Page 32 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Brittany

30  INTRODUCING BRIT T AN Y

Breton Literature

Perhaps because of its melancholy mists and secret
woodlands, or because of the peculiar light that
bathes its windswept coastline, Brittany is a strangely
inspirational land. How else to account for the unique
alchemy that encourages the imagination to take
wing and that instills an innate penchant for the
mystical, the mysterious and the marvellous? All
those Bretons who figure in the history of regional
as well as French lit erature, have this characteristic,
the inevitable conse quence of life lived on the edge
of the world.
which tells the story of the
Literature in Breton
life of a saint, were enacted.
Relatively little is known Performed in the open air, The Life of St Nonne, a popular Breton
about medieval Breton they were extremely popular, mystery play
literature. Besides a few especially in the Trégor. The
glimpses gained from the actors, who might be clog- Stories and Legends
charters compiled makers or weavers
in abbeys and a by trade, knew The literary genre in which
single page from by heart entire Bretons excelled was that of
an obscure treatise tracts of the most stories and legends. During
on medicine dramatic plays, long winter evenings and at
dating from the such as Ar pevar country gatherings, woodcut-
late 8th century, no mab Hemon ters, beggars and spinners
single Breton text (The Four Sons of would weave stories of make-
survives to this day. Aymon), which believe filled with fairytale
There is every was still being princesses and such
evidence, however, performed in legendary figures as giants
that Armorican about 1880. in glass castles. It was by
poets enjoyed a Contemporary listening to these imaginative
certain prestige in with this popular sto rytellers that Théodore
courtly circles and Barzhaz Breizh repertoire, a Hersart de la Villemarqué
that their lays – handful of long, (1815–95), whose Breton
ballads or poems set to music erudite poems with name was Kervarker, and
and accompanied on the sophisticated internal rhyming François-Marie Luzel, or
harp – played an important has survived, as well as a Fañch An Uhel (1821–95),
part in the development of considerable body of literature compiled collections of
the chivalrous epics of the (such as missals and books of Breton literature. The stories
Middle Ages. It was, indeed, hours) written by clergy- are, however, too good to
this Breton tradition that men in imperfect be true: it is now known
provided French minstrels Breton. For hundreds that neither man set
with tales of the valour of of years, the latter them down as he heard
Lancelot, the adventures was ordinary them but that they
of Merlin and other wonders people’s only polished and rounded
of the Forèt de Paimpont reading off the stories.
(see p68), the legendary matter. At the end of
Forêt de Brocéliande. the 19th century,
Lan Inizan (1826–
91) published
Emgann Kergidu,
Mystery Plays
an historic
The earliest surviving evi dence account of events
of a true literary tradi tion dates that occurred in
from the 15th century, in the the Léon district
manuscripts of mystery plays. during the
In these plays, religious scenes, Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué, a great 19th-century Terror (see p52).
such as Buez Santez Nonn, recorder of Breton tales and legends Anatole Le Braz

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