Having then embarked, they wandered for months on the ocean, before
reaching another island. That on which they finally landed was inhabited
by monks who had as their patrons St. Patrick and St. Ailbee, and they
spent Christmas there. A year passed in these voyages, and the tradition
is that for six other years they made just the same circuit, always
spending Holy Week at the island where they found the sheep, alighting for
Easter on the back of the same patient whale, visiting the Isle of Birds
at Pentecost, and reaching the island of St. Patrick and St. Ailbee in
time for Christmas.

But in the seventh year they met with wholly new perils. They were
attacked, the legend says, first by a whale, then by a griffin, and then
by a race of cyclops, or one-eyed giants. Then they came to an island
where the whale which had attacked them was thrown on shore, so that they
could cut him to pieces; then another island which had great fruits, and
was called The Island of the Strong Man; and lastly one where the grapes
filled the air with perfume. After this they saw an island, all cinders
and flames, where the cyclops had their forges, and they sailed away in
the light of an immense fire. The next day they saw, looking northward, a
great and high mountain sending out flames at the top. Turning hastily
from this dreadful sight, they saw a little round island, at the top of
which a hermit dwelt, who gave them his benediction. Then they sailed
southward once more, and stopped at their usual places of resort for Holy
Week, Easter, and Whitsuntide.

It was on this trip that they had, so the legend says, that strange
interview with Judas Iscariot, out of which Matthew Arnold has made a
ballad. Sailing in the wintry northern seas at Christmas time, St. Brandan
saw an iceberg floating by, on which a human form rested motionless; and