will not speak to the crew, only gaping at them, just like the inhabitants of the island. The man is then abandoned and left on the island. Similarly in The Voyage of Máel Dúin, one of Máel Dúin's men is sent to investigate, cannot stop laughing, loses the ability to recognize his crew and is eventually left behind. The motif of the magical pulling yarn is another motif found in both works. Bran and company reach the "Island of Women", where they are welcomed by many women, fed well, and one of the women uses a ball of yarn in order to magically ensnare Bran. In The Voyage of Máel Dúin, the crew reaches an island that is home to seventeen women, who are hospitable to them. When they try to leave, one of the women throws a ball of yarn that magically clings to Diurán's hand. But this motif occurs additionally in other works, e.g. the Irish account of the Argonauts prefixed to Togail Troí. At the end of the tale, one of Bran's men jumps from the coracle after having been magically at sea for hundreds of years. Upon touching dry soil, he is turned into ash. In The Voyage of Máel Dúin, one of the foster brothers tries to steal a necklet and is burnt to ash by a magical cat. Mabinogion The Voyage of Bran may also be compared to the Welsh text Branwen Daughter of Llŷr from the Mabinogi. The parallels are not along the lines of plot, as with The Voyage of Brendan and The Voyage of Máel Dúin, but rather in similarity in the names of characters (Brân son of Febal vs. Bran son of Llŷr). But the parallel between the two figures is another point on which Celticists are of divided opinion. It is pointed out that if Manawydan fab Llŷr has an exact counterpart in Manannan mac Lir, then Brân has an Irish counterpart named Brón, though the latter is quite obscure. Classical sources It has been pointed out that certain episodes in the Irish immrama bear striking resemblance to passages in classical works, such as the Odyssey or the Aeneid. Zimmer argued that The Voyage of Máel Dúin derived from the Aeneid, but this hypothesis was dismantled by William Flint Thrall. The mention of the sea god Manannán producing a human scion (Mongan) is analogous to Poseidon having ten sons