Chapter 2

On the south shore of this island they found a river a little broader than the ship, and up this they towed her for a mile, when they came to the fountain-head of the stream. It was a wondrous fountain, and above it there was a tree marvellously beautiful, spreading rather than high, but all covered with white birds, so covered that they hid its foliage and branches. (The notion is perhaps taken from a tree loaded with snow.) 'And when the man of God saw it, he began to think in himself what or wherefore it should be, that such a multitude of birds should be gathered together in one place. And the thing distressed him so, that he wept, and fell down upon his knees, and besought the Lord, saying, "O God, Who knowest the things which are unknown, and makest manifest the things which are hidden, Thou knowest how that mine heart is straitened; therefore I beseech Thee that it may please Thee to make manifest unto me, Thy sinful servant, this mystery which now I do see with mine eyes. And this I ask not for an desert of my worthiness, but in respect of Thy mercy." When he had so spoken, behold, one of the birds flew from the tree. From the ship, where the man of God was sitting, his wings sounded as with the sound of little bells. He perched upon the top of the prow, and began to spread his wings for joy, and looked kindly upon the holy father Brendan. Then the man of God, when he understood that the Lord had had regard unto his prayer, saith unto the bird, "If thou be the messenger of God, tell me whence be these birds, and wherefore they be gathered here." And it said, "We are of that great ruin of the old enemy; but we have not fallen by sinning or consenting; but we have been predestinated by the goodness and mercy of God, for wherein we were created, hath our ruin come to pass, through his fall and the fall of his crew. But God the Almighty, Who is righteous and true, hath by His judgment sent us into this place. Pains we suffer not. The presence of God in a sense we cannot see, so far has He separated us from the company of them that stood firm. We wander through the divers parts of this world, of the sky, and of the firmament, and of the earths, even as other spirits who are sent forth [to minister]. But upon the holy days of the Lord, we take bodies such as Thou seest, and by the ordinance of God we dwell here, and praise our Maker. As for thee, thou and thy brethren are a year upon the way, and yet there await you six. And where this day thou hast kept the Passover, there shall ye keep it every year, and afterwards shall thou find that which thou hast set in thine heart, even the land promised unto the Saints." And when the bird had so spoken, it rose from the prow, and returned unto the others. And when the hour of evening came, they all began to flap their wings, and to sing as it were with one voice, saying, "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem, through our ministry." And they repeated that verse even for the space of an hour, and the song and the sound of their wings was like harmony (carmen cantus) for sweetness. Then holy Brendan saith unto his brethren, "Refresh your bodies, since this day the Lord hath satisfied your souls by His Divine rising again." And when supper was ended, and the work of God done, the man of God and they that were with him gave their bodies unto rest until the third watch of the night. And the man of God woke and roused the brethren for the watches of the night, and he began holily to sing that verse, "O Lord, open Thou my lips." And when the word of the man of God was finished, all the birds sang out with wings and voices, saying, "Praise ye the Lord, all His Angels, praise ye Him all His hosts." Likewise at even for the space of an hour, they sang ever, and when the dawn glowed they began to sing, "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us," with the same harmony and length of singing as in the Morning Praises: likewise, at the third hour that verse, "Sing praises to our God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing ye praises with understanding:" at the sixth hour, "May the Lord cause His face to shine upon us, and be merciful unto us:" and at the ninth hour they sang, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." So by day and by night these birds gave praise to God.'

I have read this passage at length, not only because of its intrinsic merit, but also because of its evident meaning. It is obvious that it is meant to propound doctrines similar to those which a distinguished writer has recently discussed under the title, _Happiness in Hell_. It is remarkable that the Codex Salmanticensis omits the whole passage in this sense. Possibly it did not suit the views of the transcriber.

In a week the provider came to them bringing more food and drink, but warned them not to drink of the fountain, as its waters were stupefying. He returned again at Pentecost, bringing more, but bade them now provision the ship with water, and with dried bread. A week later they started. When they were on the shore, one of the birds came and perched upon the prow and said, 'Ye have kept the holy day of the Passover with us this year. Ye shall also keep the same day with us in the year to come. And where ye have been in the last year at the Supper of the Lord, there shall ye be upon the said day in the year to come. Likewise shall ye keep the Lord's night, the Passover Supper, where ye have kept it before, that is, upon the back of the monster Jasconius. And after eight months ye shall find the isle which is called Ailbey. There shall ye keep the birth of Christ.' And so he flew back, and as the boat sailed away, all the birds sang, 'Answer us, O God of our salvation, Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea.'

They were wandering upon the sea for three months, and afterwards came to the isle Ailbey, where they stayed until the middle of January. There is here described a monastery with twenty-four monks, who were fed on miraculously provided bread, and, except the Abbat, never spoke. There is rather a curious description of the church, which was square, with stalls round the walls. It had three altars, all of crystal, as were all the altar vessels, and seven lamps which were lit every evening by a fiery arrow which came in and went out at a window.

They left Ailbey, and were carried about on the sea until the beginning of Lent. They then came to an island where there was abundant vegetation, roots, and streams full of fish, but some of the brethren became insensible from one, two, or three days, from drinking the water. I own that this and the remark about the water in the Eden of Birds seems to me to be very likely plagiarised from the wine-river in Lucian's _Traveller's Tale_. Hence they went north for three days, were beating about for about twenty, and then eastward for three more, and then came back for Maundy Thursday to the isle of the provider, who again met them. All went on as before, and a week after Pentecost they started again from the Eden of the Birds.

It will thus be observed that the real times of voyaging in each year are limited to the months of February and March, and from about the early part of June to the middle of December.

Forty days after starting in this new year they were much alarmed by a vast fish which seemed to be coming after them to devour them, but it was killed by another monster, breathing fire, which appeared against it from the East, and tore it into three pieces.

The next day they came to a large and grassy island, where they found the tail portion of the monster fish. On this island they beached the ship, pitched the tent, and stayed three months, during which the sea was too stormy for travel. They lived for the three months on part of the monster, the rest of which was devoured by beasts, but another portion of a fish was afterwards washed up, and they made a salt provision of it--though as to Brendan himself, it is remarked that he was a consistent vegetarian, having never, since his ordination, eaten anything wherein had been the breath of life. Three days after this, the sea being stiller, they set out again towards the North.

One day they saw an island in the distance, and Brendan told them that there were three companies, of children, of young men, and of elders, and that one of the three brethren last come was there to make his earthly pilgrimage. They came to shore. The island was so flat that it seemed level with the sea. It had no trees nor anything that wind can shake. It was vast, and was covered with something which the Latin text calls _scaltæ_--a word which I have failed to find in Ducange or in any other authority which I have been able to consult. It is, however, evidently, from the context, some kind of ground fruit, and may perhaps be the strawberry or the Blaeberry--although the Latin for these seems to be generally _fragum_ and _bacca myrtilii_. This fruit was white or _purpureus_--wherein another difficulty arises as to the meaning of _purpureus_. The individual berries were as big as large balls, and tasted like honey. In this island were the three companies, who seemed to be moving and standing in a kind of sacred dance, two moving round while the one which had taken the farthest place stood still and sang, 'The Saints shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods will appear in Zion.' It is vexatious that here the question of colour again arises, as something very picturesque is evidently intended to be described. The company of children were clad in pure and glistering white, but the Latin, which is verbally followed by the French, gives the colour of the young men's garments as hyacinthine, and that of the elders' as purple. I have consulted all the authorities upon the question that I can. The result is that it is disputed whether hyacinthine means red or blue or both, and whether the Latin purple was red or plum-coloured. I hazard the conjecture that there is here an attempt to symbolize innocence, vigour, and ripeness, and that as the first colour is certainly white, the others may be red and what we call purple.

The voyagers landed at the fourth hour (10 A.M.) and the dance went on until noon, when the three companies sang together the lxvii., the lxx., and the cxvi. Psalms, adding again, 'the God of gods will appear in Zion.' At 3 P.M. they sang likewise Psalms cxxx., cxxxiii., and what is called in the Septuagint the cxlvii., viz., the last nine verses of that so called in the A.V. At even they sang the lxv., the civ., the cxiii., and then the whole 15 songs of degrees, during which they sat. When this was done, a bright cloud overshadowed the island, a cloud so bright that it blinded the sight of the voyagers, but they could still hear the sacred song going on without ceasing until midnight (_vigilie matutinæ_) when they heard sung Psalms cxlviii., cxlix., and cl., and then what are called '12 Psalms according to the Psalter, up to "The fool hath said in his heart,"'--an apparent reference to the present Roman Breviary arrangement by which the xth is united (as in the Septuagint) with the ixth, and the vth transferred out of its order. As day broke, the cloud passed away from over the island and the companies sang Psalms li., xc., and lxiii., and at 9 A.M. xlvii., liv., and cxvi. From what this peculiar arrangement of the Psalms is taken, I do not know. It is not that of the Monastic Breviary, nor of the Roman, nor of the Greek Church, nor is it that of the Mozarabic, at least at present, but from its excessive irregularity, in which it resembles the Mozarabic, I guess that it may belong to some Ephesine rite, as introduced by Patrick into Ireland, and that it is here set down at length because it was becoming obsolete in the days of the writer. Then they went to Communion. After this, two of the company of young men brought a basket full of the purple fruit, and put it into the ship, saying, 'Take ye of the fruit of the strong men's isle, and give us our brother and depart in peace.' Then Brendan called the brother to him and said, 'Kiss thy brethren, and go with them that call thee. I tell thee, brother, that in a good hour did thy mother conceive thee, who hast earned to dwell with such a congregation.' So they bade him farewell with tears, and when he came to the companies, they sang, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,' and then the _Te Deum_, and the voyagers set out again upon their way.

The voyage now continues with two or three comparatively trivial adventures. For twelve days they lived upon the juice of the scaltæ, after which they fasted for three days. Then a bird brought them a branch of an unknown tree, bearing a bunch of bright red grapes, whereon they lived for four days, and then fasted for three more. On the last of these they sighted the island where grew the grapes. It was thickly wooded, with trees bending under the weight of the fruit, filled with all manner of good vegetation, and exhaling an odour like that of an house full of pomegranates (_mala punica_). Here they landed, pitched the tent, and stayed for forty days.

After they left this island they were much alarmed by the sight of a griffin flying towards them, but it was killed by another bird which fought it in the air, and its body fell into the sea. They reached the isle Ailbey in safety, and there passed the midwinter as usual.

The following years are passed over with merely the general statement that they went about much in the ocean, and passed the usual seasons in the usual places. It is mentioned that one midsummer the sea was so clear for about a week that they could see the marine animals lying at the bottom; and when Brendan sang, these came up and swam round the ship.

It must be, as far as the chronology of the romance can be said to be fixed, intended to be represented as in the February of the seventh year, that the narrative again becomes continuous. They saw one day a pillar standing in the sea, which appeared to be near them, but which they did not reach for three days. Its top seemed to pierce the clouds. At the distance of about a mile it was surrounded on every hand by a sort of network, of a material like silver, but harder than marble. They drew in the oars and mast, and passed through one of the interstices. The sea within was as clear as glass, so that they could see the bottom, with the lower part of the pillar and the network resting upon it. The pillar was of absolutely clear crystal, so that the light and heat of the sun passed through it. It was forty cubits broad on every side. On the south side they found a chalice of the material of the network and a paten of the material of the pillar. After passing again out of the network, they sailed for eight days towards the North, and here begins what may be called the diabolical portion of the story.

They saw one day a wild and rocky island, without grass or tree, but full of smiths' forges. The wind bore them past it at about a stone's throw, and they could hear bellows roaring with a sound like thunder, and hammers striking upon anvils. Presently they saw one of the inhabitants come out of a cave. He was shaggy and hideous, burnt and dark. When he saw the ship, he ran back howling into his workshop. Brendan immediately bid hoist the sail and have out the oars. While this was doing the creature appeared again with a glowing mass of fused metal (_massam igneam de scoria_) in pincers, which he hurled at them. Where it struck the water about a furlong from them, it made the sea boil and hiss. They had only escaped about a mile when they saw beings swarming out upon the shore, throwing about molten masses, some after them and some at one another, and then all went back into the forges and set them blazing, until the whole island seemed one mass of fire. The sea boiled like a boiling cauldron, and all day long the travellers heard an awful wailing. Even when they were out of sight of the island, the howls still rang in their ears, and the stench made their nostrils smart. 'And Brendan said, "O ye soldiers of Christ, make you strong in faith not feigned, and in the armour of the spirit, for we are upon the coasts of hell. Watch, therefore, and play the man."'

The next day but one, they found the wind bearing them down upon another mountain in the sea, black as coal, reaching steep down to the sea, and whose top they could hardly see, but yet wrapt in soft mists. When they came near it, the sole remaining of the three last come brethren jumped out of the ship and waded to shore. Suddenly he showed signs of terror, and cried out that he was being carried away and could not return. The brethren in horror pushed the ship away from land, and started towards the South. When they looked back they saw flames shooting up from the top of the mountain, and then sinking in again, and again surging up. It is a phenomenon familiar to any one who has watched the top of a volcano--often even of iron-works--and which has been splendidly described in the account of the burning essence of life in _She_. From this sight they fled and journeyed for seven days toward the South.

We now reach an incident founded upon that fact from the contemplation of which the human mind perhaps shrinks more than from any other. But the literary treatment of it is so curious and striking, and is rendered all the more so, at least to me, because I am aware of only one other attempt to grapple with it in the whole cycle of human invention, and that in the very highest sphere of imaginative literature, that I think that you will forgive me if I deal with it, and give at any-rate a part of it in full. 'And after these things,' says the novelist, 'the Father Brendan saw as it were a very thick mist, and when they drew nigh thereto, there appeared unto them a little shape as it had been the shape of a man sitting upon a stone, and before him a veil of the size of a bag hanging between two forks of iron, and thus the waves beat him about as it were a boat when it is in peril in a tempest. And when the brethren saw it, some of them thought that it had been a bird, and others thought that it had been a ship. Then the man of God answered them, "Brethren, let be this strife, and turn the ship unto the place." And when the man of God drew nigh thereto, the waves round about stood still as though they had been frozen. And they found sitting upon a stone a man shaggy and mis-shapen, and from every side when the waves came upon him, they smote him up to the crown of his head; and when again they fell away from him then was seen the stone whereon the unhappy one sat. And the wind moved about from time to time the cloth that was before him, and it smote him upon the eyes and upon the forehead. And when the blessed one asked him who he was, and for what fault he was set there, and how he had merited such punishment, he said, "I am that most unhappy Judas, the worst of bargainers. Neither for any desert of mine do I have this place, but through the pardon and pity of the Redeemer of the world, and in honour of His holy resurrection, have I this rest" (now, it was the Lord's Day), "and when I sit here it seemeth to me as though I were in the Garden of Eden, by reason of the torments which I shall have this even, for when I am in torment I am like a bit of lead molten in a crucible day and night. In the midst of the mountain which ye have seen, there is Leviathan with his crew, and I was there when it swallowed up your brother, and therefore hell was glad, and sent forth great flames, and thus doth it ever when it devoureth the souls of the wicked. But that ye may know the measureless goodness of God, I will tell you of my rest. I have here my rest every Lord's Day from evening to evening--,"' and then follow some words as to other days which are evidently corrupted both in Jubinal's text and in that of the Salamanca MS. Then it continues, '"But the other days I am tormented with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and therefore I beseech you for the sake of the Redeemer of the world, that ye be pleased to plead for me with the Lord Jesus that it be granted me to be here until to-morrow at the rising of the sun, that at your coming the devils may not torment me nor carry me away unto that evil heritage which I have bought unto myself."' This is done. There is some talk, from which it appears that the cloth is one which Judas once gave to a leper, the forks some which he had given to Priests whereon to hang pots, and the stone whereon he sits, one with which he had once filled up an hole in a public highway. The whole episode closes thus:--'At the breaking of the day, when the man of God began to take his journey, behold, an infinite multitude of devils covered the face of the deep, speaking with dreadful voices and saying, "O man of God, cursed be thy coming in and thy going out, for our prince hath scourged us this night with grievous stripes, because we brought him not that accursed prisoner." And the man of God saith unto them, "Let that curse be not upon us but upon you, for blessed is he whom ye curse, and cursed is he whom ye bless." The devils said, "That unhappy Judas shall suffer double pains these six days, because ye have shielded him this night." The saint saith unto them, "Ye have no power, neither your princes, for power is of God." And he said, "In the name of the Lord, I command you and your prince that ye put him to no greater torments than ye have been wont." They answered him, "Art thou the Lord of all, that we should obey thy words?" The man of God saith unto them, "I am the servant of the Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His Name, it is done; and I have no ministry save of them whom he giveth me." And so they followed him, continually blaspheming, until he was borne away from Judas; and the devils went back and lifted up that most unhappy soul among them, with a great rushing and shouting.'

This subject is one that ought not to be treated at all. It ought to be left veiled in the unknown, as it has been left for us by the Infinite Mercy from Whose revelation we know all that we know about it. As a matter of fact, I am only aware, as I have stated, of one other writer besides this Irish romancer, who has treated it. That writer is Dante. At the lowest depth of his Inferno sits Satan munching Brutus, Cassius, and Judas in his threefold mouth. Brutus and Cassius have their heads and upper parts hanging outside the mouth.

'Quell' anima lassù, c' ha maggior pena,' Disse 'l Maestro, 'è Giuda Scariotto, Che 'l capo ha dentro, e fuor le gambe mena.'

The traditional epithet which the world has justly attached to the name of Dante Alighieri is 'the Sublime'. I am almost afraid to say it, but we all know how proverbially short is the distance between the sublime and the ridiculous. And I venture to submit to the private personal thought of each of you whether it be not merely the horror of the subject and of the conception, and the almost stupefying grandeur of the poetry, which separates this idea from the grotesque; and whether, if the thing be to be touched at all, the old Irish fabulist has not produced a conception both more tender and more truly tragic.