Page 20 - ModernParadiseFLIPBOOKcomplete

20

Thus, when Roman voyagers were driven back by storms, they concluded that the

gods had driven them back to stop them seeing the world’s end, and that it was a
mistake to violate and disturb these seas. An Arab geographer called them the “seas
of perpetual gloom” and believed that this was where the tides originate, from water
falling into bottomless caves, the “primordial abyss”. Isidore of Seville wrote that the
earth was like a wheel and surrounded by impassable sea.

The sea was a place of evil, home of the Biblical sea-monster Leviathan. The anti-
Christ rode backwards on a sea-dragon. Viking ships had snakes’ heads on their

prows. The Book of Revelations said that once evil had been abolished, the seas
would be no more.

The Voyage of St Brendan should be seen as part of an ancient pre-Christian Irish
tradition of voyaging called immrama (“journey of the soul”). This involved hermits
going off in a boat in search of a far-off place in the other world. It is heroic rather
than escapist; the voyager seeks adventure, and to fulfil their destiny. They visit

fantastic islands, and may never return. Thus, Brendan’s Voyage is an allegory of such
a journey to the Gates of Heaven and of Hell. Brendan and his Christian companions
“embark with faith into the unknown” across the open Northern seas in the spirit of
the pre-Christian visionaries. They succeed in gaining a glimpse of both Paradise and
Hell. The earliest Christians who did this were not sailors, but anchorites, hermits in
Egypt whose journey took them into the desert. Brendan’s desert was the Irish sea.

Between two worlds

From this, we can conclude that what isolated the ancient Britons wasn’t being an
island, it was its remoteness on the edge of the world. However, there is a further
dimension to this, which would have profound significance for our history. Although
the offshore islanders were conscious of being on the edge, this didn’t necessarily
mean they were of marginal importance. The edge was a liminal place, between two
worlds. This gave it a special significance; important things could happen here.

Gradually, over the next few centuries after Brendan, as these Northern seas were
opened up to trade, they lost their magical significance and become mundane
trading highways. But Brendan’s Voyage preserves the memory of the ancient times
when the people of the northern edge of the world believed that it had unique
qualities. Did this mindset perhaps have the potential to fuel a belief that they were a
chosen people? We’ll pursue this theme in later sessions.

To sum up, even though the great inundation occurred during prehistoric times,
modern archaeological and geological methods can take us back to it. This matters,