Barnaby the Wanderer

Notes on an Unknown

Plato, 500 BCE

Concerning Atlantis

... for beyond the mouth which you Greeks call the pillars of Heracles, there lay an island larger than Libya and Asia together...

The god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the center of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spoke as follows...

The Voyage of St. Brendan

(Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, 600 CE

Excerpt

They took sail with provisions for forty days, sailing west for that space of time; during which their guide went before them. At the end of forty days, towards evening, a dense cloud overshadowed them, so dark that they could scarce see one another. 'This darkness,' said their guide, 'surrounds the Land of Saints you have sought full seven years.'

And after an hour had elapsed a great light shone around them, and the boat stood by the shore. When they disembarked, they saw a land, extensive and thickly set with trees, laden with fruits, as in the autumn season... And for forty days they explored in various directions, But never could they find the limits thereof. At last they carne to a large river flowing towards the middle of the land, which they could not by any means cross over...

Letter to Ricci, aprox date: 1610 (?)

Vatican Archives

Miscellaneous Incunabula: #Bi:161

To Matteo Ricci, mathematician, cartographer, brother in the Society of Jesus, I send the kiss of friendship, my fraternal love, and the peace of God, trusting this letter finds you, and finds you well.

Brother, the Lord has brought my unworthy person to astounding things, and the news must reach you in Macao, and our Father in Rome, and our brothers scattered across the waves and mountains of the earth. For but four years ago, sailing west from Lisbon towards Vera Cruz, the Lord of Storms thought it wise to drive our vessel South. After much tribulation our prayers led us to a coast marked upon no chart. An island like unto no other; for a galleon might circle round about it in three days' time; and yet within its bounds lies a vast land of many kingdoms that weeks of journey could not cross.

From various signs I believe this unnatural isle to be the fabled Atlantis spoken of by Plato; else the Hi-Brazil whispered of among the Irish monks, if the two lands be not the same.

But I give it no pagan name; we have christened it 'Tierra de Los Santos', for it is a land rich in thought of divinity, awaiting only holy revelation.

The continent is divided into many and various kingdoms, some pleasantly wooded, others settled into peaceful farms, else busy towns, even cities. The folk seem a mix of all the lands of the world, as if we stood at the founding of the Tower of Babel. I deduce that once there was communication between 'Tierra de Los Santos' and the empires of the Caesars and Greeks, the Phoenicians, even the forgotten Etruscans. For in matters of worship the folk here speak of Jupiter and Demeter, Apollo and Venus. Yet they refer to these ancient deities in terms of orders of saint and angle, church and society. As have done other lands seeking to graft old errors onto the new revelation.

I am convinced those of faith came here long before me. They speak of a Saint Brendan, who reformed their old beliefs, creating the facade of a proper church.

We must have more workers in the fields herein, lest the harvest be heresy, not faith.

In short, this land, my brother, requires teachers, apostles, and Church Law. In hope of these good things I shall sail with the spring, bringing my maps and notes to Rome.

But I request your wise support, Brother Matteo, lest upon arriving the society think me mad, my maps mere lunacy. I beseech you, write to the college and affirm that we who wander in strange and distant lands are worthy of trust.

Your fellow laborer in the fields of faith

Benedictus

Summation of client's request:

Research and Application

Apr 12th, 2023

The phenomenon: the NSA has recently detected sporadic radio messages from the mid-Atlantic. Messages in a home-made Esperanto of Greco-Roman, German, Arabic, Chinese and other tongues never meant to by nature to mix.

The source claims to be from a nation named 'St. Hefestia'. They have recently discovered our own transmissions, and wish to establish regular communication.

Their messages reference a continent never known, with nations, histories and cultures equally mysterious. Seemingly agrarian, pre-electric, highly religious. They inquire of our forgotten empires and dusty kings as if they'd heard of the outer world from ancient travelers, yellowed texts.

The request: the NSA asks us to compose a rational explanation that takes the messages seriously; with no consideration of hoax or delusion. They give no explanation of the point of the assignment; nor do we ask.

In sum, our client requests a straight-faced serious-voiced hypothesis explaining how an invisible continent exists where satellites and sanity insist is only empty ocean.

Raw material for rationalization abounds. From classical Greece to modern schlock movies, legends place a magical land exactly in the Mid Atlantic where the signals originate. Atlantis, High Brazil, the Earthly Paradise, Lemuria and Avalon, not to forget the Bermuda Triangle. A grand warehouse of lore awaits the solemn researcher ready to sift fact from folderol.

And sifting done... no fact remains. It is all and only folderol. In the 1500's a sane mind might believe in a lost continent between Europe and the Americas. Not in the third millennium.

Well, but the request remains. As do bills to be paid. Ergo:

Our rational explanation:

I am proud to say the team quickly agreed that wormholes and Einstein-Rosen bridges were passé. A sad faction lobbied for magic of the sort that protects Oz, Xanth and Diagon Alley from mundane eyes. An even sadder minority favored placing the continent underwater, perhaps in a hollow Earth.

Fortunately, the Mid Atlantic Ridge came to our rescue.

We submit our 134-page rational hypothesis with impressive graphs correlating seismic activity along the Mid Atlantic Ridge with satellite detection of surface plasmon phenomenon integrating nicely with the time-periods of Hefestian radio transmissions. We suggest that oscillating geo-magnetic waves periodically achieve quantum resonance with another continent of Earth's distant past or future, herein referred to as 'Space-Time X'.

When the above-cited geo-magnetic forces achieve harmonic resonance, access between our reality and Space-Time X becomes possible. In fact, the mix of languages and cultures implied by the messages, plus the nagging endurance of Atlantean legends across multiple eras, implies that regular animal and human interaction has in fact occurred across millennia.

Afterword:

The Hefestians propose standardizing access between our separate realities. Briefly, they invite us to visit, and hope to visit us.

Tentative hypothesis: if access is established, these charming folk will sail into our harbors in wooden galleons. We, of course, will enter theirs in nuclear warships.