How to use the Navigatio Sancti Brendani for utmost pleasure for both you and your students:
First, as the teacher, download the Teacher’s Notes from the store on the CANEPress website. There are many items of interest here: projects, an outline of the story itself and the translation of the text.
Second, explain to the students that they now have a chance to understand the medieval mind. Things that we see know are not possible (e.g., a column rising in the middle of the ocean) were perfectly reasonable to the time period. If students look at some of the old maps, they will see lots of fantastic items listed. It’s not that these people were “stupid,” it’s that their understanding of the world allowed the mystic and the real to coexist on the same plane.
If you use old maps, you will find that you can try to plot St. Brendan’s course, but will often get lost, and want to go in another direction! In that case, view the voyage as a metaphor for: salvation/finding oneself/a quest. That opens the discussion up in very interesting ways.
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