As the first cultural history of the sea in medieval English literature, this book traces premodern myths of insularity from their Old English beginnings to Shakespeare's 'Tempest'. Beginning with a discussion of biblical, classical and pre-Conquest treatments of the sea, it investigates how such works as the Anglo-Norman 'Voyage of St Brendan', the Tristan romances, the chronicles of Matthew Paris, 'King Horn, Patience, The Book of Margery Kempe'...