THE SCENE: Listen up, all you Hellbound sinners! Looking to get out of eternal damnation? All you need to do is spend one terrible night on an island in Ireland.
THE TEXT: There is a lake in Ulster which contains an island divided into two parts.
One part contains a very beautiful church with a great reputation for holiness, and is well worth seeing. It is distinguished above all other churches by the visitation of angels and the visible and frequent presence of local saints.
But the other part of the island is stony and ugly and is abandoned to the use of evil spirits only. It is nearly always the scene of gatherings and processions of evil spirits, plain to be seen by all. There are nine pits in that part, and if anyone by any chance should venture to spend the night in any one of them – and there is evidence that some rash persons have at times attempted to do so – he is seized immediately by malignant spirits, and is crucified all night with such severe torments, and so continuously afflicted with many unspeakable punishments of fire and water and other things, that, when morning comes, there is found in his poor body scarcely even the smallest trace of life surviving. They say that if a person once undergoes these torments because of a penance imposed on him, he will not have to endure the pains of hell – unless he commit some very serious sin.
There is another remarkable thing about this island: while the world of Ireland is infested with mice, there is not a single mouse here. For no mouse is bred here nor does one live if it be brought in. If by chance it is brought in, it makes straight for the nearest point of the sea and throws itself in; and if it be prevented, it dies on the spot.
– The History and Topography of Ireland, Gerald of Wales, 12th Century AD
