“This wonderful island is surrounded by the ocean; there is no need for anything; there is no theft, no enemies lurking in ambush. There is no snow; there is no drought in summer and frost in winter, but unbreakable peace and harmony reign, and the wonderful warmth of eternal spring. There are many flowers: lilies, roses and violets; the apple tree there together gives birth to flower and fruit on the same branch. A boy and a girl live there together without filth and shame. Old age is unknown there; no need, no sickness - all there is joy. No one there keeps anything just for themselves."
"Acts of the Kings of Britain"
This excerpt from a free poetic translation into Breton of one of the most important Latin-language books - the chronicles of the Arthurian cycle “Historia Regum Britanniae” - belongs to Guillaume Rennes and was made by him in 1234. The Historia Regum Britanniae itself was created by the Welsh chronicler Galfrid of Monmouth earlier, in 1130-1138. She described the earliest history of Britain, beginning with Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas of Trojan. This source, probably, best of all characterizes the ideas prevailing at that time about the Island or the Isles of the Blessed, or, as they are also called, happy, blessed, immortals, etc. And although Galfrid assured that he used the original document in the language Britons, who received as a gift from the Oxenford Archdeacon Walter - "the husband of the most learned",many scholars of that time put on it the stigma of hoax and delusion. It was almost unanimously decided that this "original" British document, like the facts that Galfrid heard "in many conversations" with Walter, were mere inventions and fabrications. Nevertheless, this book and its adapted translations into various languages, including the Acts of the Kings of Britain, have been read aloud and quite seriously discussed for several centuries throughout civilized Europe.read aloud and quite seriously discussed for several centuries throughout civilized Europe.read aloud and quite seriously discussed for several centuries throughout civilized Europe.
In addition to Historia Regum Britanniae and its many variations (only in Latin 200 manuscripts of the book itself, not counting its translations), there were other works in the Middle Ages that tell us about the Island or the Islands of the Blessed. One of these descriptions is given in the poem of Arthur's cycle "The Life of Merlin", written by the same Galfrid of Monmouth in 1148-1150:
Information about the Island of the Blessed can be gleaned from the Latin text of the 10th or 11th century. The Voyage of Saint Brendan, dating back to the 6th century. n. e. This work echoes the "Historia Regum Britanniae": in both of them the monk Barrint (Barrind) pointed the way for the heroes to the Island of the Blessed. However, if the authenticity of the book by G. Monmouth was questioned almost from the moment of its appearance, then The Voyage of Saint Brendan most likely described the actual voyage by the sea of the famous Irish saint - the patron saint of seafarers, born between 484 and 486. in Traley in County Kerry (Ireland).
Here are some excerpts from this work:
“As evening fell, they found themselves in front of a veil of fog as high as one could see. The procurator said to Saint Brendan: "This fog surrounds the island that you have been looking for for seven years." After an hour's journey, a bright light shone on them, and the ship landed on the shore.
When they got off the ship, they saw a wide plain full of trees, bearing fruit as if in autumn. While they walked around this land, they were never caught by the night. They ate the fruits as they wanted and drank from the springs, and walked on for forty days, but could not find the limit of the earth."
Most modern scholars of British medieval literature believe that the above and other texts about Avalon were based on the legends and myths of the ancient Celts, which have come down to us mainly in the form of Irish sagas and Welsh legends. These sagas were recorded in the VIII-XII centuries. on the basis of earlier, lost monuments, as well as oral traditions passed down from generation to generation.
Let's dwell on a few of these sagas. Perhaps the most realistic (as far as it is possible in myths) reference to the Isles of the Immortals is contained in the saga "Battle of the Mag Tuired", which tells about the battle between the Fomorians (the tribe of the goddess Domnu) and the Tuatha de Danann (the tribe of the goddess Danu), and in an extensive compilation XII century. "Book of Conquests of Ireland".
According to these sources, the Fomorians were the most ancient inhabitants of Ireland. They always lived here, from time to time hiding from the conquerors in the "land of the Fomorians" and on the mysterious island "with a glass tower" - the Glass Island or Inis Vitrin, where the residence of their rulers (Tetra, Balor, etc.) was located. By the name of Tetra, the Land of the Blessed in the west of the ocean was sometimes called.
Tuatha de Danann were considered the penultimate (fifth) of the groups of conquerors of Ireland. They came from the northern islands, where they were filled with druidic wisdom and magical knowledge. Here is what is said about this in one of the variants (there are three of them) "Battle of the Mag Tuired":
“On the northern islands of the earth there were tribes of the goddess Danu, and they learned there wisdom, magic, knowledge of the druids, enchantments and other secrets, until they surpassed skilled people from all over the world.
In four cities, they comprehended wisdom, secret knowledge, devilish craft - Falias and Gorias, Murias and Findias …”.
In The Battle of the Mag Tuired and other Irish sagas, the Tuatha de Danann are described as a divine race of immortals and sorcerers.
The Fomorians were the same magicians, sorcerers and, apparently, long-livers. However, the data on this score are fragmentary and contradictory, as well as all other information about the Fomorians - the most mysterious inhabitants of Ireland, according to some legends, who lived on earth long before the appearance of the gods.
The Tuatha de Danann and the Fomorians were the only historical (at least mentioned in the "Book of Conquests of Ireland") inhabitants of the mysterious land to the north or west. All other Irish and Welsh legends tell more about mythical heroes - the inhabitants of the Promised Land, whose existence cannot be proven.
A large amount of information about the Magic Islands and overseas travels to them is contained in the Irish sagas of the "Voyages" series. The most famous of them is "The Voyage of Bran (son of Febal)", VIII-IX centuries. It tells the story of the warrior-king Bran, who reached Emine - Apple Island or the Island of Women. Once Bran heard wonderful unearthly music. She was so beautiful that he fell asleep, fascinated by her. Waking up, he saw in front of him an apple branch with flowers. Soon a woman in a strange dress came to his palace and sang a song about the island of Emine, where there is no winter, no grief, no need, where there is eternal spring and joy and fun reign:
The woman called Bran to this island and disappeared. The apple branch also disappeared with her. The next morning, Bran equipped a fleet and set out in search of Emine Island. He was met by Manannan riding in a chariot on the sea. He addressed Bran with the following speech:
Bran soon landed on the island of Emine and spent one year there. He and his companions began to yearn for Ireland and decided to return. When Bran's fleet moored to his native shores, he told the inhabitants his name and in response he heard that Bran, the son of Febal, had long been dead, that he, according to legends passed down from generation to generation, had gone to sea many centuries ago and did not return. Bran's companion Nekhtan jumped overboard, but as soon as he stepped on the ground, he immediately turned into a weak old man, and then crumbled to dust. Then Bran turned the fleet back and sailed from Ireland forever.
In other sagas of the Voyages series - Voyage of Mail-Duin's Boat (8th-10th centuries), Voyage of Snedgus and McRiagly (9th or 10th centuries), Voyage of O'Horr's Boat, based on the original of the 8th century., the Islands of eternal youth and happiness are also described. Their names are varied and significant: "The Land, or the Country of the Young", "The Great Valley", "The Land, or the Land of the Living", "The Valley of Pleasures", "The Country of Women" …
Let us dwell on the fascinating saga "Sailing the Mayle-Duina Boat". It tells the story of how the chief Mayle-Duin decided to take revenge on the pirates who killed his father. He built a large kurrah, took 60 warriors with him, and went west in search of them. Mayle Duin visited many islands, where he met giant birds, ants and other mythical animals and demons. He visited many unusual cities and countries and finally arrived on the Island of Women.
The island was a wide plain, "covered not with heather, but with continuous soft grass." Life on the island lasted forever, no one knew either old age or disease. Neither Mayle-Duin nor his companions had to worry about anything. They met the queen and her seventeen daughters. The women feasted with the travelers and shared a bed with them. Then they began to persuade them to stay on the island forever, so that "time would not touch them, and each retains his own age."
In the saga "The Voyage of Bran (son of Febal)", Bran's acquaintance with the Isles of the Immortals began when he heard wonderful music and saw an apple branch strewn with flowers. The Voyage of Mail-Duina also tells of an apple that provided travelers with food and drink for forty days and nights.
Similar motives are found in many other Irish and Welsh traditions. Consequently, "divine", "unearthly" music, an apple branch and an apple capable of feeding anyone (while remaining always whole) are integral attributes of the mysterious island that people are allowed to hear, see and taste. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the word "apple" or "apple" appears in many variants of the names of the Blessed Islands: Emine-Ablah (Celtic Ablach - apple), Avallon (Abal - apple, Gael. Ubhal - apple, Brit. Afal - apple), Inis Avallon (Ynis yr Afallon - British Afal - apple, Ynis - island; Inis Afalon - Breton. Afal - apple, Inis - island), Insula Avallonis or Insula Pomorum (Latin insula Avallonis, insula pomorum - Avallon island or Apple island) …
One of the legends where Apple Island is described in the most detail (in it it appears rather as a country), is the saga "The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land":
The promised country - Tir Tangire is also described in the legends "The Adventures of Konla the Red" (c. 1110), "The Adventures of Art, the son of Kon" (early 15th century), "Oisin in Tir Na-N-Og" (oral tradition, recorded in 1887), The Disappearance of Kondla, Matchmaking to Etain, and many other Irish sagas. Here is what the Adventures of Konla the Red saga has to say about this:
There is a special legend telling about the travels of Art and his father, Konn of the Hundred Battles, to the Promised Land - "The Adventures of Art, son of Konn." Unlike Konla, both returned safely from this trip.
This is how the Island of the Happy is described in this saga:
The legend "Oisin in Tir Na-N-Og", which tells about the marriage of Oisin (in the Scottish tradition of Ossian), the son of the famous leader and warrior sage Finn MacCumal, who lived in the III century under King Cormac MacArth, with the king's daughter Country of Youth Niam (or, according to other versions, just the Queen of Youth). Here is one snippet from it:
But Oisin nevertheless returned to Ireland on a magic horse, which the queen gave him, and accidentally touched the ground with his foot. And immediately he prostrated himself on her, turning into a blind old man.
This legend is another confirmation that the Irish Celts considered the Islands of the Blessed to be a place where time does not flow like in the land of people.
***
So what is Avalon - a really existing country or the ideas of the ancient Celts about a different world and the afterlife? Here the opinions of most experts in the field of Irish and Welsh folklore agree: the Promised Land has always been only a figment of the imagination of people striving for a better life and believing in an afterlife. However, let's see if the arguments in favor of "geographical Avalon" - an island, islands or a whole country that once was on Earth, and then disappeared into the depths of the ocean as a result of a flood, earthquake or some other natural disaster, are so groundless. like Plato's Atlantis.
Let's start with the fact that on medieval maps west of Ireland, Guy Brasil (Guy Brasil) was depicted - the island of the blacksmith Goffanov, which allegedly rose from the depths of the sea once every seven years. The belief in Guy Brasil in the Middle Ages was so great that the navigators who discovered South America believed that they had found it.
The real existence of the mysterious land in the west seems to be evidenced by "The Voyage of Saint Brendan", the Irish sagas of the "Voyage" series and some other legends. However, according to many, these works most likely reflect the real voyages on the sea of individual historical figures, for example, the patron saint of sailors, the Irish Saint Brendan, according to the Annals of Ulster (manuscripts of the 6th-15th centuries), born between 484-486. in Trailey in County Kerry (Ireland), who founded Clonferth Monastery in County Galway and died in 564.
The Voyages of Saint Brendan describes the many islands, icebergs, sea animals, and other wonders that Brendan and his comrades allegedly saw. The famous Irish traveler and researcher Tim Severin, who analyzed the texts of the Voyages, came to the conclusion that they actually describe a voyage to the northwest coast of Canada. Having built a replica of Brendan's ship - a leather-clad two-masted boat, a group of enthusiasts led by Severin in 1976-1977. went on it along Brendan's intended route. They met many islands, icebergs, as well as marine animals, which are similar to those described in "Voyage". Of course, the mythical island was never found. But since then almost two thousand years have passed - and anything could have happened. But the very factthat the voyage of Saint Brendan could have actually happened, Timothy Severin considers very likely.
The real historical figures Bran, Mail-Duin, Snedgus, McRiagl, O'Horr became the heroes of the Irish sagas of the "Swimming" series. The first of them was the king of Britain, the second was the son of King Ailil and a nun, the rest were wandering monks, like the heroes of many other legends ("The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land", "The Adventures of Konla the Red", "The Adventures of Art, Son of Kon", " Oisin in Tir Na-N-Og "and others); however, not in all cases this can be said with absolute certainty.
Thus, we are talking here not about one small island in the ocean, but about a whole archipelago of large islands. Some researchers compare it with the islands of the Caribbean: Cuba, Haiti, etc. In my opinion, such a comparison is not entirely correct: Emine was, first of all, a "magic" country in which immortals, magicians and sorcerers lived. And the islands discovered in the Caribbean several centuries later were inhabited by ordinary Indians.
A good confirmation of the real existence of the Island or the Isles of the Immortals is the Irish saga "The Battle of Mag Tuired" Let me once again cite an excerpt from it, which was quoted above:
And here is the continuation of this passage:
The above fragment and all the rest of the information contained in the saga about the tribe of the goddess Danu gives us confidence that the mysterious islands in the north were inhabited by the historical ancestors of the Irish, who ruled this country for several millennia (until 1700-1000 BC..). In some legends they are described as gods, in others - as demons, for example, in the already mentioned "Book of Conquests of Ireland". Some medieval scholars attributed them to demigods, others to divine demons, while others considered them ordinary people who came to Ireland from the territory of modern Greece. But despite all this, the tribe of the goddess Danu, apparently, lived in Ireland and neighboring Britain for no less time than has passed since the formation of the Holy Roman Empire to the present day.
It was a powerful civilization with a large number of talented scientists, architects, builders, musicians, artists and with all the features of democratic rule with equal rights for men and women. They brought with them to Ireland from the "northern islands" four magical items: the Lia Fal stone, Lug's spear, Nuadu's sword and Dagda's cauldron. These objects formed the basis of the plots of many works of Arturovsky, or the Grail cycle of medieval literature. The topic of the search for Avallon and the Holy Grail was closely associated with them. This means that medieval authors believed in their existence. Or maybe they had knowledge about prehistoric Ireland and Britain, now lost and inaccessible to us?
***
The prevailing opinion among experts is that the belief of the ancient Celts in the Isles of the Blessed reflects their ideas about the afterlife, and there are reasons for this.
Firstly, in the legends, Avalon is often represented as a ghostly, fog-shrouded island or land, unattainable for most mortals, where only selected heroes fall, which emphasizes its difference from other really existing islands. For example, St. Brendan's Voyage says:
“Such fog surrounded us on all sides that we could hardly distinguish the stern and bow of the ship. After an hour of sailing, the heavenly light shone upon us …
… With the onset of evening they found themselves in front of a veil of fog, stretching as high as one could see. The procurator said to Saint Brendan: … "This fog surrounds the island that you have been looking for for seven years." After an hour's journey, a bright light shone on them, and the ship landed on the shore."
In the saga "The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land" you can read:
Secondly, the stay on the island of immigrants from the Promised Land is often associated with the sound of "otherworldly" music, one of the main attributes of the other world. In The Voyage of Bran (son of Febalus) and The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land, magical music comes from the apple branch:
“One day Bran was wandering lonely around his castle when suddenly he heard music behind him. He turned around, but the music was playing behind him again, and it was so every time, no matter how much he turned around. And such was the beauty of the melody that at last he fell asleep. When he awoke, he saw near him a silver branch with white flowers."
Thirdly, the island itself, buildings on it, as well as immigrants from the Promised Land are usually depicted as separated from the ground by objects of bronze, which serves as an "insulating" and at the same time "conductive" material (a kind of "mediator" performing the same functions as horse, boat, etc.) between the human world and the other world.
So, in the saga "The Voyage of Bran (son of Febal)" it says:
In the saga "The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land" we read:
“There was a large fortress in the middle of the plain with a bronze wall around it. There was a white silver house in the fortress … Then Cormac saw another royal fortress and another bronze wall around it."
Fourthly, legends say that many objects (doors, armchairs, roofs of houses, etc.) on the Isles of the Blessed, as well as boats or ships of immigrants from the Promised Land are made of crystal, precious stones and metals, feathers of various birds, and its inhabitants do not wear robes typical of earthly inhabitants. Here are some of the previously quoted excerpts from "The Adventures of Konla the Red" and "The Adventures of Art, Son of Conn":
Crystal, precious stones, gold, robes of fine silk fabrics and brocade with gold embroidery are considered by many experts in Celtic folklore as material produced in another world. Among the Celts-Britons, even the Island of Apples itself was sometimes called the Glass Island (Inis Vitrin) by the glass tower located on it.
Fifth, in some sagas, for example, "The Voyage of Saint Brendan", it is said that there is no change of day and night on the island (that is, the eternal day continues), which, according to the supporters of unearthly Avallon, is another an important property of the other world:
From the above passage, it is clear that the inhabitants of the Promised Land did not require food or drink. And this is an additional argument in favor of the unearthly location of this country. Although in fairness it should be noted that in other sagas, such as "The Adventures of Cormac in the Promised Land" and "The Adventures of Art, Son of Conna", it is said that the inhabitants of the Land of Eternal Youth still ate food, drank wine and water. True, they did it somehow not earthly. Their food was apples that did not decrease in size, the Manannan pig, which was eaten by everyone at the table and which at the same time remained whole, and the Dagda cauldron could feed any number of those present.
Finally, those who support the version of the otherworldly finding of the Isles of the Immortals rely on the generally accepted scientific concept regarding the Celtic gods and heroes. Although, the last argument, in my opinion, cannot be the main argument in favor of the unearthly location of Avalon: this concept may turn out to be erroneous if evidence of the real existence of, for example, the Fomorians, King Arthur or the Holy Grail is found. In addition, it is built on a shaky foundation, since the Celtic legends about Avalon speak primarily of the Magic Land, and not the kingdom of the dead.
***
There is another interesting point of view about the location of the Country under the waves, which in many ways reconciles the supporters of the geographical and unearthly location of Avalon. However, it so clearly contradicts our current understanding of the Earth and, first of all, the results of geophysical studies of its inner spheres and shells (the earth's crust, mantle and core) that for a long time I did not dare to write about it openly. But I also could not help but dwell on it. After all, today no one can vouch that it, in the end, will not turn out to be correct. So, everything is in order.
The famous British astronomer E. Halley and the great mathematician L. Euler were serious about the idea of a hollow Earth, which was later described in the science fiction works of J. Verne "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", SV Obruchev "Plutonium" and others. In particular, E. Halley tried to explain the movement of magnetic poles on our planet by the presence of shells rotating relative to each other, and L. Euler assumed that there are holes at the North and South poles leading into the interior of the Earth.
American researcher Jan Lamprecht found a number of evidences of polar explorers R. Peary, F. Cook, D. Macmillan, R. Amundsen and G. Wilkins about the observation of unknown lands in the Arctic. Moreover, F. Cook in 1908 allegedly even managed to photograph an unknown land on the horizon at a point with coordinates 84 ° 50 'N. sh. and 95 ° 36 'W. d. - a few hundred miles from about. Elsmar.
In 1908, W. D. Emmerson's "The Smoking God", which tells the story of the mysterious adventure of the Norwegian Olaf Jansen and his father. At the end of the XIX century. they allegedly swam north and hit a hole in the Earth near the North Pole. There the travelers met with hospitable giants living in the "golden age", visited many cities and villages (including the legendary Eden, which seemed to descend from the pages of the Bible), met many inhabitants of the underground country and even met the high priest - the ruler the underworld. And then, having overcome the inland seas and oceans, they swam out of the hole in the South Pole!
At first glance, all this seems frivolous. However, the more carefully you read this and other similar works, the more you are struck by the similarity of the description of the underworld in them with the characteristics of the Promised Land. And in both countries there was virtually no change of day and night (as we, the inhabitants of the "upper world" are used to seeing it), they were illuminated by a uniform soft light - in the case of a hollow Earth, it emanated from the core. Both the one and the other "land" was in the north and represented an island or place in the ocean (the entrance to the underground country). Both the one and the other most of the time were hidden from the navigators: either they were under the waves, or were shrouded in thick fog. And in both countries, time seems to have stopped and the people or "non-people" who lived in them did not grow old for many centuries and millennia. Both the one and the other "land" abounded in precious stones and metals. The description of the similarity of the underworld and the Promised Land could be continued …
Of course, this can be easily explained by the fact that the authors of the works on the hollow Earth were well acquainted with Celtic and ancient mythology. Nevertheless, the hollow Earth is almost the only rational and at the same time scientific, without the involvement of mysticism, an explanation of where the Fomorians went after their conquest by the tribe of the goddess Danu, and where the Tuatha de Danann themselves went after their conquest by people - the descendants of the sons of Mil. And they left, according to numerous Irish and British legends, underground, where they established their settlements and at the same time became invisible to people.
This point of view reflects my opinion more than three years ago. Now I believe that the Tuatha de Danann sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
There is a similar plot in the legends of many other peoples. For example, among the Slavs the pans vievichs go underground, in the mythology of the peoples of the north, supported by historical evidence and the results of archaeological excavations, a chud appears as an underground people (here too). In ancient Indian literature, nagas and other demons are the inhabitants of the lower world. The most interesting thing is that, according to all these legends, after the inhabitants of the "upper" world, or the surface of the Earth, leave, contacts between them and people remain underground for a long time, culminating in mixed marriages of representatives of the "upper" and "lower" worlds. And only relatively recently, several centuries ago, their connection is abruptly cut off, and the inhabitants of the underworld already appear in the form of fairy-tale characters - fairies, goblins, gnomes and other creatures.
If we assume that the Earth is still hollow inside, then it is easy to explain the origin of many legendary, hidden from the eyes of people, territories, such as Shambhala, Agartti (and here), city-Kitezh, and they are located inside the mountains, underground or under water and extremely rarely, and even then in distant times, appeared to the eyes of people. After all, they are not much different from the sid hills, which are traditionally considered in Ireland and Britain as the dwelling place of representatives of the tribe of the goddess Danu who have gone underground.
The hollow Earth hypothesis finds unexpected confirmation in the ambiguous location of the Promised Land in Irish and Welsh traditions. On the one hand, the Isles of the Immortals are somewhere far beyond the sea; on the other hand, you can get to the Land of Eternal Youth through the underground passages starting in the hillside.
Author: A. V. Koltypin