Monday 7 November 2011

The Brendan Voyage

It's time for Book Number Three in the Ireland Reading Challenge at organised by CarrieK at http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com, and it’s a re-read of Tim Severin’s The Brendan Voyage. Severin and his companions sailed a leather boat across the Atlantic, in a bid to prove that St Brendan could have journeyed to America in the 6th century, and to show that the fantastical places visited by the Irish monk en route to the Isles of the Blessed really did exist.

The story of how Severin built and equipped his boat makes fascinating reading, his account of life at sea in the cramped quarters of  a small open boat is riveting, and he also gives details of the saint's voyage.  I wrote a review on this book on St Brendan's Day (May 16),  and Carrie said I can include it in the Challenge, so I've created  link for you -just click on http://goo.gl/nKoKB.

And, as an added extra, here's another link, to Irish singer and songwriter Christy Moore singing St Brendan’s Voyage on his album  Ordinary Man, at  http://youtu.be/Y26Oh2KX9II. If you've never heard Christy Moore you've missed out, so take a listen, please.

1 comment:

  1. This sounds like a fascinating story - I hadn't heard of it before! Thanks for posting about it - I linked this review to the main Ireland Challenge page.

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