Volume 12 Number 3 Article 11 4-15-1986 "And Clove the Wind from Unseen Shores": The Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature Eleanor M. Farrell Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Farrell, Eleanor M. (1986) ""And Clove the Wind from Unseen Shores": The Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 12 : No. 3 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss3/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact phillip.fitzsimmons@swosu.edu. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Discusses the long history of the sea journey as a symbol in religious and secular literature, and its use in the work of more recent fantasy and mainstream authors. Additional Keywords Arthurian romances; Journeys in literature; Sea in literature; Sea voyage in fantasy; Ships in literature; Paula DiSante; Paula DiSante This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss3/11 M YTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 Page 43 "And Clove the W ind from Unseen Shores" T h e Sea Voyage Motif in Imaginative Literature Eleanor M. Farrell Humble voyagers are we, voyages. Ulysses (or Odysseus), the wily O'er l i f e ' s dim, unsounded sea.1 Greek creator of the TroJan horse, incurred the wrath of Poseidon, and the sea-god One of the most powerful images in thwarted Ulysses' attempts to return home to imaginative literature is that of the sea Ithaca for ten years. The wandering hero voyage. The significance of this theme encountered storms, shipwreck, cannibals, reflects, in part, our European cultural sirens and many other harrowing adventures inheritance. From its social and economic during his exile, including a descent into associations for civilizations bordering the Hades. Ulysses' character is unique in the Mediterranean, through the sea-carried spread classical epic, as he is noted for his guile of the cultures of northern Europe, the and curiosity as well as for the traditional historical importance of ocean travel virtues of generosity and courage. The hero permeated European narrative, both factual of Vergil's work, Aeneas, was a TroJan, and fictional, from the time of the classical exiled from Troy after the city's defeat. epics. The sea Journey motif reached a His Journey, however, was sanctioned by the height of popularity during the Middle Ages, gods (particularly Aeneas' mother Venus), who where it can be found in medieval epics, sent him to Italy to found a new nation poetry, romances, travel diaries, cultural there. Like Ulysses, Aeneas is shipwrecked, mythology, and pilgrimage literature. and the TroJan hero, too, makes a Journey through the underworld. Both stories were Why was th is particular image so strong well-known and very popular throughout the to medieval minds? To answer this question medieval period. Dante, in particular, it is necessary to look at the traditions weaves the voyages of these heroes into the influencing the literature of this period, tapestry of the Divine Comedy, a tale of which reverenced the lore and learning of the Journeying that involved, physically at past. There were three major sources for the least, no ocean crossings. literary products of the Middle Ages. The first of these encompassed the works of the The Old Testam ent of the B ib le d ea ls classical Greek and Latin writers: the epics, more with the desert than with the ocean, as the plays, and the philosophical treatises, it narrates the history of the Jews. There many of which were known only in second-hand are two oblique but important exceptions to or garbled forms. The collection of Judeo- this: the story of the flood in "Genesis" and Christian writings, including the Bible and the cr o ssin g of the Red Sea in "Exodus". the patristic writings of the Church Fathers, These sto ries were widely retold and adapted made up a second source. Finally, the oral during the Middle Ages as powerful religious traditions of the tribal cultures of the metaphors: the flood of baptism and rebirth, Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, and the other and the exodus of the earthly pilgrimaage of peoples se ttlin g Europe, traditions combining all men. The symbolic associations of water history, myth and religion, helped to form with spiritual life were extended in medieval cultural identities as different groups came literature to add a dimension of meaning to into contact with each other and with the stories of Journeys, and sea Journeys in monks who copied these works, too, onto their particular. parchments. The trading practices of the Celtic, Proportions of these traditions might Norse and Germanic tribes during the early change in various literary recipes, and Middle Ages assured the inclusion of blending was often uneven. Yet the seafaring adventures in their bardic conbination of in flu e n c e s can be seen more traditions. Combined with the elements of often than not: in the description of St. folklore and religious beliefs, sea Journeys Andrew's preaching as "unlock!ing] his word- became a source of marvel and magic. Often the heroic epics, such as Beowulf, began with hoard"^ in the Anglo-Saxon poem "Andreas", the hero travelling to a strange land to seek for example, or in the tale of the voyage of Uilix Maic Leirtis, an Irish Ulysses. The his destiny; this Journey was an essential bards and storytellers in the Middle Ages part of the hero's adventure. Celtic knew both a good story and how to maximize mythology celebrated the magical voyage, both in the Irish voyage of Bran and in the second its impact by making it apply to their branch of the Welsh Mabinogi. Here the hero audience. Bran and h is companions are led to an Earthly Paradise, where they feast unaging for eighty Probably the two most important years, until the memory of their former life classical voyage texts were The Odyssey of leads them to return home. There, they are Homer and Vergil's Aeneid. Both of these remembered only as legend. epics relate the adventures of survivors of the TroJan War, but there are important This theme was carried forward into two differences between the two heroes and their literary directions: the saints' lives Page 44 MYTHLORE 45: Spring 1986 narrative and the romance. "The Voyage of Cuckoo s dirge drags out my heart, St. Brendan" is essentially that of Bran, whets will to the whale's beat with Christian trappings. The hero of the across wastes of water: far warmer to me romance Tristan, after being wounded by a are the Lord's kindnesses than this life poisoned blade, is carried in a coracle to of death lent us on land.4 Isolde, the one woman who can cure him. Another striking depiction of the "magical Whatever the religious philosophy of these boat" motif is that in the lai of "Guigemar", Anglo-Saxon poets might have been, the strong composed by Marie de France. The hero, imagery in the poems makes them profoundly wounded in the thigh by a hart, is carried dramatic, emotionally intense, and very via magical ship to the woman who cures his personal. Their power and impact can be felt wound and then becomes his lover. The boats still by modern readers. in this type of narrative are potent metaphors of change, magic, destiny - the In the fourteenth century, Europe was very elements of adventure. bitten by a religious wanderlust, and thousands of people from all social stations The medieval romance tradition reached travelled to shrines across the continent and its culmination during the twelfth century in as far as the Holy Land. Many pilgrims wrote the body of literature centering on the quest accounts of their journeys, which became a for the Grail. The earliest elements of the sort of collection of medieval tour guides. quest, introducing Arthur as a Celtic In these, practical tips on travel and chieftain and warrior, are found in the body details of routes were interspersed with of Welsh myth, the Mabinogi. Wedded with the fantastic descriptions that were accepted by courtly love tradition of southern France, the medieval mind as readily as were reports Arthurian tales became the most numerous and of miracles. The Middle Ages were a time of popular romances. In time, Christian themes faith, and God could create gryphons and permeated this literature, and by the time of wine-bearing trees as easily as He could publication of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur in falcons and turnips. 1485, the Grail had evolved into a profound religious mystery. The ocean, of course, was not exempt from hyperbole. Sir John Mandeville, who The Grail stories are complex, combining claimed to be an English knight who had many and various streams of motifs which served with the Sultan of Egypt and travelled meander across the narrative landscape.