MEYER, Kuno. & NUTT, Alfred. The Voyage of Bran son of Febal to the Land of the Living an old Irish saga now first edited, with translation, notes and glossary by Kuno Meyer.

With an Essay upon the Irish Vision of the Happy Otherworld and Celtic doctrine of rebirth by Alfred Nutt. Section I. The Happy Otherworld. Section II. The Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth. By Alfred Nutt. With Appendices: the Transformations of Tuan Mac Cairill, the Dinnseanchas of Mag Slecht. Edited and Translated by Kuno Meyer. Two volumes. London: David Nutt, 1895/97. First edition. Crown octavo. pp. (1) xvii, 331 (2) xii, 352. Titles printed in red and black. Quarter green cloth on paper boards. Ex libris with stamps. Minor wear to extremities. A good set.
The Voyage of Bran is a medieval seventh or eighth-century Irish language narrative. The date of composition has been assigned to the late 7th or early 8th century, and the text is known to have been included in the lost 8th century codex Cín Dromma Snechtai. Although the conventional title Immram Brain identifies the tale-type as an immram (‘voyage’ tale), some scholars argue the work does not count among the genuine immrama, but should rather be considered an echtra (‘adventure’ tale) and the title Echtrae Brain should be adopted, for indeed Echtra Bran maic Febail is the title (and categorisation) that occurs in the 11th century tale-list. The tale may derive from the “otherworldly journey” material from Irish mythology, possibly of pan-Celtic origin. However there is a dissenting camp of scholars who hold that “these tales [echtrai] are literary compositions written within the Christian period”.
The concept of “voyage” has been widely used across the world in that time. While this specific set comes from Ireland, it can be compared with Classical sources such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid, some Scandinavian tales as well as some Brittonic tales told on what is now the United Kingdom, particularly those preserved from Wales (Y Mabinogion) and Brittany including Tristan and Yseult.

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