1.20–25

A mysterious man appeared, says Barrind; he knew them by name without being told, and told them not to cross the river but to go home.  Barrind asked the man who he was, but the man said that the island was more interesting than who he was: the visitors felt no bodily needs there for a year, or what seemed like a year.  They never slept, and it was never dark, because of the light of Christ.

[20] Cum haec exposuimus intrā nōs: i.e., when they had talked these things over.

vir magnō splendōre: Barrind calls him an angel at 1.32; ablative of quality (ablative of description), AG § 415.

propriīs nōminibus nōs appellavit: Saints’s lives often mention a mystical power of knowing someone’s name in advance.

[21] quam datūrus est: CL would be quam dabit.

Est enim medietās: "for this is the middle."

usque ad istud flūmen: “all the way up to this river” here means “at this river."

revertiminī: plural imperative of a deponent verb (CL).

[23] Cūr mē interrogās, etc.: divine beings (here an angel) often reject questions about their identity. Compare Jacob and God (in human form) at Gen. 32.29: “Jacob asked him, ‘Tell me: by what name art thou called?’ He answered: ‘Why dost thou ask my name?’”

ita ab initiō mundī permanet: an example of the “timeless present,” used for actions at the time of speaking but also happening more generally (Pinkster, Oxford Latin Syntax I, 397–9); English would normally use a perfect: “thus it has remained since the beginning of the world.”

[24] Ūnum annum enim es in hāc īnsulā: according to Barrind they have only been on the island for 15 days (1.19), but confusion about time can be a feature of an Irish echtra.

gustāstī: = gustāvistī.

[25] lūx ipsīus est: "this is its (the island's) light"; cp. Revelation 21.23: “And the city hath no need of sun nor of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God hath enlightened it (nam claritas Dei inluminavit eam), and the Lamb is the lamp thereof” (et lucerna eius est Agnus).