In historical chronicles starting from the 9th century, one can find numerous references to the mysterious island located in the Canary archipelago by sailors. Its mystery lies in the fact that, according to the same references, Brendan's island either suddenly appears, then also suddenly disappears.
Now scientists call the island of St. Brendan a hypothetical land, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean, and about which medieval travelers wrote. The most famous piece detailing the island is The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Navigator.
This work deals with the sea voyage of the Catholic monk Saint Brendan, who set off from Ireland in a westerly direction across the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Brendan, accompanied by 14 other monks, moved from ship to boat and landed on the island in 512. Then he served Mass there.
Further, according to the description, people stayed on the island for 15 days, since supposedly the whole island was immersed in a thick cloud of fog. When the fog finally cleared and the monks managed to swim to the ship, the team that met them reported that the monks had been absent not for two weeks, but for a whole year.
In another literary work, another Barino monk reports that he also visited the same island in the Atlantic Ocean as Brendan. According to him, the island is one continuous dense forest with fruit-bearing trees, freshwater rivers and singing birds - in a word, paradise. And a Portuguese navigator who visited the island in 1570 wrote to the Spanish governor in a letter that he had discovered arable land, domesticated animals and imprints of huge human feet on Brendan.
References to this amazing island located in the west of the Canary archipelago can be found in other works of the Middle Ages. For example, the island is described by the author of Arab origin al-Bakri in his work "The Book of Roads and Kingdoms", which dates back to 1086.
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In addition, the island of St. Brendan is applied to geographical maps not only of the Middle Ages, but also of earlier eras. So even the ancient cartographers, including Ptolemy in the second century, described the eighth island of the Canary archipelago called Aprositus Nesos, which means "inaccessible" or "invisible". With this name, the ancients emphasized that the island is always in clouds or fog. The island is also depicted on several 13th century world maps, 1265 World Image, 1367 Pinciano Map, 1755 Gaultier Map. The latest news about the mysterious island was received relatively recently: in 1936, 1956 and 1958, there were people who claimed to have seen the island.
Modern scientists admit the possibility of the existence of a certain optical illusion, as a result of which, under certain weather conditions, a reflection of the island of Las Palmas appears on the site of the alleged Brendan Island. Other researchers suggest that the mysterious island may represent the intersection of several parallel realities. They believe that these other worlds may not be visible, but the abundant testimony of the inhabitants of El Hierro suggests otherwise.