Brendan - Appearances in Popular Culture

Appearances in Popular Culture

• The Brendan Voyage is an orchestral suite for Uilleann pipes, written by Irish composer Shaun Davey in 1983 and based on Tim Severin's book of the same name.
• Novelist Patricia Kennealy-Morrison features St Brendan in her book "The Deers Cry", retelling his story with a science fiction twist.
• Novelist Frederick Buechner retold the story of Brendan's travels in his 1987 novel Brendan.
• The Celtic band Iona made an entire recording inspired by the voyage of Saint Brendan called Beyond These Shores, now available as part of the recording The River Flows.
• Singer songwriter Sarana VerLin wrote an instrumental song titled "St Brendan's Reel" that appears on several albums including "Amadon Crest".
• In the 2005 film Beowulf & Grendel, a travelling monk named Brendan the Celt sails to Denmark circa 521 A.D.
• J.R.R.Tolkien wrote a poem called "The Voyage of Saint Brendan" included in his posthumously published time travel story The Lost Road and Other Writings.
• The cream liqueur "Saint Brendan's" is named after him.
• Tommy Makem sang of the idea that Brendan's Isle of the Blessed was in fact America. His song "Brendan" on the album "Rolling Home" tells the story (explained in detail on the disk sleeve) of how he traveled to Newfoundland, down the coast to Florida, and thence back to Ireland.
• The Irish rock band The Elders have a song on their album "Racing the Tide" called "Saint Brendan Had a Boat"
• Saint Brendan has been adopted by the scuba diving industry as the Patron Saint of Scuba Divers.
• Irish folk singer Christy Moore had a humorous track called St Brendan's Voyage on his 1983 album Ordinary Man.
• Canadian indie band The Lowest of the Low correlate the voyage of St Brendan to the Atlantic passage of French and Irish immigrants to eastern Canada in the song "St Brendan's Way" on the album Shakespeare My Butt
• Brendan the monk, is a main character in the Toom Moore's animated film The Secret of Kells