Navigation of St. Brendan

Lundy, Isle of Avalon Arthurian and related Texts

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The 'Navigation of St. Brendan' is one of the most proliferate of surviving mediaeval texts. It's hard to overestimate its popularity over the years. There are at least 116 surviving Latin manuscripts as well as versions in Middle English, German, French, Italian, Flemish, Norse and Provencal. Ostensibly the tale of the historical abbot, St. Brendan, it tells of his adventures with a crew of monks exploring the isle of promise in that mysterious Celtic Otherworld reached over western seas.

synopsis

Brendan set sail with fourteen companions and after touching at several islands, they finally landed on an island where they found two springs. They met an aged monk, who prostrated himself in front of Brendan, but would not utter a word. The travelers came to an abbey 'more beautiful than any below the throne of God'. They were fed well, though simply, in the refectory. The abbot told Brendan that his community held twenty-four monks, who had all lived their since the death of their founder, eighty years earlier. Brendan would have liked to stay, but the abbot told him to return to Ireland.

Eighty years is also the time spent by the followers of Bran on the island of Grassholm in 'Branwen - Daughter of Llyr.' A significant number?

Navigation of St. Brendan

Bran

The Mabinogion

The Grail Island

Lundy, Isle of Avalon

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