letters, and then sail across the sea, never to be seen again. Parallels The poem shares similar themes and elements with other Irish immrama, such as The Voyage of Brendan and The Voyage of Máel Dúin, both written in early to mid-900. For example, both Bran's and Máel Dúin's voyagers reach an island of laughter or laughing people, and in each case a crew member is left abandoned. And the material may possibly have been borrowed by the Navigatio sancti Brendani abbatis, the Latin work on St. Brendan's voyage. Heinrich Zimmer contended that it led to the episode of the third latecomer being abducted by the demons (Navigatio 24), though did not see this as an obvious parallel. A different episode open to comparison is Brendan's abandonment of one of the monks to the psalm-singing choirs (Navigatio 17), although the situation in Brendan's case is a happy one and contrastive to Bran. Elsewhere, Bran is told of a tree with holy birds that all sing at the same time, similar to what Brendan encounters in his voyage, and Mael Duin encounters trees full of birds as well. However, some scholars emphasise that commonality of the voyage is only a superficial similarity, since the true immrama are "exclusively ecclesiastical in inspiration" in contrast to the echtrae (including Bran's Voyage) whose central theme is the voyage to the Celtic Otherworld. However, there are also specific points of close similarity, because the immrama do "draw to a limited extent on the motifs of the native secular literate" (including the echtrae). Saint Brendan The Voyage of Bran may have influenced the later story of Saint Brendan's voyage, owing perhaps to the similarity of the names of the leading figures. The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis stands out among other immrama since it mentions the terra repromissionis, which translates into Irish as Tír Tairngire ("Land of Promise"), which is the term for the Otherworld in the secular tales. The stories are also similar in that at one point, one of the travellers is exorcised or left behind on an island, either by free will or as punishment for a sin. Voyage of Máel Dúin The Voyage of Bran has many parallels to The Voyage of Máel Dúin. The island of laughter is a common theme. Bran and company visit the "Island of Joy." After being sent by Bran to investigate the island, one of Bran's men