Brendans Fabulous Voyage | Page 4

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