In the presidential residence church at Bessastaðir on the Alftanes Peninsula near Reykjavik there is a glass-mosaic window, showing the incident during the voyage of St. Brendan when he and his followers witness a volcanic island emerging out of the ocean, most likely during a submarine eruption on the Reykjanes ridge. ’’Believers in God, stand firm in faith unfeigned. We are now at hell’s gates”, St. Brendan says, making the sign of a cross and praying: ’’Lord lesus Christ deliver us from this island.“ The original painting on which this glass-mosaic is patterned is by an Icelandic painter, Finnur Jónsson (b. 1892). The boat shown here is not a leather boat (‘curragh’), but a wooden hull boat, riveted together with nails. Some people believe that the Irish were also able to build that kind of wooden boats as the Vikings did.
Að of an er skinnbáturinn BRENDAN á siglingu á hafinu milli Islands og Grœnlands, rúmar 100 sjómílur frá Reykjanesi, aðmorgni 12. maí 1977.
