The Voyage of Bran

Immram Brain [' imrav bran ʴ ] (" Brans seafaring ") is the title of a travel narrative ( Immram ) from the beginning of the 8th century. She is the oldest of this literary genre. In Lebor lost Dromma Snechta ( "The Book of Druim Snechta " ), this story was first recorded, according to hints in recent manuscripts. The work is written partly in prose, partly in verse, in his Christian and pre-Christian ideas are interconnected.

Content

Bran mac Febail [ bran mak ' f ʴ evil ʴ ] (" Bran, Febals son " ) gets in his castle to visit a mystical woman of the Other World, which can be heard with a silver branch wonderful music. She says that this branch comes from the apple tree in the country Emain Ablach, the paradise island in the ocean. After her disappearance Bran equips a boat and he and three times nine companions ( numerology ) to the search of the island. On the third day Manannan mac Lir met them, the industry of the birth of his son told ( Compert Mongáin ) and assigns them to a world of everlasting happiness. There, however, Bran can not find out about his future itinerary because all the residents all the time just laugh and also a messenger finally emitted from him remains back laughing on the island. Later they land on the shores of an island inhabited only by women and they live happily for many years - but this time they seems like a single year.

However, Companion Brans Nechtan mac Collbran gets insatiable nostalgia and persuaded him to return. From the island queen, they are warned, ever again to enter Ireland earth with his foot. But Nechtans longing for home is so great that he forgets the ban and immediately jumps to the arrival of the boat ashore, where he immediately turns to dust. Bran and his other companions remain in the boat, Bran told the Irish on the beach gathered his adventures and they go back out to the ocean.

Text structure

In contrast to the detailed and imaginative texts other Immrama ( " Travel stories " ) is Immram Brain written in prose rather simple part. The actual main point form two each 28 verses long poems. In the first, the mystic woman describes the Promised Land, in which case some Christian ideas were inserted by the authors. The second poem about Manannan mac Lir provides interpretation of the sea as flowers level with lots of animals and the way to the " Island of Women ". These two poems are probably the most archaic, albeit alienated core of the story and the prose a later added frame story.