The Voyage of Bran [Facsimile] [Paperback]

Kuno Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

The Voyage of Bran
by Meyer Kuno

Old Irish saga of a voyage to the pagan Celtic otherworld, with parallel English and Gaelic.

This is Kuno Meyer's translation of the old Irish saga, the Voyage of Bran. In this magical odyssey to the limits of reality, Bran takes a characteristically time-dilated journey to a distant isle of luxury. On return, he learns that ages have passed and he and his expedition have already passed into myth. He can never again touch the soil of his homeland and sails off again. The text references ancient Celtic gods and also contains quasi-prophetic passages added at a later date by Christian scribes.

The appendices contain extracts from other Irish texts about Mongan, who is mentioned in the Bran saga, the son of Manannan mac Lir, the Celtic sea-god. This is of interest because of the descriptions of the training of bards, and lore of human visits to the Sídhe, the fairies.

I. The Conception of Mongán
II. A Story from which it is inferred that Mongán was Find mac Cumaill, and the cause of the death of Fothad Airgdech
III. A Story of Mongán
IV. These are the events that brought about the telling of 'Mongán's Frenzy.'
V. The Conception of Mongán and Dub-Lacha's Love for Mongán
VI. From the Annals
VII. Irische Texte
VIII. Irische Texte
IX. From Gilla Modutu's poem Senchas Ban...
X. From Ms. Laud
XI. From MS. Laud

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: Llanerch Press; Facsimile of 1895 ed edition (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897853203
• ISBN-13: 978-1897853207
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,899,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars It's hard to reach the land of the living, July 9, 2011

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Voyage of Bran (Paperback)

This ancient Irish tale of a voyage, that of Bran, is the archetype of the vaster and slightly more recent Voyage of Mael Duin.

Bran is thus the hero who first reaches Ireland coming from various smaller islands.

This story is not at all Christian, nor made so? It is entirely pre-Christian. The references are purely pagan, and yet there is an allusion to Eve and the serpent so it might be a first step towards receiving the Christian religion and adopting it, which is clearly stated in the case of Mael Duin. The parallel with the Voyage of Saint Brenan (Brennain) is interesting since that Saint is supposed to be the founding father of Ireland.

But the religious dimension of things seems to be more the result of the story than the spring box of it. It is the hypothesis of a certain protection against the strange dangers of this pagan world they discover in the various islands.

They manage to come across several mysterious islands that all contain some dangers, dangers Bran is swift enough to know and avoid. Altogether it is more a tale of initiation than a real voyage of adventure and discovery.

The most interesting idea I find in this tale is:

"It is a law in this world

To believe in the creatures, to forget God,

Overthrow by diseases, and old age,

Destruction of the soul through deception." (verse 47)

That reminds us of one particular trait of Irish literature from Defoe onward, their use of some black humor or exaggeration. Flann O'Brien used it in order to cure the Irish of their submissive spirit. He used exaggeration of the deceiving clichés to which the Irish cling in order to cure their real soul of that soul-destroying deception. He used the deception to restore the soul that had been destroyed just before by the same deception. That's probably what these old "Voyages" were all about: to make these monstrous creatures appear so dangerous and monstrous that it cured the soul of its destruction by these deceptive myths, pagan myths of course, and thus this pagan "voyage" becomes a tool to orient the Irish of the time towards the true religion of the true God, a protective God what's more.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU