[ 223 ] 



VIII. 



BEASIL AND THE LEGEND AEY ISLANDS OF THE NORTH 

 ATLANTIC : THEIR HISTORY AND FABLE. A CONTRIBUTION 

 TO THE "ATLANTIS" PROBLEM. 



By THOMAS JOHNSON WESTROPP, M.A. 



Plates XX-XXII. 



Read June 10. Published August 12, 1912. 

 CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



1. The Irish Sea Beliefs, . . .223 



2. Early Imrama or Sea Tales, . . 226 



3. The Norse Sagas and Ireland, . . 233 



4. Atlantis and other Lost Lands, . . 236 



5. The Mythical Islands in Early Maps, 240 



PACE 



6. Columbus and the Mythic Islands, . 247 



7. The Mythic Islands of Ireland, . . 249 



8. Conclusions, 257 



9. Appendix : The Early Maps of 



Ireliind, 259 



The subject of the imaginary islands of the western ocean has again and 

 again been touched upon by Irish writers, but, up to the present, on purely 

 local lines. I certainly do not claim even comparative completeness for this 

 paper, but have striven to trace out the origins, whether in nature or in 

 human fancy, for these beliefs. A collection of the early references to Brasil 

 and St. Brendan's Isle is given which may be useful to students, even outside 

 our islands, and the bearing of such fancies on the discovery of America 

 must be of perennial interest. As such I offer this study to others. 



L— THE IRISH SEA-BELIEFS. 



The early inhabitants of Ireland, keenly intelligent, poetical, and with an 

 unusual appreciation for natural beauty, stood on the western coasts face to 

 face with phenomena of mystery and might. It is not wonderful that the 

 great strength roaring beneath their cliff-forts and on the sandhills of their 

 settlements deeply impressed them. Older races had bowed in awe before 

 tamer seas : the Egyptian had feared the " great green one " ; the Hebrew had 

 seen God's path in those great waters, and had heard their hymns of praise or 

 cries of deep anguish, when the trouble was on the sea, and it uttered its voice 

 and raised its hands on high ; the early Greeks had evolved from its waves 



R.I.A. PKOC, VOL. XXX., SECT. C. [31] 



