the +torments which I shall have this even, for when I am in torment I am +like a bit of lead molten in a crucible day and night. In the midst of +the mountain which ye have seen, there is Leviathan with his crew, and I +was there when it swallowed up your brother, and therefore hell was +glad, and sent forth great flames, and thus doth it ever when it +devoureth the souls of the wicked. But that ye may know the measureless +goodness of God, I will tell you of my rest. I have here my rest every +Lord's Day from evening to evening--,"' and then follow some words as to +other days which are evidently corrupted both in Jubinal's text and in +that of the Salamanca MS. Then it continues, '"But the other days I am +tormented with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and therefore +I beseech you for the sake of the Redeemer of the world, that ye be +pleased to plead for me with the Lord Jesus that it be granted me to be +here until to-morrow at the rising of the sun, that at your coming the +devils may not torment me nor carry me away unto that evil heritage +which I have bought unto myself."' This is done. There is some talk, +from which it appears that the cloth is one which Judas once gave to a +leper, the forks some which he had given to Priests whereon to hang +pots, and the stone whereon he sits, one with which he had once filled +up an hole in a public highway. The whole episode closes thus:--'At the +breaking of the day, when the man of God began to take his journey, +behold, an infinite multitude of devils covered the face of the deep, +speaking with dreadful voices and saying, "O man of God, cursed be thy +coming in and thy going out, for our prince hath scourged us this night +with grievous stripes, because we brought him not that accursed +prisoner." And the man of God saith unto them, "Let that curse be not +upon us but upon you, for blessed is he whom ye curse, and cursed is he +whom ye bless." The devils said, "That unhappy Judas shall suffer double +pains these six days, because ye have shielded him this night." The +saint saith unto them, "Ye have no power, neither your princes, for +power is of God." And he said, "In the name of the Lord, I command you +and your prince that ye put him to no greater torments than ye have been +wont." They answered him, "Art thou the Lord of all, that we should obey +thy words?" The man of God saith unto them, "I am the servant of the +Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His Name, it is done; and I +have no ministry save of them whom he giveth me." And so they followed +him, continually blaspheming, until he was borne away from Judas; and +the devils went back and lifted up that most unhappy soul among them, +with a great rushing and shouting.' + +This subject is one that ought not to be treated at all. It ought to be +left veiled in the unknown, as it has been left for us by the Infinite +Mercy from Whose revelation we know all that we know about it. As a +matter of fact, I am only aware, as I have stated, of one other writer +besides this Irish romancer, who has treated it. That writer is Dante. +At the lowest depth of his Inferno sits Satan munching Brutus, Cassius, +and Judas in his threefold mouth. Brutus and Cassius have their heads +and upper parts hanging outside the mouth. + + 'Quell' anima lassù, c' ha maggior pena,' + Disse 'l Maestro, 'è Giuda Scariotto, + Che 'l capo ha dentro, e fuor le gambe mena.' + +The traditional epithet which the world has justly attached to the name +of Dante Alighieri is 'the Sublime'. I am almost afraid to say it, but +we all know how proverbially short is the distance between the sublime +and the ridiculous. And I venture to submit to the private personal +thought of each of you whether it be not merely the horror of the +subject and of the conception, and the almost stupefying grandeur of the +poetry, which separates this idea from the grotesque; and whether, if +the thing be to be touched at all, the old Irish fabulist has not +produced a conception both more tender and more truly tragic. + +They then go for three days southward and find a small precipitous rocky +island, quite round, and about one furlong in circumference. Here they +find a narrow landing-place, and dwelling on the summit an hermit aged +one hundred and forty years, of which he had passed ninety in the +island. He had no clothes except his own hair, which was long and white. +He was an Irishman named Paul, and had known Patrick. For thirty years +he had lived on fish brought him by a beast, presumably an otter, in its +fore-paws, along with fuel wherewith to cook it, and which he kindled by +striking a flint, and for sixty years upon the water of a spring. He +gave them of the water of the spring, and bade them go their way, +telling them that in forty days they would keep the Passover as usual, +and so also Pentecost, and thereafter would they find 'the land holier +than all lands.' + +They remained therefore on the open sea during all Lent, living only on +the water of the hermit's spring, and passed Easter and Pentecost in the +usual places. But this was the last time. Their provider came to them +and said, 'Get ye up into the ship and fill your bottles with the water +of this fountain. I also now will be the companion and leader of your +journey, for without me ye cannot find the land which ye seek, even the +land which is promised unto the Saints.' As they embarked, all the white +birds sang in chorus, 'The God of our salvation make your way +prosperous' (Ps. lxvii. 20, Vulg.). They went to their provider's island +and there took in provision for other forty days and set forth. And now +comes the discovery of the Land of Promise, which I had better read in +full:-- + +'And when forty days were past, and the evening was drawing on, a great +darkness covered them, so that scarcely could one see another. Then the +provider saith to holy Brendan, "Father, knowest thou what is this +darkness?" The Saint saith, "Brethren, I know not." Then saith the +other, "This darkness is round about that island which ye have sought +for seven years. Behold, ye see it; enter ye into it." And after the +space of an hour, a great light shone round about them, and the ship +stood upon the shore. When they went out of the ship, they saw a land, +broad, and full of fruit-bearing trees, as in the time of autumn. They +went round about that land as long as they were in it. They had no night +there, but the light shone as the sun shineth in his season. And so for +forty days they went about through that land, but they could not find +the end thereof. But upon a certain day they found a great river which +they could not pass, running through the midst of the island. Then saith +the holy man unto the brethren, "We cannot pass over this river, and we +know not how large is this land." While they thought upon these things, +behold, there came to meet them a young man with glorious countenance +and comely to look upon, who kisseth them with great joy, and calleth +them every one by his own name, and saith, "O brethren, peace be unto +you, and unto all who have followed after the peace of Christ," and +after this he said, moreover, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thine +house, O Lord: they will be still praising Thee." After these words, he +saith unto holy Brendan, "Behold the land which ye have sought of a long +time. But for this cause have ye not been able to find it since ye began +to seek it, because the Lord Christ hath willed to show unto thee divers +of His hidden things in this great and wide sea. Return thou therefore +unto the land of thy birth, and take with thee of these fruits, and of +precious stones as much as thy ship may hold. For the days of thy +pilgrimage are drawing near at hand, that thou mayest sleep with thine +holy brethren. But after many times this land shall be made known unto +them that shall come after thee, when it shall be helpful in the +tribulation of the Christians. The river which ye see divideth this +island, and even as now it appeareth unto you ripe in fruits, so is it +at every time without shadow or foulness. For the light shineth in it +without failing." Then holy Brendan saith unto the young man, "Lord +father, tell me if this land shall be ever revealed unto men." And he +saith, "When the Almighty Creator shall have made all nations subject +unto Him, then shall this land be made known unto all His elect." And +after these things, Father Brendan took a blessing from the young man, +and began to return by his way whereby he had come, taking of the fruits +of that land and of sorts of precious stones; and when he had sent away +the man that provided for them, who had prepared meat for him and for +the brethren season by season, he went up into the ship with the +brethren, through the darkness, whence he had begun to sail. And when +they had passed through it, they came unto the Isle Delight some, and +when he had been entertained there for the space of three days, he took +a blessing from the father of the monastery, and then under God's +leading came straight to his own monastery.' + +It remains to make some remark upon the character and possible sources +of this curious composition. + +In connection with fabulous voyages, it is natural to think not only of +Lucian's _Traveller's True Tale_, but also of _Gulliver's Travels_, but +these are skits, satirizing with wild wit certain features of life which +lay before the authors. The gravity of Brendan's _Voyage_ renders it +impossible to place it in any such category. It can hardly be said to +contain any grotesque adventure except that of the monster's back, and +from the way in which this is told, it is evident that it did not appear +grotesque to the narrator; and the religious tone of the whole thing +forbids any such explanation. + +On the other hand, I cannot perceive any hidden meaning in it which +would assign it to the same class of allegorical romance of which +Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ is the most famous example. + +It is impossible that it could ever have been intended to be believed. +Some of the incidents are so obviously fabulous--for instance, that of +Judas,--that such an hypothesis would be simply to condemn the author as +a profane forger, and his tone is much too pious for that; besides +which, there would have been no possible motive; and again, although +this romance stands alone or nearly alone in the popularity which it has +attained outside its own country, as Professor O'Curry remarks, it does +not stand by any means alone within the native literature of that +country, albeit its literary merit may place it above all or nearly all +the old Irish compositions of its class. It is, however, an +extraordinary fact that it has actually been sometimes taken for sober +truth. This has not been, I think, so much the case in Ireland. There +are, it is true, one or two incidents in the Life which may be remotely +identified at bottom with incidents in the Voyage, there is even +mention of the Land of Promise, but I am more inclined to regard these +as, more or less, distorted legendary statements about Brendan's real +career, afterwards seized upon, magnified, and worked in by the +romancer, than as incidents of the romancer appropriated and +nationalized into comparative possibility by the biographer. Thus the +Land of Promise may have been a fond title for the imaginary site of a +monastery for which he was seeking in the Western Isles. But even in +Ireland the son of Finnlogh O' Alta seemingly obtained a character for +certain adventures which must have been taken from the fable, and the +Martyrology of Donegal gravely refers to the Voyage as well as to the +Life as an authority upon the subject, although I confess I can hardly +believe that Cuimin of Condeire was not jesting when he wrote the +verse-- + + 'Brenainn loves constant piety, + According to the synod and congregation; + Seven years on a whale's back he spent; + It was a difficult mode of piety.' + +It was, however, outside Ireland, in countries where less was known of +the facts, and the Voyage was isolated from other works of its class, +that this romance was most largely accepted as serious matter of fact. +The possession of St. Brendan's Isle whenever it should be discovered +was, according to M. Jubinal, actually made the subject of State +documents, and he names no less than four maritime expeditions which +were despatched in search of it, the last from Santa Cruz in Tenerife in +1721, at the instance of Don Juan de Mur, Governor of the Canaries, and +under the command of Caspar Dominguez. I must, however, avow that I have +great difficulty in believing that such an expedition as this could have +been motived by any other hypothesis than that the romance was the +legendary record of some really existing island in the Atlantic. + +The mention of such a belief brings me to the consideration of another +and very different form of what I may call the naturalistic school of +interpretation. This theory throws overboard the whole of the elements +of the class commonly called supernatural, and even treats the identity +of the voyagers as a matter of comparative indifference, but it sees in +the wild narrative a distorted and legendary account of some actual +voyage and some actual adventures and discoveries in the Atlantic. By +some the Canary Archipelago, with perhaps Madeira, the Cape de Verde +Islands, and some parts of the African coast, if not even the Azores, +have been supposed to be the original scene of the wanderings of some +early navigators, even if not of Brendan, and the Burning Island with +its savage inhabitants, and the infernal volcano would of course be +interpreted of the great volcano of Tenerife. But a more interesting +interpretation is that which sees in the voyage of Brendan a distorted +account of some ancient voyage by the Western Islands, the Orkneys and +Shetlands, the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and finally to the coast of +America. I need not remind you that the earliest voyages to America of +which we have historical accounts are those of the Norsemen, who, as +early as the year 1001, proceeded so far South as to come into a land +where the vine was growing wild, and which they consequently named +Vineland. It matters comparatively little to the naturalistic +interpretation of this romance whether it be based upon mutilated and +gossiping accounts of the voyages of the Norsemen, or upon some still +earlier adventures of which all truly historical record has perished. +The shores of America here become the Land of Promise, the clouds which +veil it are the fogs of the coasts of Newfoundland or Labrador, the +great and impassable river which divides it, perhaps the St. Lawrence: +the crystal column is an iceberg: the rough and rocky island, and the +black, cloud-piercing volcano, which burnt in the midst of the Northern +Ocean, are Iceland and its volcanoes; the Eden of white birds in some +region, perhaps the Faroes, where sea-fowl congregate in vast flocks: +and the minor isles are to be more or less identified with some of those +of the several archipelagos, many of which, in the time of the romancer, +if not in that of Brendan, possessed halls, monasteries, and hermits. It +may be urged as one of the main objections to this theory that it is +almost outside the bounds of possibility that a corach could make such a +voyage, but it is perhaps only fair to remark that in the Life, although +not in the Voyage, it is stated that after the first five years of the +wanderings Brendan returned to Ireland, where, among other things, he +went to see Ita, and the narrative then continues: 'She received him +with joy and honour, and said, "O my beloved, wherefore hast thou tried +without my counsel? Thou wilt not gain the Land of Promise borne in the +hides of dead beasts. Thou wilt find it with a ship made of boards." So +he went into Connaught, and embarked with 60 disciples in a ship +skilfully made of boards, and toiled in voyaging for two years; and at +length came to the island where he would be.' This island, however, is +only one with an old man dressed in feathers, who calls it 'an holy +land, polluted by no blood, open for the burial of no sinner, ... a land +like Eden,' but this seems to be the only Land of Promise which was +known to the biographer. + +While, however, I willingly make a present of this passage to the +naturalistic interpreters, I do not accept their interpretation. As I +have said, I look upon Brendan's wanderings in the Western Isles soon +after his ordination, in search of a place wherein to found a monastery, +as the only scrap of historical basis, at any rate as far as he was +concerned, which the romance possesses. The Life says that he reached +many islands, but instances only two, one of these being the so-called +Land of Promise as above, and the incidents are not of a very startling +character. No one on the other hand will deny that the Voyage narrates a +series of incidents of a very startling character indeed, and it seems +to me beyond possibility that some of them, such as the Judas episode, +can have even a legendary basis, or be anything but pure, unmitigated, +intentional, avowed, undisguised fiction, like the incidents of any +novel of the present day. It seems to me that there is in the romance +more resemblance to Lucian's _Traveller's True Tale_ than is likely to +be accidental, and the Land of Promise indeed occupies a position +somewhat similar to that held by the Islands of the Blest in that +remarkable skit. Again I think that the Burning Island with its forges, +and its monstrous inhabitants hurling rocks into the sea after the +voyagers, and the great black volcano piercing the clouds, is very +suggestive of Etna and the Cyclopes as described in the Odyssey. It must +be remembered that Greek scholarship was a good deal cultivated in +antient Ireland. My own impression is that the author, whoever he was, +was a very pious man, who had read Homer and Lucian, and to whom it +occurred that it would be a nice thing to write an imaginary voyage +which might unite similar elements of interest and excitement with the +inculcation of Christian, religious, and moral sentiments. For his own +purposes he plagiarized them a little, and I am very far from wishing to +contend that it is impossible that he may also have worked in some vague +accounts of the wonders of America, which had reached his ears from the +adventurous voyages of the Norsemen, if indeed his date were late +enough, possibly of even earlier navigators, now to us unknown. But as +an whole, I look upon the Fabulous Voyage as a composition which is +really only differentiated by the elements due to the time and place of +birth from religious novels such as those which enrich the pages of the +_Leisure Hour_ or the _Sunday at Home_. + +20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brendan's Fabulous Voyage +by John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 17343-8.txt or 17343-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/4/17343/ + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Brendan's Fabulous Voyage + +Author: John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +Release Date: December 18, 2005 [EBook #17343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h3>ESSAYS</h3> +<h5>BY</h5> +<h3>JOHN, THIRD MARQUESS OF BUTE.</h3> + +<h1><br />BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE.</h1> + +<h4>[A LECTURE DELIVERED ON JANUARY 19, 1893, BEFORE THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF +LITERATURE AND ART.]</h4> + +<h6>New Edition.</h6> + +<h6>1911.</h6> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II.</h2> + +<p>It has been thought desirable to reprint the Essays and other short +Works of the late Marquess of Bute in an inexpensive form likely to be +useful to the general reader, and thereby to make them more widely +known. Should this, the second of the proposed series, prove acceptable, +it will be followed by others at short intervals.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE.</h2> + +<p>[<i>A Lecture delivered on January 19, 1893, before the Scottish Society +of Literature and Art</i>.]</p> + + +<p>Brendan, the son of Finnlogh O' Alta, was born at Tralee in Kerry, in +the year 481 or 482.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> He had a pedigree which connected him with the +rulers of Ireland, and thus perhaps secured for him a social prominence +which he would not otherwise have enjoyed. Nature seems to have endowed +him with an highly wrought and sensitive temperament. Putting aside +altogether the idealism which caused him, like so many others of his +time and race, to give himself to the Church, he displayed throughout +life a restlessness which led him to constant journeys, sometimes of the +nature of migrations, and the constant inception of projects to which he +did not continue long to adhere; and in the statements about him there +are elements from which I conjecture that he was probably of the class +of persons who furnish good subjects for hypnotic experiments. When he +was a year old he was handed over to the care of the nun Ita, when she +dwelt at the foot of Mount Luachra. With her he remained until he was +seven years old, when she sent him to Bishop Erc, by whom he had been +baptized, but during the whole of her life, which lasted nearly as long +as his own, he never ceased to regard and to treat her with all the +affectionate reverence of a son. His education was continued under Erc, +until he grew towards manhood, when he visited other parts of Ireland +for the sake of study, but it was to Erc that he returned to be +ordained to the Presbyterate. At that period there was a sort of passion +among the Celtic clergy for retiring into deserts after the manner of +the monks and hermits of Egypt, and the islands of the Western and +Northern ocean, if they could show nothing like the burning sands of +Africa, supplied deserts enough of a different sort. It was only in +accordance then with a common custom of his day, that Brendan, after his +ordination, set out by sea with a few companions, to find a place where +to found a monastery. It is to be remarked also that this was just about +the time of the migration of the Royal Race of the Dalriads to the +country which has ultimately received from them the name of Scotland, +and the project therefore bears a strong resemblance to that in which +Columba succeeded about 60 years later. If Brendan had not failed, +perhaps Columba would not have come. The wanderings or explorations of +Brendan and his companions appear to have lasted several years, during +which it may be presumed that they were in the habit of laying up +somewhere for the winter. It was doubtless partly owing to the +restlessness which was a part of his nature, that he finally settled +nowhere, and returned to Ireland.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Reeve's <i>Adamnan</i>, 221.</p></div> + +<p>In Ireland he did a good deal of work, but Ita urged him to try and do +good elsewhere, and he went over with some of his friends to Britain, +possibly in connection with movements affected by the career of the +historic Arthur, who was killed at Camlan or Camelon in 537. The +Christian Irish at that time certainly made endeavours to assist the +Christian party among the Britons. The nun Edana was making her +attempts, either in person or by her disciples, to found her girls' +schools in the south of Scotland, and it is not impossible that Ita +thought that she might also accomplish some good by sending forth a +male emissary. In connection with Brendan's sojourn in Britain, there is +a most curious mention of the use of a Greek Liturgy somewhere in the +British Church. There is a statement that Brendan was at the head of the +celebrated Welsh monastery of Llancarfan. He also went over to Brittany +to see Gildas the Wise, who was bewailing the woes of his native land on +the shores of the Morbihan. He ultimately returned to the Western +Islands, and there succeeded at last in founding two monastic +settlements, one in Tiree, at a place which the writers call Bledua, and +one in an island called Ailech, which it seems to me may possibly mean +Islay. Then he went back to Ireland, and started another monastery in a +desert island in Loch Oisbsen, which was given to him by Aedh, the son +of Ethdach. Hence, however, he again moved in 559, and founded the great +monastery of Clonfert, an act which is the principal achievement of his +life.</p> + +<p>He was friendly with the principal persons of his own race, time, and +class. He seems, as I have said, to have possessed the peculiar +temperament, which some call sensitive and others mediumistic, and which +leads to the phenomenon generally known as second-sight, for, putting +aside all other records about him which point in the same direction, it +is recorded of him, not only by Adamnan, but also by Cuimine the Fair, +that on one occasion when he came over, along with Comgall of Benchor, +Kenneth of Aghaboe, and Cormac o' Leathain of Durrow, to visit Columba, +who was then staying in Himba (Eilean na Naoimh, one of the Garveloch +islands, lying between Scarba and Mull), and Columba at their request +celebrated before them on the Sunday, he afterwards told Comgall and +Kenneth that during part of the ceremony Columba had seemed to him to be +standing at the bottom of a pillar of fire streaming heavenwards.</p> + +<p>He lived to an extreme old age, and was in his 96th year when the end +came. When he felt that it was at hand, he went to see his sister Briga, +and I quote the sentences which follow, on account of the quaint +naturalism which inspires them. 'Among other things, he taught her +concerning the place of her resurrection. "Not here," saith he unto her, +"shalt thou rise again, but in thine own land, that is in Tralee. +Therefore, go thou thither, for that people will obtain the mercy of God +by thy means. This is a place of men, not of women. Now is God calling +me unto Himself out of the prison house of this body." When she heard +that, she was grievously afflicted, and said, "Father beloved, we shall +all die at thy death. For which of us could live when thou wast absent +living? Much less, when thou art dead." Brendan said farther, "On the +third day hence, I shall go the way of my fathers." Now that day was the +Lord's Day. Thereon, after the sacraments of the altar had been +offered, he saith to them that stood by, "In your supplications, commend +my going forth." And Briga speaketh and saith, "Father, what fearest +thou?" He saith, "I fear that I shall journey alone, that the way will +be dark—I fear the unknown country, the presence of the King, the +sentence of the Judge." After these things he commanded the brethren to +carry his body to the monastery of Clonfert secretly, lest, if they did +it openly, it should be kept by them among whom they should pass. Then +when he had kissed them all one by one, he saith unto holy Briga, +"Salute my friends on my behalf, and say unto them to beware of evil +speaking, even when it is true, how much the more when it is false." +When he had so spoken and foretold how some things would be in time to +come, he passed into everlasting rest, in the 96th year of his age.' He +died, May 16, 577.</p> + +<p>By combining with all the collected and credible statements concerning +him illustrative matter from the history of his times and the +biographies of his contemporaries, it would no doubt be possible to +write a life of Brendan, which would be both of considerable bulk and of +considerable interest. But there would be nothing particularly startling +or striking about it. Apart from the interest of public events +contemporary with his long career, the monotonous variety produced by +his vagabond nature, and such psychical interest as might possibly +attach to stories of his mediumistic temperament, it would be rather +hum-drum. Brendan, however, has had the ill luck to be selected by some +unknown antient Irish novelist as the hero of a romance of the wildest +kind, which has certainly spread his name, if not his fame, in quarters +which in all his travels he could never have anticipated. Even in the +Canary Islands, the natives apply the term 'Isla de San Borondon' to a +peculiar effect like mirage, showing a shadowy presentiment of land, +which is sometimes seen off their coasts. His character as an hero of +romance, somewhat of the type of Sinbad the Sailor, if not of that of +Gulliver, has even injured him as a subject of serious study. There has +been a sort of custom, to which may be applied a celebrated phrase of +Newman, 'aged but not venerable,' of confounding the hero of the romance +with the real man. It would be just as proper to identify the hero of +the <i>Pickwick Papers</i> with a certain Mr. Pickwick, whom it was, oddly +enough, the duty of one of Dickens' sons to call as a witness in an +English law-suit not many years ago. Even Homer sometimes nods—at least +according to the critics, of whose opinion Lucian credits him with so +low an estimation—and the great Bollandists had their historical +equanimity—much as experience must have already taught it to bear—so +upset by the brilliancy of the fable that they have omitted to print +the real life at all, a life which is, at the worst, no more startling +than a good many with which they have enriched their pages—e.g., those +of Patrick, Brigid, and Columba—and after a denunciation of what their +authorities call the <i>vana, fictaque vel apocrypha deliramenta</i>, 'the +silly, lying, or apocryphal ravings,' simply proceed to give a +compilation of isolated notices drawn from a variety of different +sources.</p> + +<p>Prof. O'Curry, in his <i>Lectures on the MS. Material of Ancient Irish +History</i>, page 289, mentions four ancient Irish romances in the form of +voyages, of which the voyage of Brendan is one. He gives an epitome of +that of the sons of Ua Corra, which seems at least in parts to be almost +equally wild. But that of Brendan has certainly been the most popular. +M. Achille Jubinal, who edited one Latin and two French translations of +it, says that it also exists in Irish, Welsh, Spanish, English, and +Anglo-Norman. The Spanish, English, and Anglo-Norman I have never read, +and of the Welsh I have never heard. Of the Latin I once made a complete +translation from the Latin text published by Jubinal, but I have lost +it, and have had to do the work again so far as necessary for the +present lecture. I remember, however, that from several features, I came +to the conclusion that the Latin text was a translation from Irish, and +the Irish text must present considerable variants, as Dr. Todd in his +book on <i>St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland</i>, page 460, cites from 'An +Irish Life of St. Brendan,' but which must evidently be the fabulous +voyage, four incidents, of which one is about the finding of a dead +mermaid, another about one of the voyagers being devoured alive by +sea-cats, and the third about an huge sea-cat as large as an ox which +swam after them to destroy them, until another sea-monster rose up and +fought with the cat, and both were drowned, none of which incidents +occur in the Latin. However, to the Latin version my defective knowledge +must confine me, and there is enough of it for one lecture, and to +spare. I may, however, say that by the Latin text I do not here mean +only the text published by Jubinal. The present Bollandists were good +enough, some years ago, to edit for me the 'Codex Salmanticensis,' which +contains both the romance and the Life, and I find in the romance +serious divergences from the text given by Jubinal; they are of a kind +which, in my judgment, stamp it beyond all doubt as a later and corrupt +edition, but I have largely compared the texts, although not word for +word.</p> + +<p>Well, I am now going to deal with the 'silly, lying, or apocryphal +ravings.' The romance relates that on one occasion when Brendan was in a +place called the Thicket, there came to him a man called Barint O'Neil, +of the race of King Neil of IX. Hostages. This man told him that his +disciple Marnock had left him, and founded an hermitage of his own in an +island called Delight some, whither he himself afterwards went to visit +him. While he was there, they were one day together upon the shore, +where there was a small boat, and then, to translate the precise words, +'he said unto me, "Father, go up into the ship, and let us sail westward +unto the island which is called the Land of Promise of the Saints, which +God will give unto them that come after us in the latter time." We went +up into the ship therefore, and clouds covered us all round about us, so +that hardly could we see the stern or the prow of the ship. After the +space, as it were, of one hour, a great light shone round about us, and +there appeared a land wide and grassy, and very fruitful. And when the +ship was come to land, we went out, and began to go about, and to walk +through that land for fifteen days, and we could not find the end +thereof. We saw there no plant without a flower, and no tree without +fruit, and all the stones thereof are precious stones. And upon the +fifteenth day we found a river running from the west eastward. And when +we considered all these things, we doubted what we should do. We were +fain to pass over the river, but we waited for counsel from God. While +we discussed thus between us, of a sudden there appeared before us a man +in great brightness, who called us by our names and saluted us, saying, +"It is well done, good brethren, for the Lord hath revealed unto you +that land which He will give unto his Saints. For it is an half of the +island up to this river; but unto you it is not given to pass over. Go +back therefore whence ye are come." When he said thus, we asked him +whence he was, and by what name he was called. And he said unto me, "Why +dost thou ask me whence I am? and by what name I am called? Why dost +thou not rather ask as to this island? For even as thou seest it now, so +doth it remain since the beginning of the world. Hast thou any need of +meat or drink? Hast thou been overcome of sleep, or hath night covered +thee? Know therefore of a surety: there is always day here without +blindness or shadow of darkness. For our Lord Jesus Christ is the light +thereof, and if men had not done against the commandment of God, they +would have remained in the loveliness of this land." When we heard it, +we were turned to weeping, and when we were rested, we straightway took +our journey, and the man aforesaid came with us even to the shore where +our ship was. But when we got us up into the ship, the man was taken +away from our eyes, and we came into the darkness aforesaid, and until +the Isle of Delight some.' Barint goes on to relate his conversation +with Marnock's disciples, and how they told him that they often knew by +the fragrance of Marnock's garments, when he had been away from them for +a while and returned, that he had been in that garden of God, where, as +it is expressed, 'night gathereth not, nor day endeth ... for the angels +of God keep it.'</p> + +<p>Incited by this narrative, Brendan proposed to some of his disciples to +set out in search of the Land of Promise, and after fasting for forty +days for three days at a time, they finally embarked from the +neighbourhood of Tralee. There is a very curious description of the +<i>corach</i><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> or skin-boat in which they embarked. It was, it is stated, +'very light, with ribs and posts of wicker, as the use is in those +parts, and they covered it with the hides of cattle, dyed reddish in +oak-bark, and they smeared all the seams of the ship without; and they +took provisions for forty days, and butter for dressing hides for the +covering of the ship, and the other things which are useful for the life +of man.' Two of the MSS. add (and are justified by subsequent +passages):—'They set up a mast in the middle of the ship, and a sail, +and the rest of the gear for steering.' The voyagers were fourteen in +number besides Brendan, but at the last moment three other brethren came +and entreated to be taken, saying that if they were left where they +were, they would die of hunger and thirst. Brendan consents, but +predicts that while one of them would come to a good end, two would come +to a bad.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> After the manner of the antient Celts, but which is not, I +believe, altogether extinct either in the Highlands or in Ireland, and +of which I remember having seen one once in actual use in Wales.</p></div> + +<p>They set off in the direction of the summer solstice, by which must, I +think, be meant the northerly western point where the sun sets in +summer, and are forty days at sea—it will be noticed that the periods +in this story are nearly always of forty days. At the end of this time +they come to a very high and rocky island, with streams falling down the +cliffs into the sea. They search for a landing-place for three days, and +then find a narrow harbour, between steep walls of rock. On landing, +they are met by a dog, which they follow to a town or fort, but see no +inhabitants. They go into a great hall set with couches and seats, and +find water prepared for washing the feet. The walls are hung with +vessels of divers kinds of metal, and bridles, and horns mounted with +silver. Brendan warns the brethren against theft, especially the three +who had come last. They find a table laid, and spread with very white +bread and fish. They eat and lie down to sleep. In the night Brendan +sees a fiend in the shape of an Ethiopian child tempting one of the +three last comers with a silver bridle. In the morning they find the +table again spread, and so remain for three days and nights. Then they +prepare to leave, and Brendan denounces one of the brethren as a thief. +On this the guilty brother draws the silver bridle out of his breast, +and cries out, 'Father, I have sinned: forgive it, and pray for my soul +that it perish not.' The devil is cast out, but the brother dies and is +buried on the island. As they are on the point of embarking, a lad +brings them a basket of bread and a vessel (<i>amphora</i>) of water, which +he gives to them with a blessing.</p> + +<p>They start again upon the ocean, and are carried hither and thither, +eating once every two days. At last, on Maundy Thursday, they reach +another island, where are many abundant springs full of fish, and flocks +of white sheep as large as cattle, sometimes so thick as to conceal the +earth. There they remain until the morning of the Eve of Easter, when +they take, and apparently kill and dress, one sheep and one lamb without +blemish. The reference is evidently to an identity of custom with that +which still prevails in all the southern countries of Europe, of +preparing the flesh of a lamb on Holy Saturday, in honour of the Paschal +Lamb, which flesh is blessed on the Saturday, and used to break the fast +of Lent on the next day.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> When all is ready there comes to them a man +with a basket of bread baken on the coals—evidently meaning Passover +bread. This man now becomes a regular although occasional feature in the +narrative, and is called their provider (<i>procurator</i>). He foretells +their journey for some time, and how they will be until a week after +Pentecost in a place which is called the <i>Eden of Birds</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> In Italy at least, in order as far as possible to combine +the strict fast of the Saturday with a fulfilment of the words of Ex. +xii. 8, 'And they shall eat the flesh in that night.' It is usual to +have an image of a lamb in sugar or other confectionary, which is also +blessed during the day, and eaten at supper.</p></div> + +<p>Thus furnished, they go to an island close by, which he has pointed out +to them as the place where they are to remain until the following noon. +This island is destitute of grass, and with but scanty vegetation, and +there is no sand upon its shores. All goes well until the next day, when +they light a fire to boil the pot, whereupon the island becomes restive, +and finally sinks into the sea, although they all manage to escape into +the ship. '"Brethren," saith Brendan, "ye wonder at that which this +island hath done." "Father," say they, "we wonder sorely, and great +dread hath taken hold upon us." He said unto them, "Little children, be +not afraid, for God hath this night shown unto me the secret of this +thing. Where we have been was not an island but the first fish of all +that swim in the ocean, and he seeketh ever to bring his tail unto his +mouth, but he cannot, because of his length. Jasconius is his name."'</p> + +<p>This is the only incident in the whole romance which is actually +grotesque. But from the solemnity with which it is narrated, it is +evident that it did not appear to be grotesque to the author. It seems +to have taken the fancy of the early and mediæval public, and even of +the iconographic public in a special degree. The word <i>whale</i> has +commonly been applied to the beast, and as the same episode occurs in +the story of <i>Sinbad the Sailor</i>, Jubinal has set himself to speculate +how that story, or the <i>Arabian Nights</i> in which it is incorporated, +came to be known in Ireland. I confess I do not agree with him. In the +first place, the notion is not particularly recondite, and it has at +least this possible foundation in fact, that, as I have been told by +sailors, the back of a whale of advanced years, when asleep at the +surface, may be and has been mistaken from some distance, greatly owing +to the accretions upon it, for the top of a reef. Again, a somewhat +similar notion occurs in Lucian's <i>Traveller's Tale</i>, which was much +more likely to be known to the Irish fabulist. Lastly, I must observe +that all this is gloss. The word <i>whale</i> (cete) is never applied to the +animal but always <i>fish</i> (piscis) or <i>monster</i> (bellua) or <i>beast</i> +(bestie), and the whole thing, with the notion of its vast size, and the +attempt to join the tail to the mouth, which brings it into connection +with the emblem of eternity, which is due, I believe, to the +Phoenicians, but which we ourselves so often use upon coffins and +grave-stones, seems to bring it into connection rather with the idea of +the Midgard-Worm, the great under-lying world-serpent which figures so +largely in the mythic cosmogony of the Scandinavians. I suggest that +this is the notion, of which the romancer may have heard from +Scandinavian sources; and there is even a kind of indication that it was +associated in his mind with the idea of paganism, as Brendan is made to +speak elsewhere of God having made the most terrible (<i>immanissimam</i>) of +beasts subject unto them.</p> + +<p>On leaving the spot where the monster had sunk, they first returned to +the provider's isle, from the top of which they perceived another near +at hand, covered with grass and woods and full of flowers, and thither +they went.</p> + +<p>On the south shore of this island they found a river a little broader +than the ship, and up this they towed her for a mile, when they came to +the fountain-head of the stream. It was a wondrous fountain, and above +it there was a tree marvellously beautiful, spreading rather than high, +but all covered with white birds, so covered that they hid its foliage +and branches. (The notion is perhaps taken from a tree loaded with +snow.) 'And when the man of God saw it, he began to think in himself +what or wherefore it should be, that such a multitude of birds should be +gathered together in one place. And the thing distressed him so, that he +wept, and fell down upon his knees, and besought the Lord, saying, "O +God, Who knowest the things which are unknown, and makest manifest the +things which are hidden, Thou knowest how that mine heart is straitened; +therefore I beseech Thee that it may please Thee to make manifest unto +me, Thy sinful servant, this mystery which now I do see with mine eyes. +And this I ask not for an desert of my worthiness, but in respect of Thy +mercy." When he had so spoken, behold, one of the birds flew from the +tree. From the ship, where the man of God was sitting, his wings sounded +as with the sound of little bells. He perched upon the top of the prow, +and began to spread his wings for joy, and looked kindly upon the holy +father Brendan. Then the man of God, when he understood that the Lord +had had regard unto his prayer, saith unto the bird, "If thou be the +messenger of God, tell me whence be these birds, and wherefore they be +gathered here." And it said, "We are of that great ruin of the old +enemy; but we have not fallen by sinning or consenting; but we have been +predestinated by the goodness and mercy of God, for wherein we were +created, hath our ruin come to pass, through his fall and the fall of +his crew. But God the Almighty, Who is righteous and true, hath by His +judgment sent us into this place. Pains we suffer not. The presence of +God in a sense we cannot see, so far has He separated us from the +company of them that stood firm. We wander through the divers parts of +this world, of the sky, and of the firmament, and of the earths, even as +other spirits who are sent forth [to minister]. But upon the holy days +of the Lord, we take bodies such as Thou seest, and by the ordinance of +God we dwell here, and praise our Maker. As for thee, thou and thy +brethren are a year upon the way, and yet there await you six. And where +this day thou hast kept the Passover, there shall ye keep it every year, +and afterwards shall thou find that which thou hast set in thine heart, +even the land promised unto the Saints." And when the bird had so +spoken, it rose from the prow, and returned unto the others. And when +the hour of evening came, they all began to flap their wings, and to +sing as it were with one voice, saying, "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, +in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem, through +our ministry." And they repeated that verse even for the space of an +hour, and the song and the sound of their wings was like harmony (carmen +cantus) for sweetness. Then holy Brendan saith unto his brethren, +"Refresh your bodies, since this day the Lord hath satisfied your souls +by His Divine rising again." And when supper was ended, and the work of +God done, the man of God and they that were with him gave their bodies +unto rest until the third watch of the night. And the man of God woke +and roused the brethren for the watches of the night, and he began +holily to sing that verse, "O Lord, open Thou my lips." And when the +word of the man of God was finished, all the birds sang out with wings +and voices, saying, "Praise ye the Lord, all His Angels, praise ye Him +all His hosts." Likewise at even for the space of an hour, they sang +ever, and when the dawn glowed they began to sing, "And let the beauty +of the Lord our God be upon us," with the same harmony and length of +singing as in the Morning Praises: likewise, at the third hour that +verse, "Sing praises to our God, sing praises, sing praises unto our +King, sing ye praises with understanding:" at the sixth hour, "May the +Lord cause His face to shine upon us, and be merciful unto us:" and at +the ninth hour they sang, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity." So by day and by night these birds +gave praise to God.'</p> + +<p>I have read this passage at length, not only because of its intrinsic +merit, but also because of its evident meaning. It is obvious that it is +meant to propound doctrines similar to those which a distinguished +writer has recently discussed under the title, <i>Happiness in Hell</i>. It +is remarkable that the Codex Salmanticensis omits the whole passage in +this sense. Possibly it did not suit the views of the transcriber.</p> + +<p>In a week the provider came to them bringing more food and drink, but +warned them not to drink of the fountain, as its waters were stupefying. +He returned again at Pentecost, bringing more, but bade them now +provision the ship with water, and with dried bread. A week later they +started. When they were on the shore, one of the birds came and perched +upon the prow and said, 'Ye have kept the holy day of the Passover with +us this year. Ye shall also keep the same day with us in the year to +come. And where ye have been in the last year at the Supper of the Lord, +there shall ye be upon the said day in the year to come. Likewise shall +ye keep the Lord's night, the Passover Supper, where ye have kept it +before, that is, upon the back of the monster Jasconius. And after eight +months ye shall find the isle which is called Ailbey. There shall ye +keep the birth of Christ.' And so he flew back, and as the boat sailed +away, all the birds sang, 'Answer us, O God of our salvation, Who art +the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar +off upon the sea.'</p> + +<p>They were wandering upon the sea for three months, and afterwards came +to the isle Ailbey, where they stayed until the middle of January. There +is here described a monastery with twenty-four monks, who were fed on +miraculously provided bread, and, except the Abbat, never spoke. There +is rather a curious description of the church, which was square, with +stalls round the walls. It had three altars, all of crystal, as were +all the altar vessels, and seven lamps which were lit every evening by a +fiery arrow which came in and went out at a window.</p> + +<p>They left Ailbey, and were carried about on the sea until the beginning +of Lent. They then came to an island where there was abundant +vegetation, roots, and streams full of fish, but some of the brethren +became insensible from one, two, or three days, from drinking the water. +I own that this and the remark about the water in the Eden of Birds +seems to me to be very likely plagiarised from the wine-river in +Lucian's <i>Traveller's Tale</i>. Hence they went north for three days, were +beating about for about twenty, and then eastward for three more, and +then came back for Maundy Thursday to the isle of the provider, who +again met them. All went on as before, and a week after Pentecost they +started again from the Eden of the Birds.</p> + +<p>It will thus be observed that the real times of voyaging in each year +are limited to the months of February and March, and from about the +early part of June to the middle of December.</p> + +<p>Forty days after starting in this new year they were much alarmed by a +vast fish which seemed to be coming after them to devour them, but it +was killed by another monster, breathing fire, which appeared against it +from the East, and tore it into three pieces.</p> + +<p>The next day they came to a large and grassy island, where they found +the tail portion of the monster fish. On this island they beached the +ship, pitched the tent, and stayed three months, during which the sea +was too stormy for travel. They lived for the three months on part of +the monster, the rest of which was devoured by beasts, but another +portion of a fish was afterwards washed up, and they made a salt +provision of it—though as to Brendan himself, it is remarked that he +was a consistent vegetarian, having never, since his ordination, eaten +anything wherein had been the breath of life. Three days after this, the +sea being stiller, they set out again towards the North.</p> + +<p>One day they saw an island in the distance, and Brendan told them that +there were three companies, of children, of young men, and of elders, +and that one of the three brethren last come was there to make his +earthly pilgrimage. They came to shore. The island was so flat that it +seemed level with the sea. It had no trees nor anything that wind can +shake. It was vast, and was covered with something which the Latin text +calls <i>scaltæ</i>—a word which I have failed to find in Ducange or in any +other authority which I have been able to consult. It is, however, +evidently, from the context, some kind of ground fruit, and may perhaps +be the strawberry or the Blaeberry—although the Latin for these seems +to be generally <i>fragum</i> and <i>bacca myrtilii</i>. This fruit was white or +<i>purpureus</i>—wherein another difficulty arises as to the meaning of +<i>purpureus</i>. The individual berries were as big as large balls, and +tasted like honey. In this island were the three companies, who seemed +to be moving and standing in a kind of sacred dance, two moving round +while the one which had taken the farthest place stood still and sang, +'The Saints shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods will +appear in Zion.' It is vexatious that here the question of colour again +arises, as something very picturesque is evidently intended to be +described. The company of children were clad in pure and glistering +white, but the Latin, which is verbally followed by the French, gives +the colour of the young men's garments as hyacinthine, and that of the +elders' as purple. I have consulted all the authorities upon the +question that I can. The result is that it is disputed whether +hyacinthine means red or blue or both, and whether the Latin purple was +red or plum-coloured. I hazard the conjecture that there is here an +attempt to symbolize innocence, vigour, and ripeness, and that as the +first colour is certainly white, the others may be red and what we call +purple.</p> + +<p>The voyagers landed at the fourth hour (10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>) and the dance +went on until noon, when the three companies sang together the lxvii., +the lxx., and the cxvi. Psalms, adding again, 'the God of gods will +appear in Zion.' At 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> they sang likewise Psalms cxxx., +cxxxiii., and what is called in the Septuagint the cxlvii., viz., the +last nine verses of that so called in the A.V. At even they sang the +lxv., the civ., the cxiii., and then the whole 15 songs of degrees, +during which they sat. When this was done, a bright cloud overshadowed +the island, a cloud so bright that it blinded the sight of the +voyagers, but they could still hear the sacred song going on without +ceasing until midnight (<i>vigilie matutinæ</i>) when they heard sung Psalms +cxlviii., cxlix., and cl., and then what are called '12 Psalms according +to the Psalter, up to "The fool hath said in his heart,"'—an apparent +reference to the present Roman Breviary arrangement by which the xth is +united (as in the Septuagint) with the ixth, and the vth transferred out +of its order. As day broke, the cloud passed away from over the island +and the companies sang Psalms li., xc., and lxiii., and at 9 +<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> xlvii., liv., and cxvi. From what this peculiar +arrangement of the Psalms is taken, I do not know. It is not that of the +Monastic Breviary, nor of the Roman, nor of the Greek Church, nor is it +that of the Mozarabic, at least at present, but from its excessive +irregularity, in which it resembles the Mozarabic, I guess that it may +belong to some Ephesine rite, as introduced by Patrick into Ireland, +and that it is here set down at length because it was becoming obsolete +in the days of the writer. Then they went to Communion. After this, two +of the company of young men brought a basket full of the purple fruit, +and put it into the ship, saying, 'Take ye of the fruit of the strong +men's isle, and give us our brother and depart in peace.' Then Brendan +called the brother to him and said, 'Kiss thy brethren, and go with them +that call thee. I tell thee, brother, that in a good hour did thy mother +conceive thee, who hast earned to dwell with such a congregation.' So +they bade him farewell with tears, and when he came to the companies, +they sang, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to +dwell together in unity,' and then the <i>Te Deum</i>, and the voyagers set +out again upon their way.</p> + +<p>The voyage now continues with two or three comparatively trivial +adventures. For twelve days they lived upon the juice of the scaltæ, +after which they fasted for three days. Then a bird brought them a +branch of an unknown tree, bearing a bunch of bright red grapes, whereon +they lived for four days, and then fasted for three more. On the last of +these they sighted the island where grew the grapes. It was thickly +wooded, with trees bending under the weight of the fruit, filled with +all manner of good vegetation, and exhaling an odour like that of an +house full of pomegranates (<i>mala punica</i>). Here they landed, pitched +the tent, and stayed for forty days.</p> + +<p>After they left this island they were much alarmed by the sight of a +griffin flying towards them, but it was killed by another bird which +fought it in the air, and its body fell into the sea. They reached the +isle Ailbey in safety, and there passed the midwinter as usual.</p> + +<p>The following years are passed over with merely the general statement +that they went about much in the ocean, and passed the usual seasons in +the usual places. It is mentioned that one midsummer the sea was so +clear for about a week that they could see the marine animals lying at +the bottom; and when Brendan sang, these came up and swam round the +ship.</p> + +<p>It must be, as far as the chronology of the romance can be said to be +fixed, intended to be represented as in the February of the seventh +year, that the narrative again becomes continuous. They saw one day a +pillar standing in the sea, which appeared to be near them, but which +they did not reach for three days. Its top seemed to pierce the clouds. +At the distance of about a mile it was surrounded on every hand by a +sort of network, of a material like silver, but harder than marble. They +drew in the oars and mast, and passed through one of the interstices. +The sea within was as clear as glass, so that they could see the bottom, +with the lower part of the pillar and the network resting upon it. The +pillar was of absolutely clear crystal, so that the light and heat of +the sun passed through it. It was forty cubits broad on every side. On +the south side they found a chalice of the material of the network and a +paten of the material of the pillar. After passing again out of the +network, they sailed for eight days towards the North, and here begins +what may be called the diabolical portion of the story.</p> + +<p>They saw one day a wild and rocky island, without grass or tree, but +full of smiths' forges. The wind bore them past it at about a stone's +throw, and they could hear bellows roaring with a sound like thunder, +and hammers striking upon anvils. Presently they saw one of the +inhabitants come out of a cave. He was shaggy and hideous, burnt and +dark. When he saw the ship, he ran back howling into his workshop. +Brendan immediately bid hoist the sail and have out the oars. While this +was doing the creature appeared again with a glowing mass of fused +metal (<i>massam igneam de scoria</i>) in pincers, which he hurled at them. +Where it struck the water about a furlong from them, it made the sea +boil and hiss. They had only escaped about a mile when they saw beings +swarming out upon the shore, throwing about molten masses, some after +them and some at one another, and then all went back into the forges and +set them blazing, until the whole island seemed one mass of fire. The +sea boiled like a boiling cauldron, and all day long the travellers +heard an awful wailing. Even when they were out of sight of the island, +the howls still rang in their ears, and the stench made their nostrils +smart. 'And Brendan said, "O ye soldiers of Christ, make you strong in +faith not feigned, and in the armour of the spirit, for we are upon the +coasts of hell. Watch, therefore, and play the man."'</p> + +<p>The next day but one, they found the wind bearing them down upon +another mountain in the sea, black as coal, reaching steep down to the +sea, and whose top they could hardly see, but yet wrapt in soft mists. +When they came near it, the sole remaining of the three last come +brethren jumped out of the ship and waded to shore. Suddenly he showed +signs of terror, and cried out that he was being carried away and could +not return. The brethren in horror pushed the ship away from land, and +started towards the South. When they looked back they saw flames +shooting up from the top of the mountain, and then sinking in again, and +again surging up. It is a phenomenon familiar to any one who has watched +the top of a volcano—often even of iron-works—and which has been +splendidly described in the account of the burning essence of life in +<i>She</i>. From this sight they fled and journeyed for seven days toward the +South.</p> + +<p>We now reach an incident founded upon that fact from the contemplation +of which the human mind perhaps shrinks more than from any other. But +the literary treatment of it is so curious and striking, and is rendered +all the more so, at least to me, because I am aware of only one other +attempt to grapple with it in the whole cycle of human invention, and +that in the very highest sphere of imaginative literature, that I think +that you will forgive me if I deal with it, and give at any-rate a part +of it in full. 'And after these things,' says the novelist, 'the Father +Brendan saw as it were a very thick mist, and when they drew nigh +thereto, there appeared unto them a little shape as it had been the +shape of a man sitting upon a stone, and before him a veil of the size +of a bag hanging between two forks of iron, and thus the waves beat him +about as it were a boat when it is in peril in a tempest. And when the +brethren saw it, some of them thought that it had been a bird, and +others thought that it had been a ship. Then the man of God answered +them, "Brethren, let be this strife, and turn the ship unto the place." +And when the man of God drew nigh thereto, the waves round about stood +still as though they had been frozen. And they found sitting upon a +stone a man shaggy and mis-shapen, and from every side when the waves +came upon him, they smote him up to the crown of his head; and when +again they fell away from him then was seen the stone whereon the +unhappy one sat. And the wind moved about from time to time the cloth +that was before him, and it smote him upon the eyes and upon the +forehead. And when the blessed one asked him who he was, and for what +fault he was set there, and how he had merited such punishment, he said, +"I am that most unhappy Judas, the worst of bargainers. Neither for any +desert of mine do I have this place, but through the pardon and pity of +the Redeemer of the world, and in honour of His holy resurrection, have +I this rest" (now, it was the Lord's Day), "and when I sit here it +seemeth to me as though I were in the Garden of Eden, by reason of the +torments which I shall have this even, for when I am in torment I am +like a bit of lead molten in a crucible day and night. In the midst of +the mountain which ye have seen, there is Leviathan with his crew, and I +was there when it swallowed up your brother, and therefore hell was +glad, and sent forth great flames, and thus doth it ever when it +devoureth the souls of the wicked. But that ye may know the measureless +goodness of God, I will tell you of my rest. I have here my rest every +Lord's Day from evening to evening—,"' and then follow some words as to +other days which are evidently corrupted both in Jubinal's text and in +that of the Salamanca MS. Then it continues, '"But the other days I am +tormented with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and therefore +I beseech you for the sake of the Redeemer of the world, that ye be +pleased to plead for me with the Lord Jesus that it be granted me to be +here until to-morrow at the rising of the sun, that at your coming the +devils may not torment me nor carry me away unto that evil heritage +which I have bought unto myself."' This is done. There is some talk, +from which it appears that the cloth is one which Judas once gave to a +leper, the forks some which he had given to Priests whereon to hang +pots, and the stone whereon he sits, one with which he had once filled +up an hole in a public highway. The whole episode closes thus:—'At the +breaking of the day, when the man of God began to take his journey, +behold, an infinite multitude of devils covered the face of the deep, +speaking with dreadful voices and saying, "O man of God, cursed be thy +coming in and thy going out, for our prince hath scourged us this night +with grievous stripes, because we brought him not that accursed +prisoner." And the man of God saith unto them, "Let that curse be not +upon us but upon you, for blessed is he whom ye curse, and cursed is he +whom ye bless." The devils said, "That unhappy Judas shall suffer double +pains these six days, because ye have shielded him this night." The +saint saith unto them, "Ye have no power, neither your princes, for +power is of God." And he said, "In the name of the Lord, I command you +and your prince that ye put him to no greater torments than ye have been +wont." They answered him, "Art thou the Lord of all, that we should obey +thy words?" The man of God saith unto them, "I am the servant of the +Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His Name, it is done; and I +have no ministry save of them whom he giveth me." And so they followed +him, continually blaspheming, until he was borne away from Judas; and +the devils went back and lifted up that most unhappy soul among them, +with a great rushing and shouting.'</p> + +<p>This subject is one that ought not to be treated at all. It ought to be +left veiled in the unknown, as it has been left for us by the Infinite +Mercy from Whose revelation we know all that we know about it. As a +matter of fact, I am only aware, as I have stated, of one other writer +besides this Irish romancer, who has treated it. That writer is Dante. +At the lowest depth of his Inferno sits Satan munching Brutus, Cassius, +and Judas in his threefold mouth. Brutus and Cassius have their heads +and upper parts hanging outside the mouth.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Quell' anima lassù, c' ha maggior pena,'</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Disse 'l Maestro, 'è Giuda Scariotto,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Che 'l capo ha dentro, e fuor le gambe mena.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The traditional epithet which the world has justly attached to the name +of Dante Alighieri is 'the Sublime'. I am almost afraid to say it, but +we all know how proverbially short is the distance between the sublime +and the ridiculous. And I venture to submit to the private personal +thought of each of you whether it be not merely the horror of the +subject and of the conception, and the almost stupefying grandeur of the +poetry, which separates this idea from the grotesque; and whether, if +the thing be to be touched at all, the old Irish fabulist has not +produced a conception both more tender and more truly tragic.</p> + +<p>They then go for three days southward and find a small precipitous rocky +island, quite round, and about one furlong in circumference. Here they +find a narrow landing-place, and dwelling on the summit an hermit aged +one hundred and forty years, of which he had passed ninety in the +island. He had no clothes except his own hair, which was long and white. +He was an Irishman named Paul, and had known Patrick. For thirty years +he had lived on fish brought him by a beast, presumably an otter, in its +fore-paws, along with fuel wherewith to cook it, and which he kindled by +striking a flint, and for sixty years upon the water of a spring. He +gave them of the water of the spring, and bade them go their way, +telling them that in forty days they would keep the Passover as usual, +and so also Pentecost, and thereafter would they find 'the land holier +than all lands.'</p> + +<p>They remained therefore on the open sea during all Lent, living only on +the water of the hermit's spring, and passed Easter and Pentecost in the +usual places. But this was the last time. Their provider came to them +and said, 'Get ye up into the ship and fill your bottles with the water +of this fountain. I also now will be the companion and leader of your +journey, for without me ye cannot find the land which ye seek, even the +land which is promised unto the Saints.' As they embarked, all the white +birds sang in chorus, 'The God of our salvation make your way +prosperous' (Ps. lxvii. 20, Vulg.). They went to their provider's island +and there took in provision for other forty days and set forth. And now +comes the discovery of the Land of Promise, which I had better read in +full:—</p> + +<p>'And when forty days were past, and the evening was drawing on, a great +darkness covered them, so that scarcely could one see another. Then the +provider saith to holy Brendan, "Father, knowest thou what is this +darkness?" The Saint saith, "Brethren, I know not." Then saith the +other, "This darkness is round about that island which ye have sought +for seven years. Behold, ye see it; enter ye into it." And after the +space of an hour, a great light shone round about them, and the ship +stood upon the shore. When they went out of the ship, they saw a land, +broad, and full of fruit-bearing trees, as in the time of autumn. They +went round about that land as long as they were in it. They had no night +there, but the light shone as the sun shineth in his season. And so for +forty days they went about through that land, but they could not find +the end thereof. But upon a certain day they found a great river which +they could not pass, running through the midst of the island. Then saith +the holy man unto the brethren, "We cannot pass over this river, and we +know not how large is this land." While they thought upon these things, +behold, there came to meet them a young man with glorious countenance +and comely to look upon, who kisseth them with great joy, and calleth +them every one by his own name, and saith, "O brethren, peace be unto +you, and unto all who have followed after the peace of Christ," and +after this he said, moreover, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thine +house, O Lord: they will be still praising Thee." After these words, he +saith unto holy Brendan, "Behold the land which ye have sought of a long +time. But for this cause have ye not been able to find it since ye began +to seek it, because the Lord Christ hath willed to show unto thee divers +of His hidden things in this great and wide sea. Return thou therefore +unto the land of thy birth, and take with thee of these fruits, and of +precious stones as much as thy ship may hold. For the days of thy +pilgrimage are drawing near at hand, that thou mayest sleep with thine +holy brethren. But after many times this land shall be made known unto +them that shall come after thee, when it shall be helpful in the +tribulation of the Christians. The river which ye see divideth this +island, and even as now it appeareth unto you ripe in fruits, so is it +at every time without shadow or foulness. For the light shineth in it +without failing." Then holy Brendan saith unto the young man, "Lord +father, tell me if this land shall be ever revealed unto men." And he +saith, "When the Almighty Creator shall have made all nations subject +unto Him, then shall this land be made known unto all His elect." And +after these things, Father Brendan took a blessing from the young man, +and began to return by his way whereby he had come, taking of the fruits +of that land and of sorts of precious stones; and when he had sent away +the man that provided for them, who had prepared meat for him and for +the brethren season by season, he went up into the ship with the +brethren, through the darkness, whence he had begun to sail. And when +they had passed through it, they came unto the Isle Delight some, and +when he had been entertained there for the space of three days, he took +a blessing from the father of the monastery, and then under God's +leading came straight to his own monastery.'</p> + +<p>It remains to make some remark upon the character and possible sources +of this curious composition.</p> + +<p>In connection with fabulous voyages, it is natural to think not only of +Lucian's <i>Traveller's True Tale</i>, but also of <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, but +these are skits, satirizing with wild wit certain features of life which +lay before the authors. The gravity of Brendan's <i>Voyage</i> renders it +impossible to place it in any such category. It can hardly be said to +contain any grotesque adventure except that of the monster's back, and +from the way in which this is told, it is evident that it did not appear +grotesque to the narrator; and the religious tone of the whole thing +forbids any such explanation.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, I cannot perceive any hidden meaning in it which +would assign it to the same class of allegorical romance of which +Bunyan's <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> is the most famous example.</p> + +<p>It is impossible that it could ever have been intended to be believed. +Some of the incidents are so obviously fabulous—for instance, that of +Judas,—that such an hypothesis would be simply to condemn the author as +a profane forger, and his tone is much too pious for that; besides +which, there would have been no possible motive; and again, although +this romance stands alone or nearly alone in the popularity which it has +attained outside its own country, as Professor O'Curry remarks, it does +not stand by any means alone within the native literature of that +country, albeit its literary merit may place it above all or nearly all +the old Irish compositions of its class. It is, however, an +extraordinary fact that it has actually been sometimes taken for sober +truth. This has not been, I think, so much the case in Ireland. There +are, it is true, one or two incidents in the Life which may be remotely +identified at bottom with incidents in the Voyage, there is even +mention of the Land of Promise, but I am more inclined to regard these +as, more or less, distorted legendary statements about Brendan's real +career, afterwards seized upon, magnified, and worked in by the +romancer, than as incidents of the romancer appropriated and +nationalized into comparative possibility by the biographer. Thus the +Land of Promise may have been a fond title for the imaginary site of a +monastery for which he was seeking in the Western Isles. But even in +Ireland the son of Finnlogh O' Alta seemingly obtained a character for +certain adventures which must have been taken from the fable, and the +Martyrology of Donegal gravely refers to the Voyage as well as to the +Life as an authority upon the subject, although I confess I can hardly +believe that Cuimin of Condeire was not jesting when he wrote the +verse—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Brenainn loves constant piety,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">According to the synod and congregation;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Seven years on a whale's back he spent;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">It was a difficult mode of piety.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It was, however, outside Ireland, in countries where less was known of +the facts, and the Voyage was isolated from other works of its class, +that this romance was most largely accepted as serious matter of fact. +The possession of St. Brendan's Isle whenever it should be discovered +was, according to M. Jubinal, actually made the subject of State +documents, and he names no less than four maritime expeditions which +were despatched in search of it, the last from Santa Cruz in Tenerife in +1721, at the instance of Don Juan de Mur, Governor of the Canaries, and +under the command of Caspar Dominguez. I must, however, avow that I have +great difficulty in believing that such an expedition as this could have +been motived by any other hypothesis than that the romance was the +legendary record of some really existing island in the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>The mention of such a belief brings me to the consideration of another +and very different form of what I may call the naturalistic school of +interpretation. This theory throws overboard the whole of the elements +of the class commonly called supernatural, and even treats the identity +of the voyagers as a matter of comparative indifference, but it sees in +the wild narrative a distorted and legendary account of some actual +voyage and some actual adventures and discoveries in the Atlantic. By +some the Canary Archipelago, with perhaps Madeira, the Cape de Verde +Islands, and some parts of the African coast, if not even the Azores, +have been supposed to be the original scene of the wanderings of some +early navigators, even if not of Brendan, and the Burning Island with +its savage inhabitants, and the infernal volcano would of course be +interpreted of the great volcano of Tenerife. But a more interesting +interpretation is that which sees in the voyage of Brendan a distorted +account of some ancient voyage by the Western Islands, the Orkneys and +Shetlands, the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and finally to the coast of +America. I need not remind you that the earliest voyages to America of +which we have historical accounts are those of the Norsemen, who, as +early as the year 1001, proceeded so far South as to come into a land +where the vine was growing wild, and which they consequently named +Vineland. It matters comparatively little to the naturalistic +interpretation of this romance whether it be based upon mutilated and +gossiping accounts of the voyages of the Norsemen, or upon some still +earlier adventures of which all truly historical record has perished. +The shores of America here become the Land of Promise, the clouds which +veil it are the fogs of the coasts of Newfoundland or Labrador, the +great and impassable river which divides it, perhaps the St. Lawrence: +the crystal column is an iceberg: the rough and rocky island, and the +black, cloud-piercing volcano, which burnt in the midst of the Northern +Ocean, are Iceland and its volcanoes; the Eden of white birds in some +region, perhaps the Faroes, where sea-fowl congregate in vast flocks: +and the minor isles are to be more or less identified with some of those +of the several archipelagos, many of which, in the time of the romancer, +if not in that of Brendan, possessed halls, monasteries, and hermits. It +may be urged as one of the main objections to this theory that it is +almost outside the bounds of possibility that a corach could make such a +voyage, but it is perhaps only fair to remark that in the Life, although +not in the Voyage, it is stated that after the first five years of the +wanderings Brendan returned to Ireland, where, among other things, he +went to see Ita, and the narrative then continues: 'She received him +with joy and honour, and said, "O my beloved, wherefore hast thou tried +without my counsel? Thou wilt not gain the Land of Promise borne in the +hides of dead beasts. Thou wilt find it with a ship made of boards." So +he went into Connaught, and embarked with 60 disciples in a ship +skilfully made of boards, and toiled in voyaging for two years; and at +length came to the island where he would be.' This island, however, is +only one with an old man dressed in feathers, who calls it 'an holy +land, polluted by no blood, open for the burial of no sinner, ... a land +like Eden,' but this seems to be the only Land of Promise which was +known to the biographer.</p> + +<p>While, however, I willingly make a present of this passage to the +naturalistic interpreters, I do not accept their interpretation. As I +have said, I look upon Brendan's wanderings in the Western Isles soon +after his ordination, in search of a place wherein to found a monastery, +as the only scrap of historical basis, at any rate as far as he was +concerned, which the romance possesses. The Life says that he reached +many islands, but instances only two, one of these being the so-called +Land of Promise as above, and the incidents are not of a very startling +character. No one on the other hand will deny that the Voyage narrates a +series of incidents of a very startling character indeed, and it seems +to me beyond possibility that some of them, such as the Judas episode, +can have even a legendary basis, or be anything but pure, unmitigated, +intentional, avowed, undisguised fiction, like the incidents of any +novel of the present day. It seems to me that there is in the romance +more resemblance to Lucian's <i>Traveller's True Tale</i> than is likely to +be accidental, and the Land of Promise indeed occupies a position +somewhat similar to that held by the Islands of the Blest in that +remarkable skit. Again I think that the Burning Island with its forges, +and its monstrous inhabitants hurling rocks into the sea after the +voyagers, and the great black volcano piercing the clouds, is very +suggestive of Etna and the Cyclopes as described in the Odyssey. It must +be remembered that Greek scholarship was a good deal cultivated in +antient Ireland. My own impression is that the author, whoever he was, +was a very pious man, who had read Homer and Lucian, and to whom it +occurred that it would be a nice thing to write an imaginary voyage +which might unite similar elements of interest and excitement with the +inculcation of Christian, religious, and moral sentiments. For his own +purposes he plagiarized them a little, and I am very far from wishing to +contend that it is impossible that he may also have worked in some vague +accounts of the wonders of America, which had reached his ears from the +adventurous voyages of the Norsemen, if indeed his date were late +enough, possibly of even earlier navigators, now to us unknown. But as +an whole, I look upon the Fabulous Voyage as a composition which is +really only differentiated by the elements due to the time and place of +birth from religious novels such as those which enrich the pages of the +<i>Leisure Hour</i> or the <i>Sunday at Home</i>.</p> + +<p>20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brendan's Fabulous Voyage +by John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 17343-h.htm or 17343-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/4/17343/ + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Brendan's Fabulous Voyage + +Author: John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +Release Date: December 18, 2005 [EBook #17343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +ESSAYS + +BY + +JOHN, THIRD MARQUESS OF BUTE. + + +BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE. + +[A LECTURE DELIVERED ON JANUARY 19, 1893, BEFORE THE SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF +LITERATURE AND ART.] + +New Edition. + +1911. + + + + +II. + +It has been thought desirable to reprint the Essays and other short +Works of the late Marquess of Bute in an inexpensive form likely to be +useful to the general reader, and thereby to make them more widely +known. Should this, the second of the proposed series, prove acceptable, +it will be followed by others at short intervals. + + + + +BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE. + +[_A Lecture delivered on January 19, 1893, before the Scottish Society +of Literature and Art_.] + + +Brendan, the son of Finnlogh O' Alta, was born at Tralee in Kerry, in +the year 481 or 482.[1] He had a pedigree which connected him with the +rulers of Ireland, and thus perhaps secured for him a social prominence +which he would not otherwise have enjoyed. Nature seems to have endowed +him with an highly wrought and sensitive temperament. Putting aside +altogether the idealism which caused him, like so many others of his +time and race, to give himself to the Church, he displayed throughout +life a restlessness which led him to constant journeys, sometimes of the +nature of migrations, and the constant inception of projects to which he +did not continue long to adhere; and in the statements about him there +are elements from which I conjecture that he was probably of the class +of persons who furnish good subjects for hypnotic experiments. When he +was a year old he was handed over to the care of the nun Ita, when she +dwelt at the foot of Mount Luachra. With her he remained until he was +seven years old, when she sent him to Bishop Erc, by whom he had been +baptized, but during the whole of her life, which lasted nearly as long +as his own, he never ceased to regard and to treat her with all the +affectionate reverence of a son. His education was continued under Erc, +until he grew towards manhood, when he visited other parts of Ireland +for the sake of study, but it was to Erc that he returned to be +ordained to the Presbyterate. At that period there was a sort of passion +among the Celtic clergy for retiring into deserts after the manner of +the monks and hermits of Egypt, and the islands of the Western and +Northern ocean, if they could show nothing like the burning sands of +Africa, supplied deserts enough of a different sort. It was only in +accordance then with a common custom of his day, that Brendan, after his +ordination, set out by sea with a few companions, to find a place where +to found a monastery. It is to be remarked also that this was just about +the time of the migration of the Royal Race of the Dalriads to the +country which has ultimately received from them the name of Scotland, +and the project therefore bears a strong resemblance to that in which +Columba succeeded about 60 years later. If Brendan had not failed, +perhaps Columba would not have come. The wanderings or explorations of +Brendan and his companions appear to have lasted several years, during +which it may be presumed that they were in the habit of laying up +somewhere for the winter. It was doubtless partly owing to the +restlessness which was a part of his nature, that he finally settled +nowhere, and returned to Ireland. + +[Footnote 1: Reeve's _Adamnan_, 221.] + +In Ireland he did a good deal of work, but Ita urged him to try and do +good elsewhere, and he went over with some of his friends to Britain, +possibly in connection with movements affected by the career of the +historic Arthur, who was killed at Camlan or Camelon in 537. The +Christian Irish at that time certainly made endeavours to assist the +Christian party among the Britons. The nun Edana was making her +attempts, either in person or by her disciples, to found her girls' +schools in the south of Scotland, and it is not impossible that Ita +thought that she might also accomplish some good by sending forth a +male emissary. In connection with Brendan's sojourn in Britain, there is +a most curious mention of the use of a Greek Liturgy somewhere in the +British Church. There is a statement that Brendan was at the head of the +celebrated Welsh monastery of Llancarfan. He also went over to Brittany +to see Gildas the Wise, who was bewailing the woes of his native land on +the shores of the Morbihan. He ultimately returned to the Western +Islands, and there succeeded at last in founding two monastic +settlements, one in Tiree, at a place which the writers call Bledua, and +one in an island called Ailech, which it seems to me may possibly mean +Islay. Then he went back to Ireland, and started another monastery in a +desert island in Loch Oisbsen, which was given to him by Aedh, the son +of Ethdach. Hence, however, he again moved in 559, and founded the great +monastery of Clonfert, an act which is the principal achievement of his +life. + +He was friendly with the principal persons of his own race, time, and +class. He seems, as I have said, to have possessed the peculiar +temperament, which some call sensitive and others mediumistic, and which +leads to the phenomenon generally known as second-sight, for, putting +aside all other records about him which point in the same direction, it +is recorded of him, not only by Adamnan, but also by Cuimine the Fair, +that on one occasion when he came over, along with Comgall of Benchor, +Kenneth of Aghaboe, and Cormac o' Leathain of Durrow, to visit Columba, +who was then staying in Himba (Eilean na Naoimh, one of the Garveloch +islands, lying between Scarba and Mull), and Columba at their request +celebrated before them on the Sunday, he afterwards told Comgall and +Kenneth that during part of the ceremony Columba had seemed to him to be +standing at the bottom of a pillar of fire streaming heavenwards. + +He lived to an extreme old age, and was in his 96th year when the end +came. When he felt that it was at hand, he went to see his sister Briga, +and I quote the sentences which follow, on account of the quaint +naturalism which inspires them. 'Among other things, he taught her +concerning the place of her resurrection. "Not here," saith he unto her, +"shalt thou rise again, but in thine own land, that is in Tralee. +Therefore, go thou thither, for that people will obtain the mercy of God +by thy means. This is a place of men, not of women. Now is God calling +me unto Himself out of the prison house of this body." When she heard +that, she was grievously afflicted, and said, "Father beloved, we shall +all die at thy death. For which of us could live when thou wast absent +living? Much less, when thou art dead." Brendan said farther, "On the +third day hence, I shall go the way of my fathers." Now that day was the +Lord's Day. Thereon, after the sacraments of the altar had been +offered, he saith to them that stood by, "In your supplications, commend +my going forth." And Briga speaketh and saith, "Father, what fearest +thou?" He saith, "I fear that I shall journey alone, that the way will +be dark--I fear the unknown country, the presence of the King, the +sentence of the Judge." After these things he commanded the brethren to +carry his body to the monastery of Clonfert secretly, lest, if they did +it openly, it should be kept by them among whom they should pass. Then +when he had kissed them all one by one, he saith unto holy Briga, +"Salute my friends on my behalf, and say unto them to beware of evil +speaking, even when it is true, how much the more when it is false." +When he had so spoken and foretold how some things would be in time to +come, he passed into everlasting rest, in the 96th year of his age.' He +died, May 16, 577. + +By combining with all the collected and credible statements concerning +him illustrative matter from the history of his times and the +biographies of his contemporaries, it would no doubt be possible to +write a life of Brendan, which would be both of considerable bulk and of +considerable interest. But there would be nothing particularly startling +or striking about it. Apart from the interest of public events +contemporary with his long career, the monotonous variety produced by +his vagabond nature, and such psychical interest as might possibly +attach to stories of his mediumistic temperament, it would be rather +hum-drum. Brendan, however, has had the ill luck to be selected by some +unknown antient Irish novelist as the hero of a romance of the wildest +kind, which has certainly spread his name, if not his fame, in quarters +which in all his travels he could never have anticipated. Even in the +Canary Islands, the natives apply the term 'Isla de San Borondon' to a +peculiar effect like mirage, showing a shadowy presentiment of land, +which is sometimes seen off their coasts. His character as an hero of +romance, somewhat of the type of Sinbad the Sailor, if not of that of +Gulliver, has even injured him as a subject of serious study. There has +been a sort of custom, to which may be applied a celebrated phrase of +Newman, 'aged but not venerable,' of confounding the hero of the romance +with the real man. It would be just as proper to identify the hero of +the _Pickwick Papers_ with a certain Mr. Pickwick, whom it was, oddly +enough, the duty of one of Dickens' sons to call as a witness in an +English law-suit not many years ago. Even Homer sometimes nods--at least +according to the critics, of whose opinion Lucian credits him with so +low an estimation--and the great Bollandists had their historical +equanimity--much as experience must have already taught it to bear--so +upset by the brilliancy of the fable that they have omitted to print +the real life at all, a life which is, at the worst, no more startling +than a good many with which they have enriched their pages--e.g., those +of Patrick, Brigid, and Columba--and after a denunciation of what their +authorities call the _vana, fictaque vel apocrypha deliramenta_, 'the +silly, lying, or apocryphal ravings,' simply proceed to give a +compilation of isolated notices drawn from a variety of different +sources. + +Prof. O'Curry, in his _Lectures on the MS. Material of Ancient Irish +History_, page 289, mentions four ancient Irish romances in the form of +voyages, of which the voyage of Brendan is one. He gives an epitome of +that of the sons of Ua Corra, which seems at least in parts to be almost +equally wild. But that of Brendan has certainly been the most popular. +M. Achille Jubinal, who edited one Latin and two French translations of +it, says that it also exists in Irish, Welsh, Spanish, English, and +Anglo-Norman. The Spanish, English, and Anglo-Norman I have never read, +and of the Welsh I have never heard. Of the Latin I once made a complete +translation from the Latin text published by Jubinal, but I have lost +it, and have had to do the work again so far as necessary for the +present lecture. I remember, however, that from several features, I came +to the conclusion that the Latin text was a translation from Irish, and +the Irish text must present considerable variants, as Dr. Todd in his +book on _St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland_, page 460, cites from 'An +Irish Life of St. Brendan,' but which must evidently be the fabulous +voyage, four incidents, of which one is about the finding of a dead +mermaid, another about one of the voyagers being devoured alive by +sea-cats, and the third about an huge sea-cat as large as an ox which +swam after them to destroy them, until another sea-monster rose up and +fought with the cat, and both were drowned, none of which incidents +occur in the Latin. However, to the Latin version my defective knowledge +must confine me, and there is enough of it for one lecture, and to +spare. I may, however, say that by the Latin text I do not here mean +only the text published by Jubinal. The present Bollandists were good +enough, some years ago, to edit for me the 'Codex Salmanticensis,' which +contains both the romance and the Life, and I find in the romance +serious divergences from the text given by Jubinal; they are of a kind +which, in my judgment, stamp it beyond all doubt as a later and corrupt +edition, but I have largely compared the texts, although not word for +word. + +Well, I am now going to deal with the 'silly, lying, or apocryphal +ravings.' The romance relates that on one occasion when Brendan was in a +place called the Thicket, there came to him a man called Barint O'Neil, +of the race of King Neil of IX. Hostages. This man told him that his +disciple Marnock had left him, and founded an hermitage of his own in an +island called Delight some, whither he himself afterwards went to visit +him. While he was there, they were one day together upon the shore, +where there was a small boat, and then, to translate the precise words, +'he said unto me, "Father, go up into the ship, and let us sail westward +unto the island which is called the Land of Promise of the Saints, which +God will give unto them that come after us in the latter time." We went +up into the ship therefore, and clouds covered us all round about us, so +that hardly could we see the stern or the prow of the ship. After the +space, as it were, of one hour, a great light shone round about us, and +there appeared a land wide and grassy, and very fruitful. And when the +ship was come to land, we went out, and began to go about, and to walk +through that land for fifteen days, and we could not find the end +thereof. We saw there no plant without a flower, and no tree without +fruit, and all the stones thereof are precious stones. And upon the +fifteenth day we found a river running from the west eastward. And when +we considered all these things, we doubted what we should do. We were +fain to pass over the river, but we waited for counsel from God. While +we discussed thus between us, of a sudden there appeared before us a man +in great brightness, who called us by our names and saluted us, saying, +"It is well done, good brethren, for the Lord hath revealed unto you +that land which He will give unto his Saints. For it is an half of the +island up to this river; but unto you it is not given to pass over. Go +back therefore whence ye are come." When he said thus, we asked him +whence he was, and by what name he was called. And he said unto me, "Why +dost thou ask me whence I am? and by what name I am called? Why dost +thou not rather ask as to this island? For even as thou seest it now, so +doth it remain since the beginning of the world. Hast thou any need of +meat or drink? Hast thou been overcome of sleep, or hath night covered +thee? Know therefore of a surety: there is always day here without +blindness or shadow of darkness. For our Lord Jesus Christ is the light +thereof, and if men had not done against the commandment of God, they +would have remained in the loveliness of this land." When we heard it, +we were turned to weeping, and when we were rested, we straightway took +our journey, and the man aforesaid came with us even to the shore where +our ship was. But when we got us up into the ship, the man was taken +away from our eyes, and we came into the darkness aforesaid, and until +the Isle of Delight some.' Barint goes on to relate his conversation +with Marnock's disciples, and how they told him that they often knew by +the fragrance of Marnock's garments, when he had been away from them for +a while and returned, that he had been in that garden of God, where, as +it is expressed, 'night gathereth not, nor day endeth ... for the angels +of God keep it.' + +Incited by this narrative, Brendan proposed to some of his disciples to +set out in search of the Land of Promise, and after fasting for forty +days for three days at a time, they finally embarked from the +neighbourhood of Tralee. There is a very curious description of the +_corach_[2] or skin-boat in which they embarked. It was, it is stated, +'very light, with ribs and posts of wicker, as the use is in those +parts, and they covered it with the hides of cattle, dyed reddish in +oak-bark, and they smeared all the seams of the ship without; and they +took provisions for forty days, and butter for dressing hides for the +covering of the ship, and the other things which are useful for the life +of man.' Two of the MSS. add (and are justified by subsequent +passages):--'They set up a mast in the middle of the ship, and a sail, +and the rest of the gear for steering.' The voyagers were fourteen in +number besides Brendan, but at the last moment three other brethren came +and entreated to be taken, saying that if they were left where they +were, they would die of hunger and thirst. Brendan consents, but +predicts that while one of them would come to a good end, two would come +to a bad. + +[Footnote 2: After the manner of the antient Celts, but which is not, I +believe, altogether extinct either in the Highlands or in Ireland, and +of which I remember having seen one once in actual use in Wales.] + +They set off in the direction of the summer solstice, by which must, I +think, be meant the northerly western point where the sun sets in +summer, and are forty days at sea--it will be noticed that the periods +in this story are nearly always of forty days. At the end of this time +they come to a very high and rocky island, with streams falling down the +cliffs into the sea. They search for a landing-place for three days, and +then find a narrow harbour, between steep walls of rock. On landing, +they are met by a dog, which they follow to a town or fort, but see no +inhabitants. They go into a great hall set with couches and seats, and +find water prepared for washing the feet. The walls are hung with +vessels of divers kinds of metal, and bridles, and horns mounted with +silver. Brendan warns the brethren against theft, especially the three +who had come last. They find a table laid, and spread with very white +bread and fish. They eat and lie down to sleep. In the night Brendan +sees a fiend in the shape of an Ethiopian child tempting one of the +three last comers with a silver bridle. In the morning they find the +table again spread, and so remain for three days and nights. Then they +prepare to leave, and Brendan denounces one of the brethren as a thief. +On this the guilty brother draws the silver bridle out of his breast, +and cries out, 'Father, I have sinned: forgive it, and pray for my soul +that it perish not.' The devil is cast out, but the brother dies and is +buried on the island. As they are on the point of embarking, a lad +brings them a basket of bread and a vessel (_amphora_) of water, which +he gives to them with a blessing. + +They start again upon the ocean, and are carried hither and thither, +eating once every two days. At last, on Maundy Thursday, they reach +another island, where are many abundant springs full of fish, and flocks +of white sheep as large as cattle, sometimes so thick as to conceal the +earth. There they remain until the morning of the Eve of Easter, when +they take, and apparently kill and dress, one sheep and one lamb without +blemish. The reference is evidently to an identity of custom with that +which still prevails in all the southern countries of Europe, of +preparing the flesh of a lamb on Holy Saturday, in honour of the Paschal +Lamb, which flesh is blessed on the Saturday, and used to break the fast +of Lent on the next day.[3] When all is ready there comes to them a man +with a basket of bread baken on the coals--evidently meaning Passover +bread. This man now becomes a regular although occasional feature in the +narrative, and is called their provider (_procurator_). He foretells +their journey for some time, and how they will be until a week after +Pentecost in a place which is called the _Eden of Birds_. + +[Footnote 3: In Italy at least, in order as far as possible to combine +the strict fast of the Saturday with a fulfilment of the words of Ex. +xii. 8, 'And they shall eat the flesh in that night.' It is usual to +have an image of a lamb in sugar or other confectionary, which is also +blessed during the day, and eaten at supper.] + +Thus furnished, they go to an island close by, which he has pointed out +to them as the place where they are to remain until the following noon. +This island is destitute of grass, and with but scanty vegetation, and +there is no sand upon its shores. All goes well until the next day, when +they light a fire to boil the pot, whereupon the island becomes restive, +and finally sinks into the sea, although they all manage to escape into +the ship. '"Brethren," saith Brendan, "ye wonder at that which this +island hath done." "Father," say they, "we wonder sorely, and great +dread hath taken hold upon us." He said unto them, "Little children, be +not afraid, for God hath this night shown unto me the secret of this +thing. Where we have been was not an island but the first fish of all +that swim in the ocean, and he seeketh ever to bring his tail unto his +mouth, but he cannot, because of his length. Jasconius is his name."' + +This is the only incident in the whole romance which is actually +grotesque. But from the solemnity with which it is narrated, it is +evident that it did not appear to be grotesque to the author. It seems +to have taken the fancy of the early and mediaeval public, and even of +the iconographic public in a special degree. The word _whale_ has +commonly been applied to the beast, and as the same episode occurs in +the story of _Sinbad the Sailor_, Jubinal has set himself to speculate +how that story, or the _Arabian Nights_ in which it is incorporated, +came to be known in Ireland. I confess I do not agree with him. In the +first place, the notion is not particularly recondite, and it has at +least this possible foundation in fact, that, as I have been told by +sailors, the back of a whale of advanced years, when asleep at the +surface, may be and has been mistaken from some distance, greatly owing +to the accretions upon it, for the top of a reef. Again, a somewhat +similar notion occurs in Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_, which was much +more likely to be known to the Irish fabulist. Lastly, I must observe +that all this is gloss. The word _whale_ (cete) is never applied to the +animal but always _fish_ (piscis) or _monster_ (bellua) or _beast_ +(bestie), and the whole thing, with the notion of its vast size, and the +attempt to join the tail to the mouth, which brings it into connection +with the emblem of eternity, which is due, I believe, to the +Phoenicians, but which we ourselves so often use upon coffins and +grave-stones, seems to bring it into connection rather with the idea of +the Midgard-Worm, the great under-lying world-serpent which figures so +largely in the mythic cosmogony of the Scandinavians. I suggest that +this is the notion, of which the romancer may have heard from +Scandinavian sources; and there is even a kind of indication that it was +associated in his mind with the idea of paganism, as Brendan is made to +speak elsewhere of God having made the most terrible (_immanissimam_) of +beasts subject unto them. + +On leaving the spot where the monster had sunk, they first returned to +the provider's isle, from the top of which they perceived another near +at hand, covered with grass and woods and full of flowers, and thither +they went. + +On the south shore of this island they found a river a little broader +than the ship, and up this they towed her for a mile, when they came to +the fountain-head of the stream. It was a wondrous fountain, and above +it there was a tree marvellously beautiful, spreading rather than high, +but all covered with white birds, so covered that they hid its foliage +and branches. (The notion is perhaps taken from a tree loaded with +snow.) 'And when the man of God saw it, he began to think in himself +what or wherefore it should be, that such a multitude of birds should be +gathered together in one place. And the thing distressed him so, that he +wept, and fell down upon his knees, and besought the Lord, saying, "O +God, Who knowest the things which are unknown, and makest manifest the +things which are hidden, Thou knowest how that mine heart is straitened; +therefore I beseech Thee that it may please Thee to make manifest unto +me, Thy sinful servant, this mystery which now I do see with mine eyes. +And this I ask not for an desert of my worthiness, but in respect of Thy +mercy." When he had so spoken, behold, one of the birds flew from the +tree. From the ship, where the man of God was sitting, his wings sounded +as with the sound of little bells. He perched upon the top of the prow, +and began to spread his wings for joy, and looked kindly upon the holy +father Brendan. Then the man of God, when he understood that the Lord +had had regard unto his prayer, saith unto the bird, "If thou be the +messenger of God, tell me whence be these birds, and wherefore they be +gathered here." And it said, "We are of that great ruin of the old +enemy; but we have not fallen by sinning or consenting; but we have been +predestinated by the goodness and mercy of God, for wherein we were +created, hath our ruin come to pass, through his fall and the fall of +his crew. But God the Almighty, Who is righteous and true, hath by His +judgment sent us into this place. Pains we suffer not. The presence of +God in a sense we cannot see, so far has He separated us from the +company of them that stood firm. We wander through the divers parts of +this world, of the sky, and of the firmament, and of the earths, even as +other spirits who are sent forth [to minister]. But upon the holy days +of the Lord, we take bodies such as Thou seest, and by the ordinance of +God we dwell here, and praise our Maker. As for thee, thou and thy +brethren are a year upon the way, and yet there await you six. And where +this day thou hast kept the Passover, there shall ye keep it every year, +and afterwards shall thou find that which thou hast set in thine heart, +even the land promised unto the Saints." And when the bird had so +spoken, it rose from the prow, and returned unto the others. And when +the hour of evening came, they all began to flap their wings, and to +sing as it were with one voice, saying, "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, +in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem, through +our ministry." And they repeated that verse even for the space of an +hour, and the song and the sound of their wings was like harmony (carmen +cantus) for sweetness. Then holy Brendan saith unto his brethren, +"Refresh your bodies, since this day the Lord hath satisfied your souls +by His Divine rising again." And when supper was ended, and the work of +God done, the man of God and they that were with him gave their bodies +unto rest until the third watch of the night. And the man of God woke +and roused the brethren for the watches of the night, and he began +holily to sing that verse, "O Lord, open Thou my lips." And when the +word of the man of God was finished, all the birds sang out with wings +and voices, saying, "Praise ye the Lord, all His Angels, praise ye Him +all His hosts." Likewise at even for the space of an hour, they sang +ever, and when the dawn glowed they began to sing, "And let the beauty +of the Lord our God be upon us," with the same harmony and length of +singing as in the Morning Praises: likewise, at the third hour that +verse, "Sing praises to our God, sing praises, sing praises unto our +King, sing ye praises with understanding:" at the sixth hour, "May the +Lord cause His face to shine upon us, and be merciful unto us:" and at +the ninth hour they sang, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity." So by day and by night these birds +gave praise to God.' + +I have read this passage at length, not only because of its intrinsic +merit, but also because of its evident meaning. It is obvious that it is +meant to propound doctrines similar to those which a distinguished +writer has recently discussed under the title, _Happiness in Hell_. It +is remarkable that the Codex Salmanticensis omits the whole passage in +this sense. Possibly it did not suit the views of the transcriber. + +In a week the provider came to them bringing more food and drink, but +warned them not to drink of the fountain, as its waters were stupefying. +He returned again at Pentecost, bringing more, but bade them now +provision the ship with water, and with dried bread. A week later they +started. When they were on the shore, one of the birds came and perched +upon the prow and said, 'Ye have kept the holy day of the Passover with +us this year. Ye shall also keep the same day with us in the year to +come. And where ye have been in the last year at the Supper of the Lord, +there shall ye be upon the said day in the year to come. Likewise shall +ye keep the Lord's night, the Passover Supper, where ye have kept it +before, that is, upon the back of the monster Jasconius. And after eight +months ye shall find the isle which is called Ailbey. There shall ye +keep the birth of Christ.' And so he flew back, and as the boat sailed +away, all the birds sang, 'Answer us, O God of our salvation, Who art +the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar +off upon the sea.' + +They were wandering upon the sea for three months, and afterwards came +to the isle Ailbey, where they stayed until the middle of January. There +is here described a monastery with twenty-four monks, who were fed on +miraculously provided bread, and, except the Abbat, never spoke. There +is rather a curious description of the church, which was square, with +stalls round the walls. It had three altars, all of crystal, as were +all the altar vessels, and seven lamps which were lit every evening by a +fiery arrow which came in and went out at a window. + +They left Ailbey, and were carried about on the sea until the beginning +of Lent. They then came to an island where there was abundant +vegetation, roots, and streams full of fish, but some of the brethren +became insensible from one, two, or three days, from drinking the water. +I own that this and the remark about the water in the Eden of Birds +seems to me to be very likely plagiarised from the wine-river in +Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_. Hence they went north for three days, were +beating about for about twenty, and then eastward for three more, and +then came back for Maundy Thursday to the isle of the provider, who +again met them. All went on as before, and a week after Pentecost they +started again from the Eden of the Birds. + +It will thus be observed that the real times of voyaging in each year +are limited to the months of February and March, and from about the +early part of June to the middle of December. + +Forty days after starting in this new year they were much alarmed by a +vast fish which seemed to be coming after them to devour them, but it +was killed by another monster, breathing fire, which appeared against it +from the East, and tore it into three pieces. + +The next day they came to a large and grassy island, where they found +the tail portion of the monster fish. On this island they beached the +ship, pitched the tent, and stayed three months, during which the sea +was too stormy for travel. They lived for the three months on part of +the monster, the rest of which was devoured by beasts, but another +portion of a fish was afterwards washed up, and they made a salt +provision of it--though as to Brendan himself, it is remarked that he +was a consistent vegetarian, having never, since his ordination, eaten +anything wherein had been the breath of life. Three days after this, the +sea being stiller, they set out again towards the North. + +One day they saw an island in the distance, and Brendan told them that +there were three companies, of children, of young men, and of elders, +and that one of the three brethren last come was there to make his +earthly pilgrimage. They came to shore. The island was so flat that it +seemed level with the sea. It had no trees nor anything that wind can +shake. It was vast, and was covered with something which the Latin text +calls _scaltae_--a word which I have failed to find in Ducange or in any +other authority which I have been able to consult. It is, however, +evidently, from the context, some kind of ground fruit, and may perhaps +be the strawberry or the Blaeberry--although the Latin for these seems +to be generally _fragum_ and _bacca myrtilii_. This fruit was white or +_purpureus_--wherein another difficulty arises as to the meaning of +_purpureus_. The individual berries were as big as large balls, and +tasted like honey. In this island were the three companies, who seemed +to be moving and standing in a kind of sacred dance, two moving round +while the one which had taken the farthest place stood still and sang, +'The Saints shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods will +appear in Zion.' It is vexatious that here the question of colour again +arises, as something very picturesque is evidently intended to be +described. The company of children were clad in pure and glistering +white, but the Latin, which is verbally followed by the French, gives +the colour of the young men's garments as hyacinthine, and that of the +elders' as purple. I have consulted all the authorities upon the +question that I can. The result is that it is disputed whether +hyacinthine means red or blue or both, and whether the Latin purple was +red or plum-coloured. I hazard the conjecture that there is here an +attempt to symbolize innocence, vigour, and ripeness, and that as the +first colour is certainly white, the others may be red and what we call +purple. + +The voyagers landed at the fourth hour (10 A.M.) and the dance went on +until noon, when the three companies sang together the lxvii., the lxx., +and the cxvi. Psalms, adding again, 'the God of gods will appear in +Zion.' At 3 P.M. they sang likewise Psalms cxxx., cxxxiii., and what is +called in the Septuagint the cxlvii., viz., the last nine verses of that +so called in the A.V. At even they sang the lxv., the civ., the cxiii., +and then the whole 15 songs of degrees, during which they sat. When this +was done, a bright cloud overshadowed the island, a cloud so bright that +it blinded the sight of the voyagers, but they could still hear the +sacred song going on without ceasing until midnight (_vigilie matutinae_) +when they heard sung Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., and cl., and then what are +called '12 Psalms according to the Psalter, up to "The fool hath said in +his heart,"'--an apparent reference to the present Roman Breviary +arrangement by which the xth is united (as in the Septuagint) with the +ixth, and the vth transferred out of its order. As day broke, the cloud +passed away from over the island and the companies sang Psalms li., xc., +and lxiii., and at 9 A.M. xlvii., liv., and cxvi. From what this +peculiar arrangement of the Psalms is taken, I do not know. It is not +that of the Monastic Breviary, nor of the Roman, nor of the Greek +Church, nor is it that of the Mozarabic, at least at present, but from +its excessive irregularity, in which it resembles the Mozarabic, I guess +that it may belong to some Ephesine rite, as introduced by Patrick into +Ireland, and that it is here set down at length because it was becoming +obsolete in the days of the writer. Then they went to Communion. After +this, two of the company of young men brought a basket full of the +purple fruit, and put it into the ship, saying, 'Take ye of the fruit of +the strong men's isle, and give us our brother and depart in peace.' +Then Brendan called the brother to him and said, 'Kiss thy brethren, and +go with them that call thee. I tell thee, brother, that in a good hour +did thy mother conceive thee, who hast earned to dwell with such a +congregation.' So they bade him farewell with tears, and when he came to +the companies, they sang, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity,' and then the _Te Deum_, and the +voyagers set out again upon their way. + +The voyage now continues with two or three comparatively trivial +adventures. For twelve days they lived upon the juice of the scaltae, +after which they fasted for three days. Then a bird brought them a +branch of an unknown tree, bearing a bunch of bright red grapes, whereon +they lived for four days, and then fasted for three more. On the last of +these they sighted the island where grew the grapes. It was thickly +wooded, with trees bending under the weight of the fruit, filled with +all manner of good vegetation, and exhaling an odour like that of an +house full of pomegranates (_mala punica_). Here they landed, pitched +the tent, and stayed for forty days. + +After they left this island they were much alarmed by the sight of a +griffin flying towards them, but it was killed by another bird which +fought it in the air, and its body fell into the sea. They reached the +isle Ailbey in safety, and there passed the midwinter as usual. + +The following years are passed over with merely the general statement +that they went about much in the ocean, and passed the usual seasons in +the usual places. It is mentioned that one midsummer the sea was so +clear for about a week that they could see the marine animals lying at +the bottom; and when Brendan sang, these came up and swam round the +ship. + +It must be, as far as the chronology of the romance can be said to be +fixed, intended to be represented as in the February of the seventh +year, that the narrative again becomes continuous. They saw one day a +pillar standing in the sea, which appeared to be near them, but which +they did not reach for three days. Its top seemed to pierce the clouds. +At the distance of about a mile it was surrounded on every hand by a +sort of network, of a material like silver, but harder than marble. They +drew in the oars and mast, and passed through one of the interstices. +The sea within was as clear as glass, so that they could see the bottom, +with the lower part of the pillar and the network resting upon it. The +pillar was of absolutely clear crystal, so that the light and heat of +the sun passed through it. It was forty cubits broad on every side. On +the south side they found a chalice of the material of the network and a +paten of the material of the pillar. After passing again out of the +network, they sailed for eight days towards the North, and here begins +what may be called the diabolical portion of the story. + +They saw one day a wild and rocky island, without grass or tree, but +full of smiths' forges. The wind bore them past it at about a stone's +throw, and they could hear bellows roaring with a sound like thunder, +and hammers striking upon anvils. Presently they saw one of the +inhabitants come out of a cave. He was shaggy and hideous, burnt and +dark. When he saw the ship, he ran back howling into his workshop. +Brendan immediately bid hoist the sail and have out the oars. While this +was doing the creature appeared again with a glowing mass of fused +metal (_massam igneam de scoria_) in pincers, which he hurled at them. +Where it struck the water about a furlong from them, it made the sea +boil and hiss. They had only escaped about a mile when they saw beings +swarming out upon the shore, throwing about molten masses, some after +them and some at one another, and then all went back into the forges and +set them blazing, until the whole island seemed one mass of fire. The +sea boiled like a boiling cauldron, and all day long the travellers +heard an awful wailing. Even when they were out of sight of the island, +the howls still rang in their ears, and the stench made their nostrils +smart. 'And Brendan said, "O ye soldiers of Christ, make you strong in +faith not feigned, and in the armour of the spirit, for we are upon the +coasts of hell. Watch, therefore, and play the man."' + +The next day but one, they found the wind bearing them down upon +another mountain in the sea, black as coal, reaching steep down to the +sea, and whose top they could hardly see, but yet wrapt in soft mists. +When they came near it, the sole remaining of the three last come +brethren jumped out of the ship and waded to shore. Suddenly he showed +signs of terror, and cried out that he was being carried away and could +not return. The brethren in horror pushed the ship away from land, and +started towards the South. When they looked back they saw flames +shooting up from the top of the mountain, and then sinking in again, and +again surging up. It is a phenomenon familiar to any one who has watched +the top of a volcano--often even of iron-works--and which has been +splendidly described in the account of the burning essence of life in +_She_. From this sight they fled and journeyed for seven days toward the +South. + +We now reach an incident founded upon that fact from the contemplation +of which the human mind perhaps shrinks more than from any other. But +the literary treatment of it is so curious and striking, and is rendered +all the more so, at least to me, because I am aware of only one other +attempt to grapple with it in the whole cycle of human invention, and +that in the very highest sphere of imaginative literature, that I think +that you will forgive me if I deal with it, and give at any-rate a part +of it in full. 'And after these things,' says the novelist, 'the Father +Brendan saw as it were a very thick mist, and when they drew nigh +thereto, there appeared unto them a little shape as it had been the +shape of a man sitting upon a stone, and before him a veil of the size +of a bag hanging between two forks of iron, and thus the waves beat him +about as it were a boat when it is in peril in a tempest. And when the +brethren saw it, some of them thought that it had been a bird, and +others thought that it had been a ship. Then the man of God answered +them, "Brethren, let be this strife, and turn the ship unto the place." +And when the man of God drew nigh thereto, the waves round about stood +still as though they had been frozen. And they found sitting upon a +stone a man shaggy and mis-shapen, and from every side when the waves +came upon him, they smote him up to the crown of his head; and when +again they fell away from him then was seen the stone whereon the +unhappy one sat. And the wind moved about from time to time the cloth +that was before him, and it smote him upon the eyes and upon the +forehead. And when the blessed one asked him who he was, and for what +fault he was set there, and how he had merited such punishment, he said, +"I am that most unhappy Judas, the worst of bargainers. Neither for any +desert of mine do I have this place, but through the pardon and pity of +the Redeemer of the world, and in honour of His holy resurrection, have +I this rest" (now, it was the Lord's Day), "and when I sit here it +seemeth to me as though I were in the Garden of Eden, by reason of the +torments which I shall have this even, for when I am in torment I am +like a bit of lead molten in a crucible day and night. In the midst of +the mountain which ye have seen, there is Leviathan with his crew, and I +was there when it swallowed up your brother, and therefore hell was +glad, and sent forth great flames, and thus doth it ever when it +devoureth the souls of the wicked. But that ye may know the measureless +goodness of God, I will tell you of my rest. I have here my rest every +Lord's Day from evening to evening--,"' and then follow some words as to +other days which are evidently corrupted both in Jubinal's text and in +that of the Salamanca MS. Then it continues, '"But the other days I am +tormented with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and therefore +I beseech you for the sake of the Redeemer of the world, that ye be +pleased to plead for me with the Lord Jesus that it be granted me to be +here until to-morrow at the rising of the sun, that at your coming the +devils may not torment me nor carry me away unto that evil heritage +which I have bought unto myself."' This is done. There is some talk, +from which it appears that the cloth is one which Judas once gave to a +leper, the forks some which he had given to Priests whereon to hang +pots, and the stone whereon he sits, one with which he had once filled +up an hole in a public highway. The whole episode closes thus:--'At the +breaking of the day, when the man of God began to take his journey, +behold, an infinite multitude of devils covered the face of the deep, +speaking with dreadful voices and saying, "O man of God, cursed be thy +coming in and thy going out, for our prince hath scourged us this night +with grievous stripes, because we brought him not that accursed +prisoner." And the man of God saith unto them, "Let that curse be not +upon us but upon you, for blessed is he whom ye curse, and cursed is he +whom ye bless." The devils said, "That unhappy Judas shall suffer double +pains these six days, because ye have shielded him this night." The +saint saith unto them, "Ye have no power, neither your princes, for +power is of God." And he said, "In the name of the Lord, I command you +and your prince that ye put him to no greater torments than ye have been +wont." They answered him, "Art thou the Lord of all, that we should obey +thy words?" The man of God saith unto them, "I am the servant of the +Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His Name, it is done; and I +have no ministry save of them whom he giveth me." And so they followed +him, continually blaspheming, until he was borne away from Judas; and +the devils went back and lifted up that most unhappy soul among them, +with a great rushing and shouting.' + +This subject is one that ought not to be treated at all. It ought to be +left veiled in the unknown, as it has been left for us by the Infinite +Mercy from Whose revelation we know all that we know about it. As a +matter of fact, I am only aware, as I have stated, of one other writer +besides this Irish romancer, who has treated it. That writer is Dante. +At the lowest depth of his Inferno sits Satan munching Brutus, Cassius, +and Judas in his threefold mouth. Brutus and Cassius have their heads +and upper parts hanging outside the mouth. + + 'Quell' anima lassu, c' ha maggior pena,' + Disse 'l Maestro, 'e Giuda Scariotto, + Che 'l capo ha dentro, e fuor le gambe mena.' + +The traditional epithet which the world has justly attached to the name +of Dante Alighieri is 'the Sublime'. I am almost afraid to say it, but +we all know how proverbially short is the distance between the sublime +and the ridiculous. And I venture to submit to the private personal +thought of each of you whether it be not merely the horror of the +subject and of the conception, and the almost stupefying grandeur of the +poetry, which separates this idea from the grotesque; and whether, if +the thing be to be touched at all, the old Irish fabulist has not +produced a conception both more tender and more truly tragic. + +They then go for three days southward and find a small precipitous rocky +island, quite round, and about one furlong in circumference. Here they +find a narrow landing-place, and dwelling on the summit an hermit aged +one hundred and forty years, of which he had passed ninety in the +island. He had no clothes except his own hair, which was long and white. +He was an Irishman named Paul, and had known Patrick. For thirty years +he had lived on fish brought him by a beast, presumably an otter, in its +fore-paws, along with fuel wherewith to cook it, and which he kindled by +striking a flint, and for sixty years upon the water of a spring. He +gave them of the water of the spring, and bade them go their way, +telling them that in forty days they would keep the Passover as usual, +and so also Pentecost, and thereafter would they find 'the land holier +than all lands.' + +They remained therefore on the open sea during all Lent, living only on +the water of the hermit's spring, and passed Easter and Pentecost in the +usual places. But this was the last time. Their provider came to them +and said, 'Get ye up into the ship and fill your bottles with the water +of this fountain. I also now will be the companion and leader of your +journey, for without me ye cannot find the land which ye seek, even the +land which is promised unto the Saints.' As they embarked, all the white +birds sang in chorus, 'The God of our salvation make your way +prosperous' (Ps. lxvii. 20, Vulg.). They went to their provider's island +and there took in provision for other forty days and set forth. And now +comes the discovery of the Land of Promise, which I had better read in +full:-- + +'And when forty days were past, and the evening was drawing on, a great +darkness covered them, so that scarcely could one see another. Then the +provider saith to holy Brendan, "Father, knowest thou what is this +darkness?" The Saint saith, "Brethren, I know not." Then saith the +other, "This darkness is round about that island which ye have sought +for seven years. Behold, ye see it; enter ye into it." And after the +space of an hour, a great light shone round about them, and the ship +stood upon the shore. When they went out of the ship, they saw a land, +broad, and full of fruit-bearing trees, as in the time of autumn. They +went round about that land as long as they were in it. They had no night +there, but the light shone as the sun shineth in his season. And so for +forty days they went about through that land, but they could not find +the end thereof. But upon a certain day they found a great river which +they could not pass, running through the midst of the island. Then saith +the holy man unto the brethren, "We cannot pass over this river, and we +know not how large is this land." While they thought upon these things, +behold, there came to meet them a young man with glorious countenance +and comely to look upon, who kisseth them with great joy, and calleth +them every one by his own name, and saith, "O brethren, peace be unto +you, and unto all who have followed after the peace of Christ," and +after this he said, moreover, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thine +house, O Lord: they will be still praising Thee." After these words, he +saith unto holy Brendan, "Behold the land which ye have sought of a long +time. But for this cause have ye not been able to find it since ye began +to seek it, because the Lord Christ hath willed to show unto thee divers +of His hidden things in this great and wide sea. Return thou therefore +unto the land of thy birth, and take with thee of these fruits, and of +precious stones as much as thy ship may hold. For the days of thy +pilgrimage are drawing near at hand, that thou mayest sleep with thine +holy brethren. But after many times this land shall be made known unto +them that shall come after thee, when it shall be helpful in the +tribulation of the Christians. The river which ye see divideth this +island, and even as now it appeareth unto you ripe in fruits, so is it +at every time without shadow or foulness. For the light shineth in it +without failing." Then holy Brendan saith unto the young man, "Lord +father, tell me if this land shall be ever revealed unto men." And he +saith, "When the Almighty Creator shall have made all nations subject +unto Him, then shall this land be made known unto all His elect." And +after these things, Father Brendan took a blessing from the young man, +and began to return by his way whereby he had come, taking of the fruits +of that land and of sorts of precious stones; and when he had sent away +the man that provided for them, who had prepared meat for him and for +the brethren season by season, he went up into the ship with the +brethren, through the darkness, whence he had begun to sail. And when +they had passed through it, they came unto the Isle Delight some, and +when he had been entertained there for the space of three days, he took +a blessing from the father of the monastery, and then under God's +leading came straight to his own monastery.' + +It remains to make some remark upon the character and possible sources +of this curious composition. + +In connection with fabulous voyages, it is natural to think not only of +Lucian's _Traveller's True Tale_, but also of _Gulliver's Travels_, but +these are skits, satirizing with wild wit certain features of life which +lay before the authors. The gravity of Brendan's _Voyage_ renders it +impossible to place it in any such category. It can hardly be said to +contain any grotesque adventure except that of the monster's back, and +from the way in which this is told, it is evident that it did not appear +grotesque to the narrator; and the religious tone of the whole thing +forbids any such explanation. + +On the other hand, I cannot perceive any hidden meaning in it which +would assign it to the same class of allegorical romance of which +Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ is the most famous example. + +It is impossible that it could ever have been intended to be believed. +Some of the incidents are so obviously fabulous--for instance, that of +Judas,--that such an hypothesis would be simply to condemn the author as +a profane forger, and his tone is much too pious for that; besides +which, there would have been no possible motive; and again, although +this romance stands alone or nearly alone in the popularity which it has +attained outside its own country, as Professor O'Curry remarks, it does +not stand by any means alone within the native literature of that +country, albeit its literary merit may place it above all or nearly all +the old Irish compositions of its class. It is, however, an +extraordinary fact that it has actually been sometimes taken for sober +truth. This has not been, I think, so much the case in Ireland. There +are, it is true, one or two incidents in the Life which may be remotely +identified at bottom with incidents in the Voyage, there is even +mention of the Land of Promise, but I am more inclined to regard these +as, more or less, distorted legendary statements about Brendan's real +career, afterwards seized upon, magnified, and worked in by the +romancer, than as incidents of the romancer appropriated and +nationalized into comparative possibility by the biographer. Thus the +Land of Promise may have been a fond title for the imaginary site of a +monastery for which he was seeking in the Western Isles. But even in +Ireland the son of Finnlogh O' Alta seemingly obtained a character for +certain adventures which must have been taken from the fable, and the +Martyrology of Donegal gravely refers to the Voyage as well as to the +Life as an authority upon the subject, although I confess I can hardly +believe that Cuimin of Condeire was not jesting when he wrote the +verse-- + + 'Brenainn loves constant piety, + According to the synod and congregation; + Seven years on a whale's back he spent; + It was a difficult mode of piety.' + +It was, however, outside Ireland, in countries where less was known of +the facts, and the Voyage was isolated from other works of its class, +that this romance was most largely accepted as serious matter of fact. +The possession of St. Brendan's Isle whenever it should be discovered +was, according to M. Jubinal, actually made the subject of State +documents, and he names no less than four maritime expeditions which +were despatched in search of it, the last from Santa Cruz in Tenerife in +1721, at the instance of Don Juan de Mur, Governor of the Canaries, and +under the command of Caspar Dominguez. I must, however, avow that I have +great difficulty in believing that such an expedition as this could have +been motived by any other hypothesis than that the romance was the +legendary record of some really existing island in the Atlantic. + +The mention of such a belief brings me to the consideration of another +and very different form of what I may call the naturalistic school of +interpretation. This theory throws overboard the whole of the elements +of the class commonly called supernatural, and even treats the identity +of the voyagers as a matter of comparative indifference, but it sees in +the wild narrative a distorted and legendary account of some actual +voyage and some actual adventures and discoveries in the Atlantic. By +some the Canary Archipelago, with perhaps Madeira, the Cape de Verde +Islands, and some parts of the African coast, if not even the Azores, +have been supposed to be the original scene of the wanderings of some +early navigators, even if not of Brendan, and the Burning Island with +its savage inhabitants, and the infernal volcano would of course be +interpreted of the great volcano of Tenerife. But a more interesting +interpretation is that which sees in the voyage of Brendan a distorted +account of some ancient voyage by the Western Islands, the Orkneys and +Shetlands, the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and finally to the coast of +America. I need not remind you that the earliest voyages to America of +which we have historical accounts are those of the Norsemen, who, as +early as the year 1001, proceeded so far South as to come into a land +where the vine was growing wild, and which they consequently named +Vineland. It matters comparatively little to the naturalistic +interpretation of this romance whether it be based upon mutilated and +gossiping accounts of the voyages of the Norsemen, or upon some still +earlier adventures of which all truly historical record has perished. +The shores of America here become the Land of Promise, the clouds which +veil it are the fogs of the coasts of Newfoundland or Labrador, the +great and impassable river which divides it, perhaps the St. Lawrence: +the crystal column is an iceberg: the rough and rocky island, and the +black, cloud-piercing volcano, which burnt in the midst of the Northern +Ocean, are Iceland and its volcanoes; the Eden of white birds in some +region, perhaps the Faroes, where sea-fowl congregate in vast flocks: +and the minor isles are to be more or less identified with some of those +of the several archipelagos, many of which, in the time of the romancer, +if not in that of Brendan, possessed halls, monasteries, and hermits. It +may be urged as one of the main objections to this theory that it is +almost outside the bounds of possibility that a corach could make such a +voyage, but it is perhaps only fair to remark that in the Life, although +not in the Voyage, it is stated that after the first five years of the +wanderings Brendan returned to Ireland, where, among other things, he +went to see Ita, and the narrative then continues: 'She received him +with joy and honour, and said, "O my beloved, wherefore hast thou tried +without my counsel? Thou wilt not gain the Land of Promise borne in the +hides of dead beasts. Thou wilt find it with a ship made of boards." So +he went into Connaught, and embarked with 60 disciples in a ship +skilfully made of boards, and toiled in voyaging for two years; and at +length came to the island where he would be.' This island, however, is +only one with an old man dressed in feathers, who calls it 'an holy +land, polluted by no blood, open for the burial of no sinner, ... a land +like Eden,' but this seems to be the only Land of Promise which was +known to the biographer. + +While, however, I willingly make a present of this passage to the +naturalistic interpreters, I do not accept their interpretation. As I +have said, I look upon Brendan's wanderings in the Western Isles soon +after his ordination, in search of a place wherein to found a monastery, +as the only scrap of historical basis, at any rate as far as he was +concerned, which the romance possesses. The Life says that he reached +many islands, but instances only two, one of these being the so-called +Land of Promise as above, and the incidents are not of a very startling +character. No one on the other hand will deny that the Voyage narrates a +series of incidents of a very startling character indeed, and it seems +to me beyond possibility that some of them, such as the Judas episode, +can have even a legendary basis, or be anything but pure, unmitigated, +intentional, avowed, undisguised fiction, like the incidents of any +novel of the present day. It seems to me that there is in the romance +more resemblance to Lucian's _Traveller's True Tale_ than is likely to +be accidental, and the Land of Promise indeed occupies a position +somewhat similar to that held by the Islands of the Blest in that +remarkable skit. Again I think that the Burning Island with its forges, +and its monstrous inhabitants hurling rocks into the sea after the +voyagers, and the great black volcano piercing the clouds, is very +suggestive of Etna and the Cyclopes as described in the Odyssey. It must +be remembered that Greek scholarship was a good deal cultivated in +antient Ireland. My own impression is that the author, whoever he was, +was a very pious man, who had read Homer and Lucian, and to whom it +occurred that it would be a nice thing to write an imaginary voyage +which might unite similar elements of interest and excitement with the +inculcation of Christian, religious, and moral sentiments. For his own +purposes he plagiarized them a little, and I am very far from wishing to +contend that it is impossible that he may also have worked in some vague +accounts of the wonders of America, which had reached his ears from the +adventurous voyages of the Norsemen, if indeed his date were late +enough, possibly of even earlier navigators, now to us unknown. But as +an whole, I look upon the Fabulous Voyage as a composition which is +really only differentiated by the elements due to the time and place of +birth from religious novels such as those which enrich the pages of the +_Leisure Hour_ or the _Sunday at Home_. + +20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brendan's Fabulous Voyage +by John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRENDAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 17343.txt or 17343.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/4/17343/ + +Produced by Thaadd, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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