Another Version
Another version gives the credit of the first incitement to a purely human visitor, a friendly abbot, St. Brendan’s aim being to reach an island “just under Mount Atlas.” Here a holy predecessor, Mernoc by name, long vanished from among men, was believed to have hidden himself in “the first home of Adam and Eve.” To all readers this was a fairly precise location for the earthly paradise. The great Atlas chain forms a conspicuous feature of medieval maps, running down to sea (as it does in reality) near Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the innermost of the Canaries, which seem like detached, nearly submerged, summits of the range.
This narrative is longer and more detailed than that of the Book of Lismore and gives more plentiful indications of voyaging, especially toward the end, in southern seas. In its picture of volcanic fires it recalls occasional outbursts of Teneriffe and its neighbors. “They saw a hill all on fire, and the fire stood on each side of the hill like a wall, all burning.” A visit is also recorded to a neighboring land, apparently continental, which the adventurers penetrated for forty days’ travel to the banks of a magical river, whence they brought away “fruit and jewels.” This may well be meant for Africa, obviously quite near these Fortunate Islands.