[kenney] the legend OF ST. BRENDAN 55 



little doubt, primarily such a "pilgrimage." Brendan's own sojourn 

 there was, according to one of the Lives, "on pilgrimage." ^ 



The voyages were made sometimes by single monks, sometimes 

 by small groups. The vessels used were either wooden merchant 

 ships, or, more often, those skin-covered coracles which are still 

 found on some parts of the Irish coasts. Occasionally voyages may 

 have been entered on in that fantastic spirit of religious fatalism of 

 which a curious instance is related by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as 

 late as 891: 



Three Irishmen came to King Alfred in a boat without any oars from Ireland; 

 whence they stole away, because they would live in a state of pilgrimage, for the 

 love of God, they recked not where. The boat in which they came was made of two 

 hides and a half; and they took with them provisions for seven nights; and within 

 seven nights they came to land in Cornwall, and soon after went to King Alfred. ^ 



So we find Brendan in the Legend ordering the monks to ship 

 oars and rudder and, leaving the sails unfurled, entrust themselves 

 and the ship to the will of God.^ Such a procedure was not unique, 

 but must have been quite exceptional. The usual course was to 

 travel in normal fashion to a destination already determined upon, 

 or, if a hermitage among the islands of the west and north was sought, 

 to make a carefully prepared exploring expedition in search of a 

 suitable locality. That already in Adamnan's day, and probably in 

 Columba's, such voyages were often of long duration and not always 

 successful must be inferred from passages in Adamnan's work in 

 which he tells of the experiences of one Baitan, who after long wander- 

 ing, abandoned the attempt to find a suitable desert island, and of 

 Cormac ua Liathain, who made three such fruitless voyages.^ 



Cormac was one of the three ecclesiastics who were with Columba 

 and Brendan in the island of Hinba. His story as told by Adamnan 

 has the appearance of a historical narrative just passing into legend, 

 and we may assume that the Legend of Cormac was one of the fore- 

 runners of the Legend of Brendan. On one of these voyages, in which 

 he spent several months, he visited the Orkneys and there owed his 

 life to the intervention of the local king, to whom he had been recom- 

 mended by Brude, king of the Picts, at the request of Columba. One 

 voyage was a failure because, according to Columba, he took with him 

 a monk who had left his monastery without the consent of the abbot. 

 Analogous features of the Brendan story will be noticed. On the third 

 attempt he sailed northward for fourteen days and was forced to turn 



1 Moran, op. cit., p. 13. 



^ Ingram's translation. 



' Jubinal's éd., p. 8. 



* Vila S. Columbae I, vi, xx; II xlii. 



