Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/564



western seas, was either Great Ireland, because there the Erse tongue was spoken,—it being colony of the souls of the Kelts,—or Hvitramannaland, because there the inhabitants were robed in white. In the mediæval vision of Owayne tl Knight, which is simply a fragment of Keltic mythology in a Christian garb, the paradise enclosed by a fair wall, “whyte and brygth as glass,” a reminiscence of the glass-palace in Avalon, ai the inhabitants of that land—

Some of these met him on his first starting on his journey, and there were fifteen in long white garments.

The following passages in the Icelandic chronicles refer to this land of mystery and romance.

“Mar of Holum married Thorkatla, and their son was Ari; he was storm-cast on the White-man’s land, which some call Great Ireland; this lies in the Western Sea near Vinland the Good (America): it is called six days’ sail due west from Ireland. Ari could never leave it, and there he was baptized. Hrafn, who sailed to Limerick, was the first to tell of this; he had spent a long time in Limerick in