236 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the vines in Viulaud, the wooded and grassy shores, and tlie attack of the 

 dark-skinned natives, the " wonder strands," the sea full of maggots which 

 attack Bjarne's hide-boats, and the adventures with whales are the chief. The 

 Norse accounts were probably written about 1200, and are all preser\'ed in 

 manuscripts over a century earlier than the lamUng of Coliunlius in the 

 West Indies. 



4— ATLANTIS AND OTHEE LOST LANDS. 



Though it has not been demonstrated that Plato's descriptions of Atlantis 

 were known to the Irish, the probability is considerable.' Seneca's works 

 were actually in the Library of the great Hiberuo-Itahan school of Bobbio,^ 

 while St. Gall had another famous early library to which scholars (and perhaps 

 monastic redactors of the Brendan Saga) would most likely have resorted. This 

 is no place to go deeply into the question as to whether Plato actually heard' a 

 genuine legend of Egyptian priests from the time of Solon, and if so how an 

 alleged historic event of B.C. 9600 could have been handed down even to the 

 Egyptians of the early dynasties 5000 years later. The point which concerns 

 us is the unmistakable likeness of the mythical Atlantis to the islands seen by 

 Bran, Maelduin, and Brendan. As in " Bran," where the sea-god Mananann 

 is father of Mongan by an Irish princess, so, in Atlantis, his equivalent, 

 Poseidon, has ten sons by mortal mothers. Atlantis has a marvellous fort 

 with rings of three fosses and two walls of bronze, tin, and aurichalchon or 

 red copper ; so, in the legends of Maelduin and Hui Corra, is the ring-fort with 

 brazen rampart, palisade, and bridge over a wet fosse. Atlantis was walled 

 all round, so are the Irish legendary isles. In both we -hear of wonderful 

 temples and altars, founts of hot and cold water, well-planted groves and a 

 wonderful racecourse ; the parallel is close indeed, whatever degree of con- 

 nexion there may be between them. Atlantis is said to have lain outside the 

 straits of Gibraltar, to have been as large as Asia (Minor) and Lybia combined, 

 and, after overrunning all the Mediterranean shores to Tyrrhenia and Egypt, 

 its armies were checked by Athens ; eventually it sank in a day and a night 

 during an earthquake, and was entirely submerged by the sea, leaving 

 dangerous shoals.* The resemblances between Lucian's " True History " and 



^ Professor Zimmer. The results are questioned by Alfred Nutt (" Voyage of Bran," i, p. 128). 



- Judge Madden, "Early History of Classical Learning in Ireland," pp. 9, 10. 



' He may have invented it for purposes of discussion (if not of satire, like Swift). So late as 

 1755 a political tract was published in Ireland entitled " A Voyagu to Brazed, a stibmarine island 

 lying west off the coast of Ireland " (see " Ulster Miscellany.") 



■•Plato, "Timaeus," vi, and " Critias," iii, viii-xv. For scientific support of story, see 

 Dr. Robert Scbarff's jiaper, Proc. R. I. Acad., sxiv (B), p. 268. Also "The Lost Atlantis." 



