W ESTRoPp— Br asil and the Legendary Islands of the N. Atlantic. 225 



Manannan mac Lir, the sea-god ; they were, when calm, the flowery meads 

 over which his chariot sped with flashing, bounding coursers.' Some, even in 

 our time, saw them as misty human forms— storm-spirits — before great 

 gales.2 



In the centre of all this weird mystery the pagan Irish placed their heaven, 

 the " Land of Youth," the " Land of the Living," with so firm a belief that, 

 even when they adopted a faith in whose paradise " there was no more sea," 

 they brought their belief along with them.' Devout Christian writers rendered 

 " Tir Tairngiri " as the " Land of Promise " and the " Kingdom of Heaven " in 

 notes on the Epistles to the Corinthians and the Hebrews ;* the blending was 

 complete and lasting ; " Magh Mell of many flowers " was the " Land of Truth," 

 the " Land of the Promise of the Blessed," " whose truth was sung without 

 falsehood." This, however, was equally the " Land of Fair Women," fitter 

 for Islam than for " the Faith " ; to this Isle, Connla, King Conn's son, 

 was lured by the woman of the fairy mound.^ It was the " Land of the Living," 

 to which the fairy bore Oisin " across the western wave " for three centuries ; 

 there Bran, son of Febal, and his comrades dwelt with the fair lady and her 

 daughters. On the other hand, the longing for a land where there should be 

 no sorrow, or age, death, or decay, the pathetic desire to escape the sadness of 

 life, led even the austere and pious to seek for a happy island : the penitent 

 Hui Corra went out " to meet the Lord upon the sea " ; and Brendan, the holy 

 and blameless, eagerly sought the " Land of Promise." Saint or sensualist, 

 joyous or troubled, yearned for the blessed island, as elusive as the mirage 

 itself. 



The island was not alone in the deep ; " thrice fifty islands " as large as, 

 or " twice and thiice " larger than, Erin, " were counted " ; many of these, we 

 shall see, figure in the Voyages of Brendan and elsewhere. The classics were 

 brought into unison with this belief, as the psalms had been ; and we hear of 

 " the Hesperides to the west of Aran, where the sun goes to his couch." The 

 kindred races in Britain doubtless contributed their quota : " Cingitur. oceano 

 memorabilis insula, nulhs desolata bonis; non fur, nee praedp, nee hostis 

 insideatur ; ibi, nee vis, nee bruma, nee aestas, immoderata furit . . . Ver 

 manet aeternum, nee flos nee lilia desunt, nee rosae, nee violae flores, et poma 



' See, e.g., " Voyage of iJran " (ed. Kuno Meyer, 1895), p. 10. 



^" Irish Local Legends," by Lageniensis (Rev. J. O'Hanlou), section xxx. 



^ Those who held that Eden lay eastward were met (both by those who held that the Earth was 

 splierical and those who held it was flat) by the argument that Asia reached around to opposite Europe, 

 so that the farthest east was near the west shores of Ireland. 



* Cited by the late A. Nutt (" Voyage of Bran," ii, p. 226) from seventh- and eighth-century mss. 



= A beautiful girl of the Aes Sidh took hiui in a currach (canoe) of glass over the sea — Lebor nii 

 hUidhre. 



[31*1 



