2. THE GHOST ISLAND
The Canary Islands are seven ... and yet seeks eighth island. It is
the ghost island, mysterious island, the island of San Borondón. San
Borondón is the Canary Island of Saint Brendan and Saint Brendan of
Clonfert (480-576 AD), an Irish monk, who starred in one of the most
famous legends of the Celtic culture: the voyage of St. Brendan, or
Brendan to the Promised Land of Blessed are the islands of Happiness
and Fortune.
According to the Irish poem, Brendan was a monk of Tralee,
County Kerry Ireland. Ordained a priest in 512 AD, went along with 14
other monks in a fragile boat that plunged into the Atlantic. The legend
includes the story of his adventures, collect another 3 monks along their
journey, their encounters with demons who vomited fire, floating glass
columns, with monstrous creatures as big as islands.
Brendan and his companions came to an island where they
landed. It was full of trees and other vegetation. Celebrated Mass, and
suddenly the island began to move. It was a giant sea creature, on whose
back they were monks. After many adventures, Brendan managed to
return to Ireland.
3. Many are based on this legend had to say that Irish sailors reached possibly the coast of North America or Newfoundland, and
Iceland and other islands of the North Atlantic in the early Middle Ages.
The truth is that since the fifteenth century, during which the Canary Islands were conquered, they begin to hear the accounts
of a eighth island which sometimes could be seen west of La Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera. When sailors tried to approach
it, and were in sight of their coasts, mountains and valleys, the island was shrouded in mist and disappeared completely.
Obviously, the island was quickly identified with the mythical island of St. Brendan whale, whose name became, in the Canaries, "San
Borondón".
4. They blindly believed in their existence, and there were detailed accounts of the
odd surfer who swore to have landed on the island and having explored before again
sinking into the ocean. In an international treaty signed by the Kingdom of
Castile, referring to the Canaries, there was talk of Spanish sovereignty over "the Canary
Islands discovered and undiscovered" as they say, just in case ... The island was called
"Aprositus" Inaccessible, and other versions of the legend called "Antilia" or "Island of
Seven Cities", cities that were supposed to be founded by seven legendary bishops.
In eighteenth-century files are official investigations by the authorities of El
Hierro, where tens of witnesses declared that claim to have seen the enchanted island El
Hierro from the summits. As a result left Santa Cruz de Tenerife an expedition in search
of the island.
It's amazing tenacity with which the legend has continued to live in popular
folklore canary. San Borondón remains a constant presence in the popular imagination
of the islands, and certainly no island of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro
has not ever oteado from the summits of their own island, searching for the lost island
of San Borondón in the western horizon where the sun sinks into the cobalt blue of the
Atlantic.
