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It is not easy… For us to imagine… The sea as land… And vice versa… Much less to see… And experience it that way… Perhaps that is the point… The notion that fish are sheep… And that seals are cattle… Does not sit well… In our minds… And for good reason… Although it is possible… To discern some similarities… But what of sea-horses?… Sea-horses are an old Irish poetic kenning for the white-foam of the sea-waves… As they roll in and crash upon the shore… And it is relatively easy to see the waves… As white chargers racing ashore. Is this text then a poetic-primer for other-worldly truck?
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The implications of the ‘sea-god’s’ words… Are that had he not been bound for Bran’s world… Bran would have been unable to see him… As well as all the other ‘invisibles’ moving about their business on the ocean that day… It is a curiously subtle conception… Much more subtle than most of what passes for mystery in our own day and age… Was it Manannan’s intent which caused his visibility… Or his proximity to the material realm?… The Christian myth knows only one divine conception… And that is regarded as immaculate… For the Irish Celts such events would appear to be quite common.
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Although a good number… Of the other worldly islands… Are named… And described… In the tale… Upon leaving Mannanan to his tryst… Bran only manages to visit two… He leaves one of his companions on the Isle of Joy… And with the rest of his company spends some time… On the Isle of Women… When one of the company becomes home sick… Bran picks up the man he left on the Isle of Joy… And together the full company return to Ireland… On reaching his homeland… The man who spent time on the Isle of Joy… Leaps ashore, only to be turned to dust as his feet again touch earth…
France & Vincent 
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