The Secret of Kells The aged guilt-ridden Cellach is nearing death. Brendan and the abbot happily reunite, and Brendan displays the complete Book of Kells to his uncle. The film closes with an animation rendition of some of the illuminated pages of the book. The film is based on the story of the origin of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament located in Dublin, Ireland. It also draws upon Celtic mythology; examples include its inclusion of Crom Cruach, a pre-Christian Irish deity and the reference to the poetic genre of Aislings,
The Secret of Kells in which a poet is confronted by a dream or vision of a seeress, in the naming of the forest sprite encountered by Brendan. Wider mythological similarities have also been commented upon, such as parallels between Brendan's metaphysical battle with Crom Cruach and Beowulf's underwater encounter with Grendel's mother. "The Secret of Kells" began development in 1999, when Tomm Moore and several of his friends were inspired by Richard Williams's "The Thief and the Cobbler", Disney's "Mulan" and the works of Hayao Miyazaki, which based their visual style on the respective traditional art of the cultures featured in each film.