Quest of Three Abbots

by Brendan Lehane

[wyvernfriend]

Full of florid language and the occasional snipe at the fact that some of what was though heretical then became dogma in the reformation and later, this is an interesting historical piece. Written in 1968, this is previous to Tim Severin's voyages to prove that it would have been possible to travel to America in Brendan's craft and previous to other scholarship about the period.

Still it's an interesting look at the time and at the people involved, while it does have it's flaws he has a great turn of phrase and he is quite an interesting read. The maps are interesting and informative as well. He does make some interesting points about the use of other legends to elaborate the lives of the saints However he fails to point out how different some of the marriage traditions in Ireland were to European which does impact on some of the stories and some of the assumptions. I do like the way he describes the carpet pages as being as a result of doodling gone riotous.