The Brendan Voyage

This fantastic book has been languishing on my shelves for far too long. After I read Haven by Emma Donoghue about three monks venturing off the west coast of Ireland (7th century) to establish a retreat on the outer islands, I was intrigued with the notion of ocean travel in skin boats. There is a theory that the Irish monks traveled in skin boats to North America in the 500's A.D. so Tim Severin figured out how these boats would have been made from tanned skins, flax thread and sheep fat as a sealant and ventured in the 1970s in a replica boat built to make the same trip. The trip was a nail biter going north along the coast to the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, past Greenland and finally to Newfoundland with 4 sailors and with show more success. It managed severe gale force storms, ruined food, harsh elements of driving rain and plunging temperatures and frightening battles with sea ice that punctured their boat. What a great book! The book has a number of amazing photographs and drawings. Many years ago I saw Severin's boat, the curragh, at at the Craggaunowen open-air museum in County Clare, Ireland. show less

This is the first of Severin's great sea stories, recreating the ships and voyages of ancient and medieval times. Brendan in this case is the 6th Century Irish monk who was said to have traveled to Paradise in the far west of the Atlantic Ocean in a leather boat. Severin is aware that leather (stretched on wood frames) boats are still in use in the west of Ireland and commissions a full scale ocean-going re-creation of Brendan's. His intention is to prove (or disprove) that the legendary voyage of St Brendan might actually have occurred and that an Irish monk may have been the first European discoverer of the Americas, 800 years before Columbus.

Severin mixes a little bit of scholarly history with his account of an extraordinary voyage, show more using his considerable talents as a story teller to take the reader along on a journey through the freezing North Atlantic. His descriptions of cold wet misery in rough seas are amongst the best - or worst - I've ever read. Severin's real achievement though is to introduce the reader to different cultures and places through the stories of people he meets and journeys with along the way. You get a sense that Severin loves his boats and his history, but he loves his crew most of all - in a very taciturn, very British kind of way. And in the end his discovery is not so much a continent or the plausible core of an ancient legend, but rather of a community of people who live alongside and on the the North Atlantic Ocean transcending locality and language, bound by their common hardships and generosity towards all who sail on the seas.

This book is a great introduction to Severin, or as a tale of the North Atlantic. It would be beautifully paired with W.Hodding Carter's 'A Viking Voyage', a tale of an equally obsessed (and eccentric) captain and crew who set out to sail an authentic Viking long boat from Greenland to America. Highly recommended. If you happen to be passing through Ireland some day, the 'Brendan' is on display at Craggaunowen in what looks like a very impressive living history museum, and if you can't make that you might be able to catch a rerun of the National Geographic Explorer series (No.95) 1985 television documentary of the voyage. show less

Could Irish monks in leather boats have reached North America before the Vikings? That's the question Tim Severin and his crew set out to answer in the summer of 1976. Mining the text of the Navigatio sancti brendani and other medieval sources for clues, Severin built a curragh of the same wood, leather, and flax that were used in early medieval Ireland. As they followed a northern route across the Atlantic, they discovered that the Navigatio is based on more than legend. Both their nautical experiences and the geographical features along their route bore too much resemblance to the text of the Navigatio to be coincidence. The re-creation of a medieval voyage will appeal to history lovers, while the exhilaration and dangers of the ocean show more journey will appeal to adventure and survival enthusiasts. Highly recommended. show less

What a great read for a non-fiction book full of details. Severin, a natural storyteller, recounted their experiences as if he was writing a thriller. On their "Stepping Stone" journey they had some hair raising, life and death, experiences as Saint Brendan and his crew must have also had. The Saint's voyage lasted seven years and was recorded in the latin text titled "The Navigato." Because of some of their comparable encounters Severin realizes that the Saint's version was not so far fetched afterall, as many disbelievers claim.
An added bonus was the "Coles Note" or précis of "The Navigato", an account of Saint Brendan's seven year journey, in Appendix 1.

Interesting read. Some might say the author glosses over the process of researching and building the boat. Severin calls it Brendan Luck. The book mixes the story of the recreated voyage with the story of St. Brendan's voyage.

I was unfamiliar with stories of ocean setting Irish monk explorers from the 8th century, setting out to uncover new lands. Sounds like fantasy. However, by recreating the voyage of Saint Brendan with traditional boat building materials such as leather, Severin sets out to prove that the historical account is factual, yet simply naiive in its retelling.

Severin's adventure and commitment to the historical value of his trip is comendable. I found the early parts of the book to be the most interesting as he tried to source the correct materials to build the boat. The characters involved seemed fascinating and I would've loved to learn more about them.

From a different writer, I think this book could have been much more entertaining to read. show more However, Severin treads a fine balance between appealing to all interests. show less

Wow! This was fascinating! Severin balances narrative and research/archaeology very well, supplying background information while keeping the story moving. Though the book is not lacking in photographs, I still wanted more. I'll be tracking down his other books.