The Brendan Voyage (Modern Library Exploration)
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Product Description
It has been described as the greatest epic voyage in modern Irish history. Tim Severin and his companions built a boat using only techniques and materials available in the sixth-century A.D, when St Brendan was supposed to have sailed to America. The vessel comprised forty-nine ox hides stitched together in a patchwork and stretched over a wooden frame. This leather skin was only a quarter of an inch thick. Yet Severin and his crew sailed Brendan from Brandon Creek in Dingle to Newfoundland, surviving storms and a puncture from pack ice. "The Brendan Voyage" is Tim Severin's dramatic account of their journey. This new edition of a book already translated into twenty-seven languages introduces a new generation of readers to an enduring classic. Tim Severin didn't prove St Brendan reached America, only that he could have, that it was possible. Brilliantly written, "The Brendan Voyage" conveys unforgettably the sensation of being in a small, open boat in the vastness of the North Atlantic, visited by inquisitive whales, reaching mist-shrouded landfalls, and receiving a welcome from seafaring folk wherever the crew touched land.
About the Author
Tim Severin is an explorer, traveller, author, film-maker and lecturer. In addition to The Brendan Voyage, he has also travelled in pursuit of the legends of Sinbad the Sailor, Jason and Argonauts, Ulysses, Genghis Khan, Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe. He has won numerous book awards, the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Livingstone medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He has Honorary Doctorates of Letters from University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin, and lives in West Cork.
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The seventh wave is said to be the worst, the one that does the damage in the turmoil of an ocean gale. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The seventh wave is said to be the worst, the one that does the damage in the turmoil of an ocean gale. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tim Severin's obsession with recreating legendary voyages, or providing working support for theories of migration, leads him to build a full-sized replica of St. Brendan's boat and follow his famous voyage.To do this he had to research the probable type of boat that Brendan used, and try to extrapolate a likely route from the very obscure 'details' in Brendan's writings.
Having established that the most likely vessel was a curragh, he had to gather the raw materials and a team of experts to construct it in the traditional manner. The tale of how he gets his experts is worth the price of the book in itself ! The man must have the luck of the Irish to have everything fall so neatly into place (after a discouraging start).
The unravelling of fact from fiction (or our interpretation of fact as fiction...?) took many long and painful hours of studying texts and maps. Given that latitude and longitude were strangers to Brendan, only the vaguest hints of distance and direction were available to Mr. Severin. However, a plausible map of Brendan's route was cobbled together, taking prevailing winds, tides and leeway into consideration.
Armed with this, and a more than serviceable boat, the bold explorers ventured forth.
I won't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the book by going into more detail. Suffice to say that almost everything that Brendan described is accounted for by natural phenomena - giving the lie to those academics who dismissed the voyage as a figment of a monk's fevered imagination.
A very enjoyable read, with Mr Severin's usual hearty enthusiasm pulling you along with him. *****
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of my favourite travel books. Tim Severin and his crew set out to sail the Atlantic in a leather boat, endeavouring to confirm whether the legend of St. Brendan and his crew of Irish monks could have been true.Could they have sailed to America centuries before the Norsemen and Columbus? Severin's research is impeccable and his references to St. Brendan's "Navigatio" fascinating, the boat is built and the modern adventure begins. The explanations of sea monsters, islands on fire, islands which moved, etc. are all totally plausible. Severin's book must be one of the classic sea voyages and is totally gripping throughout.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The sixth-century voyage of St Brendan to America is the most fascinating of sea legends. Could the myth of an Irish monk and his crew sailing across the Atlantic in a boat made of leather, nearly a thousand years before Columbus, have been reality?
Tim Severin staked the lives of himself and his four companions on following the exact methods used by the seafaring Irish monks in constructing and sailing their vessel. Persuasive proof of the validity of the Brendan myth, Severin's hazardous expedition remains a supreme testament to the resilience of the voyaging spirit.
This is the story of that epic journey.
Tim Severin staked the lives of himself and his four companions on following the exact methods used by the seafaring Irish monks in constructing and sailing their vessel. Persuasive proof of the validity of the Brendan myth, Severin's hazardous expedition remains a supreme testament to the resilience of the voyaging spirit.
This is the story of that epic journey.
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