Brandon, Brendon, or Brandan, was an Irish Odysseus whose journeyings in search of the Land of Behest have a lasting fascination for all lovers of romantic adventure. The atmosphere of sanctity which made this legend approved reading for the mediæval Christian gives a quaint irony to the accounts of fairies, demons, enchanted birds, and other marvels which betray a frankly superstitious spirit. Travelers' records have a distinct place in literature, as the names Ohthere, Marco Polo, Mandeville, Hakluyt, Robinson Crusoe, Stevenson, Hearn and many others prove, and when the voyage is undertaken because of mingled love of excitement, passion for the sea, zeal for discovery, and deep longing to find the ideal land, it has potent appeal to those who stay at home. In almost every language there are tales which picture an earthly paradise. The Fortunate Isles, the Garden of the Hesperides, Calypso's Isle, Avalon, Hy Brasail, Tir-na'n-Og, are names given in Greek and in Celtic story to the abode of those who have won release from earthly cares and hardship, and have entered the realm of perfect terrestrial peace and beauty.
The translation is William Caxton's version of the life of Brandon based upon some source not yet satisfactorily determined. Caxton's rather rambling but most charming rendering was included in "The Golden Legend," mentioned below.
An exhaustive study of the Irish story upon which this legend is based, and much other material relating to this theme, will be found in Meyer and Nutt's "The Voyage of Bran. Edited and translated by K. Meyer. With an Essay upon the Irish Version of the Happy Other-world and the Celtic Doctrine of Rebirth, by A. Nutt." 2 vols., David Nutt, London, 1895. Interesting also in connection with Brandon is the story of Sindbad, in "The Arabian Nights."
The Life of Saint Margaret
Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298), Archbishop of Genoa, was the author of "Historia Lombardica seu Legenda Sanctorum," popularly known as "Legenda Aurea." When William Caxton set up his printing press and began to multiply copies of the English classics, he included among his publications an English rendering of the Latin text, "The Golden Legend," (1483), which he based upon a French translation. The present version is from Caxton's text, as printed in the Temple Classics.
The great popularity of lives of the saints is due partly to that trait, inherent in human nature, of genuine devotion to any one of proved courage, especially when that courage is of the spirit, an invincible religious faith and fortitude. Weak and unstable Christians found inspiration in these saintly lives, and by continued meditation learned many lessons of deep meaning. But, in addition to the ethical interest, there was sympathy for the human experiences and the strange and fearful adventures of these elect of the Lord. As the metrical romances ministered to popular delight in knightly deeds, so, too, these legends of the saints satisfied the world-old love of struggle and of victory. Saint Margaret, Saint Katherine, Saint Juliana, were the women saints whose lives were best known to the Middle Ages, but the many legendaries of the day gave ample record of scores of other saints.
For versions of the life of Saint Margaret, see Early English Text Society, No. 13. "The Golden Legend" in seven volumes (Temple Classics, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York) contains the fullest collection of lives of the saints. Middle English collections have been edited by Carl Horstmann. Fox's "Book of Martyrs" should be remembered, also.
PIOUS TALES
The superstitions of the Middle Ages reveal themselves very fully in the various accounts of miracles performed by God, Christ, the Virgin, the saints, or by the relics treasured in churches and religious houses. The study of mediæval religious life must include an examination of some of these fervent and naïve records of the supernatural power of holy objects and holy folk. The intense reverence accorded to sanctified things created, among mediæval Christians, a passionate disregard for the dictates of human reason. At first this blind faith and total abasement before sacred relics was a triumph of the spirit, but before long it became a triumph of the body, for physical well-being and material prosperity were sought rather than spiritual enlightenment. In Chaucer's Pardoner's "Prologue" and in Erasmus's account of his journeys to Walsingham and to Canterbury one finds pictured the credulous and wholly unlovely side of the subject. When idealism declines and becomes sheer bigotry, without the charm of imaginative power, it must have its Wiclif and its Luther.