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Dear Fr. O'Clabaigh,
the text of *Navigatio Sancti Brendani* tells us that Brendan and his monks
visited lands in the north, also encoutering, during their trip, one iceberg
and a whale. Regardless of the fact that these and many others could  be
just symbolic elements, which is quite common in medieval literature, the
description of the journey gave grounds to a great deal of discussion
whether Brendan actually visited Iceland. Being Irish, perhaps you remember
about Tim Severin who engaged in a fascinating enterprise during the '70,
trying to prove that Brendan discovered America. Supposedly the Irish monk
would have also landed in Iceland. There is no archeeological evidence that
the journey actually happened, furthermore the faboulous descriptions of
places and animals can be easily identified as symbols. Nonetheless, the
monk was alive during the fifth century, while the story is differently
dated to the VIII/IX and even X cc. - R. Bartoli likes to date it to the
VII, and this gives an idea at least of the imagination of the northern
lands during that time. Having studied the subject for a quite long time, I
must say that all the enthusiasm of many scholars and passionate supporters
of Brendan about his discoveries left me a bit perplexed. 

	This the essential bibliography for the subject:

-BENEDEIT, Il Viaggio di San Brandano, a cura di R. Bartoli e F. Cigni,
Parma, Pratiche, 1994.

-Navigatio Sancti Brendani, Edited with Introduction and Notes by Carl
Selmer, University of Notre Dame Press (Indiana), 1959. 

-Navigatio Sancti Brendani - La navigazione di San Brandano, ed. da M. A.
Grignani, Milano, Bompiani, 1992.

-La navigazione di San Brandano, a cura di A. Magnani, Palermo, Sellerio,
1992.

-The Voyage of Saint Brendan, Translated into English by J. J. O' Meara,
Dublin, Dolmen Press, 1976.

-R. A. BARTOLI, Itinerari e percorsi dei volgarizzamenti romanzi della
"Navigatio sancti Brendani", in Omaggio a Gianfranco Folena, Padova,
Editoriale Programma, 1993.

-R. A. BARTOLI, La Navigatio Sancti Brendani e la sua fortuna nella cultura
romanza dell'età di mezzo, Fasano di Brindisi, Schena, 1993.

-L. BIELER, Two Observations concerning the Navigatio Brendani, in
"Celtica", XI (1976).

-J. CARNEY, Studies in Irish Literature and History, Dublin, 1979.

-T. M. CHARLES-EDWARDS, The Social Background to Irish Peregrinatio, in
"Celtica", XI (1976).

-D. N. DUMVILLE, Two Approaches to the Dating of the "Navigatio Sancti
Brendani", in "Studi Medievali", 3a serie, XXIX (Giugno1988).

-M. ESPOSITO, Sur la "Navigatio Sancti Brendani" et ses versions italiennes,
in "Romania", LXIV (1938).

-M. ESPOSITO, An Apocryphal "Book of Enoch and Elias" as a possible source
of the "Navigatio Sancti Brendani", in "Celtica", V (1960).

-G. ORLANDI, Temi e correnti nelle leggende di viaggio dell'Occidente
Alto-Medievale, in "Popoli e paesi nella cultura altomedievale" (1981), II,
XXIX, Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo,
Spoleto, Sede del Centro, 1983.

-G. ORLANDI, Navigatio Sancti Brendani, vol. I, Milano-Varese, Cisalpino
Goliardica, 1968.

-T. SEVERIN, The Brendan Voyage, London, Abacus, 1996.

I realized just now that a great deal of this bibliography is in italian...

May I also suggest that having no written record of the matter, an idea
would be to investigate place names. Even though the *Navigatio* is no
scientific proof at all, reading it these days is very entertaining! 

Good luck!

Claudia Boscolo
Italian dep. Royal Holloway 
University of London




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