The Otherworld Voyage in Early Irish Literature: An Anthology of Criticism (review)

Abstract

Despite the indisputable importance of early Irish literature in European medieval thought and literature, its study has too often been restricted to the comparably few Celticists and Hiberno-Latinists. For the scholarly discourse to become truly interdisciplinary, anthologies such as this serve as welcome introductions to neophytes even while advancing our specialized knowledge. The volume presents some of the most stimulating contributions to the study of the [End Page 751] immrama: those four early Irish narratives interconnected by common themes (the travel from island to island), common motifs (e.g., that of the latecomers, the supernumeraries), common narrative structures, and a pervasive Christian peregrinatio ideal (pilgrimage overseas). And yet, each work carries its own distinct character, as well as its own philological problems. The most widespread voyage narrative that may have influenced the other four, the legend of St. Brendan, is known both through the Latin Navigatio Sancti Brendani of the late eighth century (if we follow Dumville's dating, p. 131) and the various texts of the Vita Brendani.