Brendan's Voyages

On my way back from the world of Brendan the Navigator I thought over what I had seen.

Brendan became famous all over Europe shortly after his death in 577. His popularity was due to the account of his voyages written in the 8^th or 9^th century entitled  ‘Navigatio Brendani’.  It has survived in 120 manuscripts and versions were written in German, Dutch, English, Italian, Occitan, Catalan and Norse. It inspired travellers and voyages including, they say, Christopher Columbus.  

As a result there was no limit to people and places claiming a connection.  

I felt closest to him when I visited that corner of south-west Ireland where his life began and ended.

Traces of him remain there because they are in stone  -- the well at Tobar na Molt, the paths  in  the enclosures where his self-sufficient people lived, their beehive-shaped houses and oratories. The world in which he was brought up may have lacked modern conveniences but was not as simple-minded as may be supposed.

In 1976 Tim Severin, the British explorer and historian, re-enacted Brendan’s famous seven year voyage to America in a real-life copy of Brendan's traditional currach-boat. It was handcrafted with traditional tools and made of Irish ash and oak. Tanned ox hides were lashed together with leather thongs and sealed with wool grease.

With a crew of three he set out from Brandon Creek, under Mount Brandon (Brendan’s Mountain) in Kerry, and 13 months later having travelled 4,500 miles, arrived at Canada on June 26, 1977. He proved that Brendan’s currach, though primitive, was effective.

Brendan’s early education was informal and traditional, under the tutelage of Ita of Killeedy and the local Bishop Erc. However it was sufficient for him to dream of exploring the limits of his world and creating centres of learning to expand the minds of others.      

Not long after his death, Cummian the Tall, one of his successors at Clonfert wrote on the controversy about the date of Easter that included commentaries from the Latin Bible by Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, Origen, Ambrosiaster and Gregory the Great as well as extracts from Canon Law, ecclesiastical history and synodal decrees from Nicea and Arles in their original. It breathe of scholarship still amazes European academics.

I had not expected any of this when I set out to follow the ‘Brendan Trail’ in south-west Kerry in May.

Photo:   Brendan’s departure point: Brendan Creek.