326 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



sub una fronde gerit pomus," says one bard, singing about Avalon' ; '■ deep- 

 meadowed, happy, fair, with orchard lawns " : — 

 "... that desired gate 

 To immortality and endless rest, 

 Within the landless waters of the West," 

 as the modern poets have rendered it. 



We must now study the effect of this deep-based belief on Irish literature 

 and, through it, on the belief of Western Europe, and, through that, to the vast 

 results in the spirit of discovery and colonization. Practical as the result was, 

 the poetical side was maintained among the Irish from the days when they 

 wrote of " the secrets of the hoary deep, the darlc illimitable ocean, without 

 bound, without dimension," to the tales of the fishermen and peasants of our 

 coasts and islands at the present day. 



2.— EARLY "IMEAMA" OR SEA-TALES. 



The early Gael loved sea-tales. How many of these were lost in the 

 wreck of Irish literature we may never know ; some may even yet be recovered, 

 but no less than five have reached us, so we can form a good idea of the Irish 

 belief about the outer sea. These are the voyages of Bran son of Febal ; of 

 Maelduin son of Ailill, " edge of battle " ; of the Ui Corra ; of Snedgus and 

 MacEiagla and of St. Brendan. The spirit of the five imravia is identical ; 

 some dominant passion sends the hero out to sea ; Bran to seek a fair lady ; 

 Maelduin to avenge his father ; Snedgus and his comrade to save a condemned 

 man from a fiery death ; the Ui Corra to seek the Lord on the sea ; and Brendan 

 to reach the Land of Promise. The incidents are closely alike : Bran and 

 Maelduin are pulled by a clue to their lovers ; the Miller of Hell and the isles 

 of laughter and weeping are visited by Maelduin and the Ui Corra. The 

 legends of Maelduin and Brendan have equally got the isle of singing birds, 

 the walled islands, the monsters, sea-cats, and pursuing whales,^ and the 

 visions of hell recur in several. The punishment of the robber after the 

 banquet is in the tales of Brendan and Maelduin, the woman drawing water 

 at the magic brazen fort=> is in those of Hui Corra and Maelduin. As we shall 

 see, Plato's description of Atlantis is closely similar, and may have become 



' An early versifier of Geoffrey of Monmoulh. Avalon (Insula pomorum) had no serpents, spiders, 

 or tempests. 



* This recalls the tales in Nieuhoff's voyages, and is well illustrated by the quaint pictures in the 

 map of Olaus Magnus (reproduced in Nordenskiold's Atlas). Arngrim Islandus in "The true stale 

 of Island " (Iceland), 1592, p. 531, tells us much about the "cetegrandiainstarmontium," Trolhvall, 

 Tiifflewall, and Diabolica Cete. The Trollhualar are also described in [be " Speculum Regale," a 

 work angrily refuted by Arngrim. 



'Compare the curious fort (cashel), palisade (sonnach), and bridge in "The Vision of Mac 

 Conglinne" (ed. Kuno Meyer, 1892, p. 36) — a contrast (yet pnrallel) recalling the contrasted ramparts 

 of Chateau Gaillani (of "iron " and " buttei " ) in the saying of Richard Cceur de Lion. 



