The whale-island episode in Navigatio Sancti Brendani
- Date of account
- Late 9th–10th century text
- Location
- Latin monastic literary world; Atlantic voyage setting
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
Navigatio Sancti Brendani describes Saint Brendan and his companions landing on what they mistake for an island, only to discover that it is a huge living sea creature, commonly identified in later tradition as Jasconius. The episode is a specific Latin voyage narrative with extensive manuscript transmission, not a modern marine-animal report. It matters for comparing medieval monster motifs, sacred geography, and literary accounts of deceptive islands. Verification should consult critical editions and manuscript studies, because the dating, composition history, and relationship to earlier biblical and classical motifs remain subjects of scholarship.
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