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The tale of St Brendan is one of the most enduring legends of the medieval Christian world. Originally composed in Latin around the ninth century, the Nauigatio Sancti Brendani abbatis (The Voyage of St Brendan the Abbot) tells of the Irish saint who, with a company of monks, sets sail into the Atlantic Ocean to seek the Promised Land of the Saints. Their extraordinary seven-year voyage brings them face to face with supernatural wonders, monstrous creatures, hellish torments, and glimpses of paradise.
During the reign of Henry I of England, the story was translated and adapted into Anglo-Norman French at the behest of Queen Adeliza of Louvain, making it one of the earliest recorded examples of medieval romance in the vernacular. The anonymous poet-known only as "Brother Benedeit"-shaped the hagiographic source into an adventure narrative for a courtly audience. The result is a text that retains its Christian message of faith, obedience, and salvation while embracing the marvellous, the strange, and the spectacular.
This volume presents a facing-page bilingual edition of the Anglo-Norman Voyage of St Brendan, accompanied by critical commentary and contextual discussion of its manuscript tradition, literary form, and theological significance. It draws upon and extends the scholarship of E.G.R. Waters, Glyn Burgess, Ian Short, Brian Merrilees, and Jonathan Wooding, situating the text within its historical, linguistic, and literary contexts.
As both legend and literature, the Voyage of St Brendan bridges the worlds of hagiography and romance. It reflects early medieval conceptions of the Atlantic as a liminal, supernatural space and offers insight into the shifting relationships between faith, exploration, and narrative in the twelfth century.
For students of medieval literature, theology, and history, this edition provides a rare opportunity to encounter the text in its original language alongside a clear English translation. For the general reader, it offers an enthralling window into a world of miraculous islands, angelic birds, demon smithies, sea monsters, and the distant light of Paradise.
