The Legend of St Brendan

A Comparative Study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman Versions
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-90-04-16662-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 39, 354 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

Reihe: The Northern World

The Legend of St Brendan is a study of two accounts of a voyage undertaken by Brendan, a sixth-century Irish saint. The immense popularity of the Latin version encouraged many vernacular translations, including a twelfth-century Anglo-Norman reworking of the narrative which excises much of the devotional material seen in the ninth-century Navigatio Sancti Brendani abbatis and changes the emphasis, leaving a recognisably secular narrative. The vernacular version focuses on marvellous imagery and the trials and tribulations of a long sea-voyage. Together the two versions demonstrate a movement away from hagiography towards adventure.
Studies of the two versions rarely discuss the elements of the fantastic. Following a summary of authorship, audiences and sources, this comparative study adopts a structural approach to the two versions of the Brendan narrative. It considers what the fantastic imagery achieves and addresses issues raised with respect to theological parallels.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mackley, Jude

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction
1. St Brendan: the man and the manuscripts

Part Two Historical and Literary Sources
2. Accepting the fantastic: from the familiar to the fantastic-uncanny
3. The marvels of the ocean: from the fantastic-uncanny to teh marvelous
4. Mirrors of salvation

Part One Natural Exotica as supernatural forms
Part Two Human Representations of the diabolical and the divine
Part Three Achieving Paradise
Conclusion

Appendix One
Appendix Two
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

J.S. Mackley, Ph.D. in English (2003), University of York, is an independent researcher. His principal interests include the medieval perception and reception of apocryphal legends.