[KENNEY] THE LEGEND OF ST. BRENDAN" 53 



with lona, possibly Eileann na naoimh, or Saints' island, near Scarba.^ 

 If this positive evidence were lacking, the sojourn of Brendan in the 

 Scottish isles would be a reasonable inference from old Scottish 

 traditions and the several place-names and church dedications associ- 

 ated with him in the islands and on the mainland of Scotland.^ The 

 Lives of the saint — which are, however, of much later date than 

 Adamnan — give an account of this visit to Britain and state that he 

 founded churches in Heth and Ailech. Heth — in Latin, Ethica — is 

 the modern Tiree, and there is some slight reason to bdieve that 

 Ailech was identical with Eileann na naoimh and Hinba.' 



Mocu Alti, or Altai, the designation attached to Brendan's name 

 in Adamnan 's work and in the genealogies and other early Irish 

 records, is a tribal name indicating that he was one of the Altraige, a 

 division of the Ciarraige, the people from whom the modern county 

 of Kerry derives its appellation. The Altraige lived in the north- 

 west of Kerry, around Tralee."* This is the district to which the Lives 

 assign Brendan's origin, and the modern place-names Brandon Bay, 

 Brandon Point, Brandon Headland and Brandon Hill preserve the 

 association. 



The historical Brendan was, then, a sixth century churchman, 

 a native of that wild western Irish coast the inhabitants of which have 

 for untold generations looked out across the unbroken Atlantic. The 

 greater part of his life was, doubtless, spent there or in his monastery 

 of Clonfert up the neighbouring river Shannon. At some time during 

 the sojourn of Columba at lona, that is, within the period 563-597, 

 he visited the equally wild west coast of what is now Scotland, and 

 probably made a stay of considerable length among its many islands. 



It was natural that a large maritime element should enter into 

 the acta of such a saint. It was equally natural that whenever a 

 Christian, or Christianised, myth of the sea should arise in Ireland 

 it should attach itself to the name of Brendan.^ 



^ W. Reeves Life of St. Columba by Adamnan, in W. F. Skene's Historians of 

 Scotland, vol. VI (Edinburgh, 1874) app. I; Skene Celtic Scotland vol. II (2nd ed. 

 Edinburgh, 1887), pp. 128 et seq. 



2 Skene, op. cit. pp. 76-78; A. P. Forbes Kalendars of Scottish Saints (Edinburgh, 

 1872) p. 286; P. F. Moran Acta S. Brendani (Dublin, 1872), p. viii. 



» Skene, loc. cit. 



* E. Hogan Onomasticon Goedelicum (Dublin, 1910), s.v. "Altraige." 



' The fortuitous manner in which such myth material might find a personality 

 to which to attach itself is illustrated by the story of the "Voyage of Bran, son of 

 Febal," textually the oldest of these Irish "voyage" legends. Bran mac Febail is 

 a name unknown to historical records. Thurneysen has suggested with much 

 probability that it originated in a misinterpretation of the name of a promontory 

 on the coast of Donegal, Srub Brain, "Raven's Beak." Zeitschrift fur Celtische 

 Philologie, vol. X (1915), p. 424. 



