Brasil (mythical island)

Brasil
Native name: Hy-Brasil, Hy Brasil, Hy Breasil, Hy Breasail, Hy Breasal, Hy Brazil, I-Brasil
	Brasil (far left) as shown in relation to Ireland on a map by Abraham Ortelius (1572)
Etymology	Uí Breasail: in honour of the descendants of Bresail
Geography
Location	Mythical, Atlantic Ocean

Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil and several other variants,^[2] is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean^[3] west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it becomes visible but still cannot be reached.

Etymology

The etymology of the names Brasil and Hy-Brasil is unknown. Despite the similarity, the name of the country Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil) has no connection to the mythical islands. The historian Walter Scaife remarked in 1890 that the toponym had something of a will-o'-the-wisp character, "for on various maps it may be seen designating a great Antarctic continent, extending to the South Pole, or a small island near the arctic circle; or it may be as far west as the southern part of South America or as far east as the vicinity of the coast of Ireland..." the form of the name being "almost as various as the positions in which it is found..." and listing thirteen different variations thereof.^[4]

It is synonymous with the Medieval Latin brasile, the term for a dye that enjoyed great popularity as a trading commodity in the twelfth century throughout Western Europe. It has been speculated that the widespread appearance of the name on maps of the era served as a locational marker for sources of the dye.^[4]

In Irish tradition it is thought to come from the Irish Uí Breasail (meaning 'descendants/clan of Bresail'), a minor Gaelic clan of northeastern Ireland. Another possibility is Old Irish í 'island' + bres 'beauty, worth; great, mighty'.^[1]

Appearance on maps

Nautical charts identified an island called "Bracile" west of Ireland in the Atlantic Ocean as far back as 1325, in a portolan chart by Angelino Dulcert. It also appeared on the Catalan Atlas, in 1375.^[5]

One of the earliest appearances was on the Rex Tholomeus portolan chart dated to circa 1360.^[6]^[7]

Later it appeared as Insula de Brasil in the Venetian map of Andrea Bianco (1436), attached to one of the larger islands of a group of islands in the Atlantic.^[8] This was identified for a time with the modern island of Terceira in the Azores, where a volcanic mount at the bay of its main town, Angra do Heroismo, is still named Monte Brasil.^[9]

A Catalan chart of about 1480 labels two islands "Illa de brasil", one to the south west of Ireland and one south of "Illa verde" or Greenland.^[10]

On maps the island was shown as being circular, often with a central strait or river running east–west across its diameter.^[11] Despite the failure of attempts to find it, this appeared regularly on maps lying south west of Galway Bay until 1865, by which time it was called "Brasil Rock."^[10]

Map gallery

Catalan atlas from 1375
Piri Reis' map of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea from 1513
Map of Europe from 1570
Gerardus Mercator's map from 1595

Searches for the island

Expeditions left Bristol in 1480 and 1481 to search for the island; and a letter written by Pedro de Ayala, shortly after the return of John Cabot (from his expedition in 1497), reports that land found by Cabot had been "discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found Brasil".^[12]

In 1674, a Captain John Nisbet claimed to have seen the island when on a journey from France to Ireland, stating that the island was inhabited by large black rabbits and a magician who lived alone in a stone castle, yet the character and the story were a literary invention by Irish author Richard Head.^[13] Roderick O'Flaherty in A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught (1684) tells us "There is now living, Morogh O'Ley (Murrough Ó Laoí), who imagines he was personally on O'Brasil for two days, and saw out of it the Aran Islands, Golamhead [by Lettermullen], Irrosbeghill, and other places of the west continent he was acquainted with."

Hy-Brasil has also been identified with Porcupine Bank, a shoal in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Ireland^[14] and discovered in 1862. As early as 1870, a paper was read to the Geological Society of Ireland suggesting this identification.^[15] The suggestion has since appeared more than once, e.g., in an 1883 edition of Notes and Queries.^[16]

In popular culture

Irish poet Gerald Griffin wrote about Hy-Brasail in the early nineteenth century.^[17]

Mary Burke's short story uses the myth as an allegory of the breach caused by the Northern Irish Troubles. Mary Burke, “Hy-Brasil” in The Faber Best New Irish Short Stories, 2004-5 Ed. David Marcus. London: Faber & Faber, 2005, 101–05.^[18]

In The Hollow Hills, part of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, several characters believe (incorrectly) that the wizard Merlin has hidden the young Prince Arthur on Hy-Brasil.^[19]

In the 1989 film comedy film Erik the Viking, Hy-Brasil is the location of the Horn Resounding, said to allow mortals to enter Asgard and return home safely. In the film it is said that if blood should ever be spilled on its shores the land would sink beneath the waves.^[20]

References

^ ^a ^b McKillop, James (1998). "Hy Brasil". A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press.
^ Hy Brasil, Hy Breasil, Hy Breasail, Hy Breasal, Hy Brazil, I-Brasil
^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brazil, or Brasil" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 438.
^ ^a ^b Freitag, Barbara. Hy Brasil: The Metamorphosis of an Island: From Cartographic Error to Celtic Elysium, p. 4, 13-17. Netherlands: Editions Rodopi, 2013.
^ Lišèák, Vladimír: Mapa mondi (Catalan Atlas of 1375), Majorcan cartographic school, and 14th century Asia, Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., pg 3, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-proc-1-69-2018, 2018.
^ "A $7.5-million find: Overlooked Getty estate sale map turns out to be 14th century treasure". Los Angeles Times. 25 October 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
^ "The Oldest Portolan Chart in America and The Fourth-Oldest Surviving "Complete" Portolan Chart of Europe". Retrieved 3 January 2024.
^ Smith, Cynthia. "Hy-Brasil: The Supernatural Island". Library of Congress Blogs. Library of Congress. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
^ Quadrant. Australia: Quadrant Magazine. Vol 32, p. 19, 1988. Google Books.
^ ^a ^b Fanneran, Vinny. "Uncovering truth behind 'phantom Galway island' appearing on old maps that suddenly disappeared". Galway Beo. Galway Beo. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
^ Freitag, Barbara: Hy Brasil: The Metamorphosis of an Island: From Cartographic Error to Celtic Elysium, Netherlands: Editions Rodopi (2013), pg 10, Google Books
^ Seaver, K.A. (1995). The Frozen Echo. Stanford University Press. p. 212. ISBN 0-8047-3161-6.
^ Freitag, Barbara (2013). Hy Brasil: The Metamorphosis of an Island. Rodopi. ISBN 978-9401209106.
^ Velasco, Francisco; Landa, Jorge; Barrado, Joaquín; Blanco, Marian (2008). "Distribution, abundance, and growth of anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) on the Porcupine Bank (west of Ireland)". ICES Journal of Marine Science. 65 (7): 1316. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn130.
^ Winsor, Justin (1889). Narrative and critical history of America. Vol. 1. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 51.
^ Frazer, W. (December 1883), "O'Brazile or Hy Brazile", Notes and Queries, s6-VIII (207): 475, doi:10.1093/nq/s6-VIII.207.475a
^ Griffin, Gerald (1846). "Hy-Brasail—The Isle of the Blest". In MacCarthy, D. F. (ed.). The Book of Irish Ballads. Dublin: James Duffy. p. 34.
^ "Review: The Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories 2004-5". The Guardian. 27 May 2005.
^ Stewart, Mary (1980). Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0688003478.
^ "Erik the Viking (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 January 2024.