Something went terribly wrong at his monastery, and Brendan the Navigator had nowhere to turn. Then a storyteller dropped by his cell at Clonfert Abbey one evening. This fortunate visit changed his life and the lives of seventeen monks who set out with him to brave the unknown Atlantic.

Sailing first to the Faroe Islands, they found an Eden-like world, including a guide, a friendly whale, and psalm-loving birds. Eventually they reached the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, the waters off Labrador, and the world's northernmost volcano, Mt. Beerenberg. This was the first European voyage to the Americas, recorded as a story so true it could only become a legend and then a fairy tale to all but a few. What these Irish voyagers found was a pristine world, filled with paradises. The stories they told and songs they sang give us a precious and rare insight into the Dark Ages and a Church scattering through all the world, as commanded. These stories were written down for school children, but they forever sing in the hearts of all who read them.