Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II THE CONCEPTION OF THE HAPPY OTHERWORLD IN BRAN'S VOYAGE The Voyage of Bran, constituent elements and leading conceptions--The Happy Otherworld--The Doctrine of Rebirth--Aims and method of the investigation--Linguistic evidence as to the age of Bran's Voyage--Historical evidence on the same point--The Mongan episode, testimonia to Mongan--Discussion of the historical evidence--Evidence drawn from Latin loan words in the Irish text--Summing up of the Happy Otherworld conception as found in Bran's Voyage. I Now pass to the consideration of the old Irish story, and I propose to state, at the outset, the problems involved, to note their possible solutions, and to indicate the method of investigation that will be pursued. The Voyage of Bran can be traced back, diplomatically, to the eleventh century; the first step is to examine whether the linguistic peculiarities of the text allow us to assign an earlier date to it, and if this date can be fixed with any accuracy. It contains numerous allusions of a quasi-historical nature, the evidence of which must be carefully weighed, and the result compared with that attained by examination of the language. Passing to the subject-matter, we find ourselves confronted by conceptions and descriptions which at once produce the impression of belonging to different periods and to different stages of culture. A Christian element is patent, so that our story must have assumed its final shape since the introduction of Christianity into Ireland. The main episode is the hero's visit to a mysterious land dwelt in by beings clearly distinguished from mortals by several attributes, most prominent among which is that of deathlessness; a feature of secondary importance is the re-incarnation of one of these...
