Post by ronniedugdale on Jan 22, 2011 16:22:48 GMT -5
Hy Brasil the ‘other’ Atlantis
It is undisputed that the most famous ‘lost island’ is Atlantis. But there is another island which is just as mysterious called Hy-Brasil
The island is said to be located to the west of Ireland and is known as Hy-Brasil in Irish mythology..
"Hy-Brasil was noted on maps as early as 1325, when Genoese cartographer Dalorto placed the island west of Ireland. On successive sailing charts, it appears southwest of Galway Bay. On some 15th century maps, islands of the Azores appear as Isola de Brazil, or Insulla de Brazil. After 1865, Hy-Brasil appears on few maps since its location could not be verified.Regardless of the name or location, the island's history is consistent:
It is the home of a wealthy and highly advanced civilization. Those who visited the island returned with tales of gold-roofed towers and domes, healthy cattle, and opulent citizens." That last paragraph is quoted from the fascinating article "Hy-Brasil - the Irish Atlantis" by Fiona Broome.
Hy-Brasil is known by various names: Also called Bersil, Brazir, O'Brasil, O'Brassil, Breasil, Brasylle, Hy-Brazil, or Hi-Brasil.
Brasil is clearly visible on a number of maps, including Wagenhaer's map from 1583 and Giovanni Magini's 1597 map of the Atlantic islands.
In his book "Ireland - A Journey Into Lost Time", P.A. Ó Síochán says that knowledge of a lost land is "inherent all through Celtic literature and history".
In Ireland, he says, "the legend concerned a lost island in the Atlantic off the west coast, called Hy-Brasil: Hy meaning island and Brasil (Breasal) meaning mighty and beautiful in the Gaelic."
"It lay to the west and north-westwards from a junction with the Aran islands and the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare."
According to legends of long ago, Hy-Brasil was a secret land once ruled by priests. These priests held the secrets to the universe and had access to ancient, but powerful knowledge. In folklore, this island country takes its name from Breasal, the High King of the World, in Celtic history.
The island is said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years, when it became visible but could still not easily be reached.
Over the centuries a number of maps have charted the position of the island. On maps, the island was shown as being circular, often with a central strait or river running east-west across its diameter.
A Catalan map from around 1480 labels two islands “Illa de brasil”, one to the south west of Ireland and the other south of “Illa verde” or what is now known as Greenland.
There have been numerous expeditions in the past to search for this mythical land. One expedition in 1497 was led by John Cabot. He reported that he had found the land and it had been “discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found Brasil”.
Some historians note that the renowned navigator Pedro Alvarez Cabral also claimed to have reached the island during his voyages in the 1500′s.
The 1600′s had a wealth of reports about the island. In 1674 a Captain John Nisbet and his crew were in familiar waters off the west coast of Ireland. They were enshrouded in fog.
As the fog lifted, they saw that they were close to an island, so anchored in three fathoms of water.
According to reports, four crew members took a small boat and landed on the island. They spent a day there before returning laden with gold and silver. They claimed that an old man who lived on the island had given it to them as a gift.
When they returned to Ireland, a second ship under the command of Alexander Johnson set out to find the island. According to reports of the time, they too found an hospitable island and returned to confirm the previous report.
The last sighting of the island occured in 1872. Author T. J. Westropp and several companions claim to have seen the island appear and then vanish. According to reports this was the third time that the author had seen Hy-Brasil and had brought his mother and companions to witness it for themselves.
The island was once again brought into the public mind in late 2010 with a TV series revelation.
In 1980 Sgt Jim Penniston was stationed at Bentwaters military base. During the UFO incident in Rendlesham Forest, he claims that when he touched the glyphs on the craft he received a message in the form of a picture in his minds eye of a series of 1s and 0s ( binary code),This picture stayed in his mind and would not go away . The day after the incident while at home he felt compelled to copy them down into his small pocket note book that he had previously used to describe the craft and Glyphs . They made no sense to him at all and he thought they could possibly be be gibberish .However ,only after he had wrote them down did he gain a sense of relief.
On the History Channel program ‘Ancient Aliens’ this binary code was deciphered by Internet programmer Nick Ciske.
Below the decoded message followed the co-ordinates of an area off the west coast of Ireland which correlates to the site of Hy-Brasil.
The decoded message read:
EXPLORATION OG (F) HUMANITY ( unclear) 8100
52° 09′ 42.532″ N
13° 13′ 12.69″ W[
CONTINUOUS FOR PLANETRY ADVANC(E)
FOURTH COO(R)DINATE (Time?) CONTINUOUS? ( Unclear) BEFORE
So, did / does Hy-Brasil actually exist?
Some people claim that what people are acutally seeing is an area near Ireland called the Porcupine Bank.
Porcupine Bank is an area of the Irish shelf approximately 200 kilometers west of Ireland. The relatively raised area of seabed lies between the deep-water Porcupine Seabight and Rockall Trough.
The northern and western slopes of the bank feature species of cold-water corals.
Could it be possible that during times of extreme spring tides that this Bank is epxosed to the surface of the sea? As early as 1870 a paper was read to the Geological Society of Ireland suggesting this identification.
If so, this could explain the reports of land which subsequently disappear quite quickly.
Of course another possible theory is that Hy-Brasil is in fact the lost realm of Atlantis which was said to be situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar).
The supposed location of Hy-Brasil is indeed beyond the Pillars and therefore fits into the Atlantis location as mentioned by Plato. Is this enough to say that they are one and the same? Certainly the location and the mythology would agree
Atlantis may be the island of Ireland
The mythical land of Atlantis, thought to have plunged into the sea and given the Atlantic Ocean its name, may actually have been the island of Ireland.
The new claim that equates the island mentioned by classical scholars with Ireland has been made by a physical geographer at Uppsala University, Dr Ulf Erlingsson.
Going by the best-known description of Atlantis, that of philosopher Plato, Erlingsson has drawn parallels he said make it almost 100% statistically certain that the physical features of the islands match.
According to Erlingsson: "Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest over the middle. They both feature a central plain that is open to the sea, but fringed by mountains. No other island on earth even comes close to this description."
Dealing with the defining Atlantean event, its collapse into the sea, Dr Erlingsson says the story has become garbled over time but refers to the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, which is known to have become flooded in prehistoric times.
Erlingsson maintains that the Atlantic Empire can be associated with the megalithic monuments of Europe and Northern Africa, and equates the Atlantean capital with Tara or Teamhar na Rí, the ancient seat of the high kings of Ireland and itself a collection of historical sites, not all contemporary.
Plato`s "temples of Poseidon and the ancestors" are analogous to the Brú na Bóinne cemetary complex, which contains the great passage tombs at Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange.
Folklore about Ireland, Hy-Brasil and Atlantis
Traditionally, the link between Ireland and Atlantis was through the mysterious sunken island of Hy-Brasil, located somewhere in the Atlantic. This island, which is said to have been named after the king of Ireland, Bressal, is said in local folklore to be visible once every seven years off the west coast of Ireland. Some believe this is a possible candidate for Atlantis, hence the naming of the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean.
Way back in 1684, the Irish historian O'Flaherty spoke about the enchanted island of Hy-Brasil:
"From the Isles of Arran and the west continent often appears visible that enchanted island called O'Brasail and, in Irish, Beg Ara.
Whether it be real and firm land kept hidden by the special ordnance of God, or the terrestrial paradise, or else some illusion of airy clouds appearing on the surface of the sea, or the craft of evil spirits, is more than our judgments can pound out.
"There is now living, Murrough O'Ley, who imagines he was himself personally in O'Brasail for two days and saw out of it the Isles of Arran, Golam Head, Iross-beg Hill, and other places on the western continent which he was acquainted with. The manner of it he relates, that being in Iross-Ainhagh, in the south side of the Barony of Ballynahinshy, about nine leagues from Galway by sea in the month of April, A.D.1668, going alone from one village to another in a melancholy humour upon some discontent of his wife's (!) he was encountered by two or three strangers and forcibly carried by a boat into O'Brasail, as such as were within told him -- and they could speak both English and Irish. He was ferried out hoodwinked in a boat, as he imagines, till he was left on the seaside by Galway, where he lay in a friend's house for some days after being very desperately ill, and knows not how he came to be there.
"In the western ocean, five or six leagues from the continent there is a sand bank about thirty fathoms deep in the sea. It is called in Irish, Imaire Bay, and in English, the Cod-fishing Bank. From this bank about twenty years ago, a boat was blown southwards by night; next day about noon the occupants spyed land so near them that they could see sheep within it, and yet durst not, for fear of illusions, touch shore, imagining it was O'Brasail, and they were two days coming back towards home.
"Some few generations ago, the crew of a fishing boat passing an island which they did not know, landed thereon to refresh themselves. They had no sooner landed than a man appeared and told them they had no business there as the island was enchanted. They therefore returned to the boat, but as they were going away the islanders gave one of them a book with directions not to look into it for seven years. He complied with the request and when he opened and read the book he was able to practice surgery and psychic with great success. This man's name was Lee, and the book remained as an heirloom with his descendants."