The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery

Chosen as the sole Newbery Honor Book in 1926 - the medal winner that year was Arthur Bowie Chrisman's Shen of The Sea: Chinese Stories for Children - The Voyagers is the second of Irish author Padraic Colum's three books to be so honored (the first being 1922's The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, the third 1934's The Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside). It collects a variety of historical and quasi-historical legends concerning European exploration in the Atlantic, beginning with the The Legend of Atlantis (as related in Plato's Critias and Timaeus), and continuing through the naming of the American continents for explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

In between are the Irish legends of The Voyage of show more Maelduin, an 8th century tale concerning a fantastic voyage out into the western ocean made by Maelduin and his companions, and The Voyage of Saint Brendan, whose quest for God's "Fair Land" to the West was a popular medieval tale. Also included are some Norse selections concerning The Children of Eric the Red (Leif the Lucky, Thorwald, Thorstein, Gudrid the Fair), the story of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the West Indies, of Ponce de Leon's quest for the Fountain of Youth, and of the English "discovery" of Virginia, as told by Captain Barlowe, Captain John Smith, and Ralph Hamar. Colum includes his source material, at the rear.

I enjoyed the earlier mythological and legendary tales that Colum presented in The Voyagers, although I did find myself wishing that he had also included the Welsh legend concerning the voyage of Prince Madoc to the Americas, in the twelfth century. The later tales, concerning the European "discovery" of the Americas, were the sort of white-washed history one would expect from a book published in this era. Columbus comes across as a benevolent father figure, who would never dream of molesting the hapless (and helpless) natives. Colum may have used Columbus' (edited) journals as a source, but he seems to have forgotten to quote the bit where the "Great Admiral" mentions how the natives would make natural servants (read: slaves).

Of course, as already stated, this sort of thing comes as no surprise, given the date of publication, but it does make The Voyagers less palatable to the contemporary reader, perhaps explaining why, although other Colum tales have been reprinted, this one remains out of print. I did enjoy parts of the narrative (hence the two stars, rather than one), and thought Wilfred Jones' color and black and white plates were very attractive, but this is still one I would recommend primarily to the Newbery completist, or to the dedicated Padraic Colum fan. show less

This is the second book I've read by Padraic Colum. (He had another Newbery honor winner in 1922 on mythology that I didn’t have many kind words for.) His bland, basic writing style did not change. Fortunately, it worked better for this book. The adventures were less epic, and there wasn’t a long-term story stretching throughout. For me, the individual tales meshed a lot cleaner with his writing style. Though still written in way that makes me think “Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…", I think it's much more user-friendly.