During our period the belief was spread abroad in the existence of a numerous Christian population in Asia. We find an account of Christians in India in an anonymous report of the visit of a certain Patriarch John of India to Rome in 1122, the authenticity of which is apparently confirmed in a letter of Odo, abbot of St. Remi in Rheims, to a certain Count Thomas.[506] Of far greater importance was the fabulous story of Prester John. Belief in this mighty Christian potentate and his immense kingdom may be traced in large measure to the widely read _Letter of Prester John_, dating in its earliest form from before 1177,[507] addressed in some manuscripts to the Byzantine Emperor[508] and elsewhere to other Western monarchs. The popularity of this is attested by the fact that Zarncke, its editor, knew of no less than eighty manuscripts. The question of the sources of the _Letter_ in its original form is obscure, though the origins of the numerous interpolations can nearly all be explained. Much, certainly, was borrowed from the Alexander stories, and much from the legend of St. Thomas in India; other parts are indubitably connected with the great Oriental reservoir of fabulous and miraculous lore. The account of the visit of Patriarch John to Rome and the _Letter of Prester John_ constituted the principal sources of an anonymous and highly fanciful description of India and of Prester John’s country found in a twelfth-century manuscript in the Heiligenkreutzerstift, near Vienna, and commonly called the _Elysaeus_ account.[509] The _Letter of Prester John_ was not only extensively read in its various Latin versions but was translated into French, Italian, German, and English.[510] ST. BRANDAN Another legend which enjoyed perhaps an even greater popularity was that dealing with the wanderings of St. Brandan (or Brendan) in the Western Ocean. The story occurs in several distinct forms.[511] The Latin version had already taken shape before our period opened and perhaps dates back to the ninth century or earlier. From it was derived in part an Anglo-Norman version composed in 1121, which ultimately found its way into the _Image du monde_. The legend furthermore gained currency among the Teutonic peoples in a somewhat different version developed probably from a twelfth-century French original. _PILGRIM NARRATIVES; MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS OF TRAVEL_ The travels of pilgrims and traders during the Middle Ages have been the subject of more careful research in recent years than many other aspects of our study.[512] Consequently, it will suffice merely to give a very brief statement of the more significant pilgrim records dating from the Crusading age. CHRISTIAN PILGRIM NARRATIVES