medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Brendan the Navigator (d. 578) One modern theory claims that he
> actually found North America.
Whether or not he discovered North America, he certainly discovered the
whale when he landed on it and lit a fire, only to have it submerge
under him. The story finds its way into the Physiologus,where the whale
becomes a symbol of the Devil, in whom we put our trust at our peril,
for he will sink under us and drag us down to perdition. The story is
alluded to in an interesting passage of Milton's "Paradise Lost".
Satan, floating in the burning lake, is said to look like
that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th'ocean stream:
Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam,
The pilot of some small night-foundering skiff,
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind
Moors mby his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wishèd morn delays:
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay.
Milton does not finish the story. He relies on his readers to know that
the whale will submerge and drown that unfortunate pilot. Others had,
so to speak, seen the whale floating on the sea and reflected "very
like the devil"; Milton turns the simile on its head, sees Satan
floating on the Stygian pool and reflects, "very like a whale."
Bill.
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