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44-824: Timothy Severin (25 September 1940 – 18 December 2020) was a British explorer, historian, and writer. Severin was noted for his work in retracing the legendary journeys of historical figures. Severin was awarded both the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society . He received the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for his 1982 book The Sindbad Voyage . He

88-551: A "Living Past Experience", was started by John Hunt on the site around the castle. It containis reconstructions of ancient Irish architecture including a dolmen , a crannog and the currach boat used in Tim Severin 's recreation of "The Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbot". It also shows reconstructions of a Ringfort , Fulachta Fia (Bronze Age cooking and industrial site) and Standing Stone (Ogham Stone). Craggaunowen Castle

132-466: A Heavy Ardennes (Carty), the latter a descendant of the war horses of Crusader cavalry – what Severin called ‘the Main Battle Tank’ of its day. This journey, after many years of marine expeditions, was a return to long-distance land exploration by Severin. The Journey would take place over 2 years with the horses and riders resting over the winter of 1987/8. Severin was unable to follow exactly

176-459: A Reverend William Ashworth, who held them from a Caswell (a member of a family from County Clare just north of Limerick ). In 1906, a mansion house at the site was owned by Count James Considine (from a family based at Derk, County Limerick). Craggaunowen Castle was bought and restored by antiquarian John Hunt in the 1960s. Hunt added an extension to the ground floor, which for a while housed part of his collection of antiquities. The collection

220-499: A modern genre of folklore that is rooted in local popular culture , usually comprising fictional stories that are often presented as true, with macabre or humorous elements. These legends can be used for entertainment purposes, as well as semi-serious explanations for seemingly-mysterious events, such as disappearances and strange objects. The term "urban legend," as generally used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968. Jan Harold Brunvand , professor of English at

264-617: A month, suffered broken spars, and were nearly run down by freighters, but arrived in Sabang on 17 April, then down the Malacca Straits to Malacca and Singapore arriving 1 June, then on to Guangzhou , China on 6 July. The epic poem Argonautica , first written down by Apollonius of Rhodes in Alexandria in the late 3rd century BC, became the basis for Severin's next expedition. He began his research into ancient Greek ships and

308-472: A narrative of an event. The word legendary was originally a noun (introduced in the 1510s) meaning a collection or corpus of legends. This word changed to legendry , and legendary became the adjectival form. By 1613, English-speaking Protestants began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event (especially the story of any saint not acknowledged in John Foxe 's Actes and Monuments )

352-475: A psychological level a symbolic representation of folk belief and collective experiences and serving as a reaffirmation of commonly held values of the group to whose tradition it belongs. Legend is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage c.  1340 . The Old French noun legende derives from the Medieval Latin legenda . In its early English-language usage, the word indicated

396-492: A series of vitae or instructive biographical narratives, tied to the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church . They are presented as lives of the saints, but the profusion of miraculous happenings and above all their uncritical context are characteristics of hagiography . The Legenda was intended to inspire extemporized homilies and sermons appropriate to the saint of the day. Urban legends are

440-399: Is an archaeological open-air museum in eastern County Clare , Ireland. It is named for the 16th-century castle which is one of its main components. Craggaunowen is located 10 km east of Quin village. The name Craggaunowen derives from its Irish name Creagán Eoghain (Owen's little rocky hill). The site is operated by Shannon Heritage. The open-air museum, sometimes described as

484-453: Is not more historical than folktale. In Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft (1928), Ernst Bernheim asserted that a legend is simply a longstanding rumour . Gordon Allport credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise; thus " Urban legends " are a feature of rumour. When Willian Hugh Jansen suggested that legends that disappear quickly were "short-term legends" and

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528-636: Is set in a historical context, but that contains supernatural , divine or fantastic elements. History preserved orally through many generations often takes on a more narrative-based or mythological form over time, an example being the oral traditions of the African Great Lakes . Hippolyte Delehaye distinguished legend from myth : "The legend , on the other hand, has, of necessity, some historical or topographical connection. It refers imaginary events to some real personage, or it localizes romantic stories in some definite spot." From

572-604: The Brendan , and, over more than 13 months, travelled 4,500 miles (7,200 km), arriving at Canada on June 26, 1977, landing on Peckford Island , Newfoundland , before being towed to Musgrave Harbour by the Canadian Coast Guard. Severin told reporters, "We've proved that a leather boat can cross the North Atlantic by a route that few modern yachtsmen would attempt.". Along the way, they had stopped at

616-519: The Hebrides , the Faroe Islands and Iceland (where they spent the winter until departing again on May 11) en route. He considered that his recreation of the voyage helped to identify the basis for many of the legendary elements of the story: the "Island of Sheep", the "Paradise of Birds", "Crystal Towers", "mountains that hurled rocks at voyagers", and the "Promised Land". Severin's account of

660-630: The Ionian islands . Along the way, Severin made tentative or conclusive identifications of The land of the Lotus-eaters , King Nestor 's palace, the Halls of Hades, the Roving Rocks , Scylla and Charybdis , and also the sirens. The Ulysses Voyage , published in 1987, tells the story of the expedition, the historical research that went into it, and the discoveries Severin and his crew made along

704-770: The Phasis delta in then- Soviet Georgia : a voyage of 1,500 miles (2,400 km). Along the way they identified some of the landmarks visited by Jason and his Argonauts, and found a possible explanation for the legend of the Golden Fleece . Severin recounted the expedition in The Jason Voyage (1985). Once again making use of the Argo from The Jason Voyage , in 1985 Severin followed the route of Ulysses ' voyage home in The Odyssey , from Troy to Ithaca in

748-568: The University of Utah , introduced the term to the general public in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. Brunvand used his collection of legends, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings (1981) to make two points: first, that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. Craggaunowen Craggaunowen

792-478: The rattan began rotting and the raft began falling apart in the mid-Pacific. After travelling 5,500 miles (8,850 km) in 105 days, they were forced to abandon the raft about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) short of their destination. Although the Hsu Fu , as the craft was named, did not complete the trip, Severin believed the voyage had accomplished its purpose. In The China Voyage , published in 1994, he wrote that

836-630: The talking animal formula of Aesop identifies his brief stories as fables and not legends. The parable of the Prodigal Son would be a legend if it were told as having actually happened to a specific son of a historical father. If it included a donkey that gave sage advice to the Prodigal Son it would be a fable. Legend may be transmitted orally, passed on person-to-person, or, in the original sense, through written text. Jacobus de Voragine 's Legenda Aurea or "The Golden Legend" comprises

880-605: The "Eastern Ocean" in search of life-prolonging drugs. Hsu Fu completed the voyage on a bamboo raft, which some believe took him to America and back. Severin set out to prove that such a voyage could have been made. On the beach at Sam Son , Vietnam , he oversaw the construction of a 60-foot (18.3 m) long, 15-foot (4.6 m) wide raft built of 220 bamboos and rattan cording, and driven by an 800 square foot (74 square metre), junk-rigged sail. After leaving Asia in May 1993, Severin and his crew faced monsoons , pirates and typhoons before

924-411: The "concern with human beings" is the long list of legendary creatures , leaving no "resolute doubt" that legends are "historically grounded." A modern folklorist 's professional definition of legend was proposed by Timothy R. Tangherlini in 1990: Legend, typically, is a short (mono-) episodic, traditional, highly ecotypified historicized narrative performed in a conversational mode, reflecting on

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968-782: The Abbot) dating back to at least 800 AD tell the story of Brendan's (c. 489–583) seven-year voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to a new land and his return. Convinced that the legend was based on historical truth, in 1976 Severin built a replica of Brendan's currach . Handcrafted using traditional tools, the 36-foot (11 m), two-masted boat was built of Irish ash and oak , hand-lashed together with nearly two miles (3 km) of leather thong, wrapped with 49 traditionally tanned ox hides, and sealed with wool grease. On May 17, 1976, Severin and his crew (George Maloney, Arthur Magan, Tróndur Patursson) sailed from Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry on

1012-482: The Indonesian island of Lamalera , whose people hunt sperm whales with harpoons from open boats. Throughout his expedition, Severin was able to compare Melville 's account with the reality he discovers, and to show that much of Melville's material was either borrowed or fabricated. Severin also wrote historical fiction. The Viking Series , first published in 2005, concerns a young Viking adventurer who travels

1056-588: The World as a guide. They travelled from Oxford via Switzerland to Venice , through Turkey , Persia and Afghanistan , surviving sandstorms , floods, motorcycle accidents, and time spent in jail. Severin and his guides rode camels through the Deh Bakri pass to identify the Persian "apples of Paradise" and the hidden hot springs described by Polo. They were unable to complete the voyage due to visa problems at

1100-639: The border of China and returned to England by sea from Bombay . From conquistadors to nineteenth-century gentlemen explorers, Severin follows the routes and tells the stories of the adventurers who have travelled along the US river the Mississippi for hundreds of years, and does so while navigating the length of the river by canoe and launch . It is theorized by some scholars that the Latin texts of Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (The Voyage of St Brendan

1144-682: The details of the text in 1981. Master shipwright Vasilis Delimitros of Spetses hand built a 54-foot (16.5 m) replica of a Bronze Age galley based on a scale model of the Argo . In 1984, with twenty volunteer oarsmen, Severin rowed and sailed from northern Greece through the Dardanelles , crossed the Marmara Sea , and passed through the Straits of Bosphorus to the Black Sea , reaching

1188-652: The expedition had proved that a bamboo raft of the second century BC could have made a voyage across the Pacific, just as Hsu Fu's account recorded. Following the path of the Pequod , Severin sets out to find a living, white sperm whale . His quest takes him to the remotest parts of the South Pacific: the Philippine island of Pamilacan , whose people hunt whale sharks with their hands and grappling hooks and

1232-635: The expedition, The Brendan Voyage , became an international best-seller, translated into 16 languages. The boat is now featured at the Craggaunowen open-air museum in County Clare , Ireland. The adventures of the medieval sailor Sindbad , as recorded in One Thousand and One Nights , became the inspiration for Severin's next voyage. After three years of researching the legend and early Arab and Persian sketches of medieval ships, he brought

1276-499: The folk legend as "a popular narrative with an objectively untrue imaginary content", a dismissive position that was subsequently largely abandoned. Compared to the highly structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, Helmut de Boor noted in 1928. The narrative content of legend is in realistic mode, rather than the wry irony of folktale; Wilhelm Heiske remarked on the similarity of motifs in legend and folktale and concluded that, in spite of its realistic mode , legend

1320-478: The hands of his descendants, the castle and grounds were acquired by the " Irish Land Commission ". Much of the poor quality land was given over to forestry and the castle itself was allowed to fall into disrepair. By the time of the First Ordnance Survey in the 1840s, the castle was in ruins again. In the mid-19th century, the castle, herder's house and 96 acres were reported in the possession of

1364-469: The moment a legend is retold as fiction, its authentic legendary qualities begin to fade and recede: in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , Washington Irving transformed a local Hudson River Valley legend into a literary anecdote with "Gothic" overtones , which actually tended to diminish its character as genuine legend. Stories that exceed the boundaries of " realism " are called " fables ". For example,

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1408-428: The persistent ones be termed "long-term legends", the distinction between legend and rumour was effectively obliterated, Tangherlini concluded. In a narrow Christian sense, legenda ("things to be read [on a certain day, in church]") were hagiographical accounts, often collected in a legendary. Because saints' lives are often included in many miracle stories, legend , in a wider sense, came to refer to any story that

1452-510: The project to Sur , Oman in 1980. Sponsored by Qaboos bin Said al Said , Sultan of Oman , he guided Omani shipwrights in the construction of the "Sohar", an 87-foot (26.5 m) replica of a ninth-century, lateen-rigged, cotton-sailed Arab dhow . The ship was constructed in seven months of hand-sawn wooden planks sewn together with nearly 400 miles (640 km) of hand-rolled, coconut-husk rope. Sohar left Oman on 21 November 1980. Navigating by

1496-499: The road, were inherited in 1821 by "Honest" Tom Steele, a confederate of Daniel O’Connell , "The Liberator". Steele had the castle rebuilt as a summer house in the 1820s and he used it, and the turret on the hill opposite, as places of recreation. His initials can be seen on one of the quoin-stones to the right outside. Following his death in 1848 the lands were divided, Cullane going to one branch of his family, Craggaunowen to his niece Maria Studdert. Eventually, having passed through

1540-529: The route of Duke Godfrey due to the civil war in the Lebanon , instead routing through Syria and Jordan to reach Jerusalem. While still a student at the University of Oxford , Severin wrote his thesis on the first European travellers in Central Asia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. With this background, to commemorate the 800th birthday of Genghis Khan he rode with Mongol herdsmen along

1584-584: The route once used by couriers of the Mongolian empire, mingled with camel herders in the Gobi Desert , and ate with Kazakhs in their yurts . His story, part travelogue , part research paper, was published in 1993 under the title In Search of Genghis Khan . Ancient Chinese texts tell the story of Hsu Fu , a navigator and explorer sent by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang , in 218 BC into

1628-540: The stars, Severin and his crew of 25 travelled nearly 6,000 miles (9,600 km) in eight months. From Sur they sailed east across the Arabian Sea , south down India's Malabar Coast to Lakshadweep and on to Calicut , India. The next phase of their voyage took them down the coast of India to Sri Lanka . From Galle they sailed across the Indian Ocean, on route they were becalmed in the doldrums for nearly

1672-480: The way. Nine hundred years after the First Crusade , Tim Severin and Sarah Dormon set out on horseback to follow the 2500 mile route of Duke Godfrey of Boullion and other Crusaders from Belgium to Jerusalem , travelling through the modern lands of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia (itself today consigned to history), Bulgaria, Turkey and Syria. The horses chosen were a riding school palfrey (Mystery) and

1716-645: The world. In 2007 he published The Adventures of Hector Lynch series, set in the late 17th century, about a 17-year-old Corsair . Legend Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings as the main characters and do not necessarily have supernatural origins, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not. The Brothers Grimm defined legend as " folktale historically grounded". A by-product of

1760-594: Was Dorothy Sherman , a specialist in medieval Spanish literature; that marriage ended in divorce. He later married Dee Pieters. Severin died on 18 December 2020, aged 80, at home in Timoleague , West Cork , Ireland. He is survived by his daughter from his first marriage, Ida Ashworth, and two grandsons. While he was an undergraduate at Oxford University , Severin, Stanley Johnson and Michael de Larrabeiti retraced Marco Polo 's thirteenth-century journey through Asia on motorcycles, using Polo's The Description of

1804-506: Was born Giles Timothy Watkins in 1940 to Maurice and Inge Watkins in Jorhat , Assam , India, where his father managed a tea plantation. Educated in England from age 7, he attended Tonbridge School and studied geography and history at Keble College, Oxford . He adopted the name Severin to honour his maternal grandmother, who cared for him in his youth. Severin married twice. His first wife

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1848-482: Was built around 1550 by John MacSioda MacNamara, a descendant of Sioda MacNamara, who built Knappogue Castle in 1467. It was left in ruins in the 17th century, and rendered uninhabitable by the removal of the roof and staircase, and indefensible by removal of the battlements, at the time of the Cromwellian confiscations around 1653. The Tower House remained a ruin until it and the estate of Cullane House across

1892-582: Was enriched particularly after the 1960s, by addressing questions of performance and the anthropological and psychological insights provided in considering legends' social context. Questions of categorising legends, in hopes of compiling a content-based series of categories on the line of the Aarne–Thompson folktale index, provoked a search for a broader new synthesis. In an early attempt at defining some basic questions operative in examining folk tales, Friedrich Ranke  [ de ] in 1925 characterised

1936-433: Was fictitious. Thus, legend gained its modern connotations of "undocumented" and " spurious ", which distinguish it from the meaning of chronicle . In 1866, Jacob Grimm described the fairy tale as "poetic, legend historic." Early scholars such as Karl Wehrhan  [ de ] Friedrich Ranke and Will Erich Peuckert followed Grimm's example in focussing solely on the literary narrative, an approach that

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