E19: Tales of Ireland II - St. Brendan and his Voyage Across the North Atlantic

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Shawn delivers part two of his Tales of Ireland series, focusing on the voyage of a certain monk who lived in the southwestern portion of the Emerald Isle: St. Brendan.  Brendan sets out across the North Atlantic in search of the Promised Land of the Saints and an Island of Earthly Delights. (He is a man of the cloth, so it is not what you are thinking.) On this seven-year adventure, he finds himself on top of a giant fish, sees the devil and the betrayer of Jesus, reaches the coasts of Hell, and, of course, encounters talking birds and giant sheep.  What is interesting, though, is that despite this journey supposedly taking place in the 6th century CE, centuries before the known lands of the North Atlantic were settled by the Norse, many of the descriptions of this overwhelmingly mythic voyage seem eerily familiar. Was Brendan real? If so, where did he go? What did he see? Sources Used: The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Navigator - Translated by Gerard McNamara lebor Gabala Erenn, translated by R.A.S. Macalister Holy Bible (King James Version) Church, M. J., Arge, S. V., Edwards, K. J., et al. “The Vikings Were Not the First Colonizers of the Faroe Islands.” Quaternary Science Reviews 77 (2013)   John Patrick Crichton-Stuart Bute, Brendan's Fabulous Voyage (1893).  The Book of Settlements, Translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards Follow on IG:  https://www.instagram.com/sagaswshawn/?next=%2F Follow on YT:  https://www.youtube.com/@SagasWithShawn