Its structural and literary superiority to other Visions before Dante--The general plan--Indications of composite authorship--Authorities followed by the writer of the Vision--The guide to the Otherworld--The author’s use of old Irish imagery--His ecclesiastical treatment of the subject--Pictorial grouping and imagery--Parallels to the Imrama--The Cockayne idea and the ascetic idea--The state described to continue to the Last Judgment only--Deferred Judgment of certain spirits and their Limbo--The soul’s progress through the seven Heavens--The Purgatorial theory--Dante parallels--Judgment--The fate of the reprobate--Insistence on the spiritual side of their sufferings--The further description of Hell apparently interpolated--The Bridge incident--Fourfold division of the souls--The punishments of the reprobate--Increasing minuteness of these descriptions by successive Vision writers--Attempts at classification--Dante parallels--Temporary punishment of certain sinners--The region of the damned after the Last Judgment--Characteristics of northern and southern writers respectively--The four rivers of Hell--Adamnán’s message--Enoch and Elias with the Bird-flocks about the Tree of Life--Rhapsodical description of Heaven 174-206 6. LATER DEVELOPMENTS Irish influences upon Continental writers--Enduring effect of St. Brendan’s legend--The _Voyage of St. Brendan_--Old Irish incidents preserved therein--The Paradise of Birds and the rebel angels--Cessation of the Imram and continuance of the Fis--The _Vision of Tundale_--Great development of Purgatorial incidents--The Bridge episode--Hell described as the mouth of a dragon--Description of Hell--The half righteous--Converse with persons whom Tundale had known in life--King Cormac--Paradise--The Tree of Life and Bird-flocks--Blending in this vision of Irish and ecclesiastical elements--Influence of the result upon European literature--Relations to the _Fis Adamnáin_ and to the St. Patrick’s Purgatory legend--Dante probably acquainted with the Vision of Tundale--Comparison between the _Vision_ and the _Commedia_--Prevalence of the Vision legend on the Continent--Foreign Visions derived from Irish sources--The _Vision of Drihthelm_--St. Patrick’s Purgatory--The Vision of Owen--Doubtful origin of the legend of St. Patrick’s Purgatory--Its popularity on the Continent--Treatment by Continental writers--The _Vision of Alberic_--Waning influence of the Irish school--Increased number but diminished importance of the Otherworld stories--Lack of originality 206-241 7. CONCLUSION