An Outline of Breton History Author(S): Yvonne Josse and M
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
An Outline of Breton History Author(s): Yvonne Josse and M. de Calan Source: The Celtic Review, Vol. 6, No. 21 (Jul., 1909), pp. 30-46 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30070198 Accessed: 27-06-2016 12:01 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Celtic Review This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:01:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 30 THE CELTIC REVIEW He entered, that his steps might seem to show He had fled eastward by the path he came. All day he sought to flee them in his shame, Watching from lofty crag or deep ravine, And crouching in the heath with haggard mein- He sought in vain to hide till darkness cast Its blinding cloak betwixt them. When at last Finn cried, ' Come forth thou dog of evil deeds, Nor respite seek!' . His limbs like windy reeds Trembled and bent beneath him, as he rose And came to meet his friends who were his foes. Then unto Finn he spake with accents meek, 'One last request I of the Fians seek, Whom I have loved in peace and served in strife.'- ''Tis thine,' said Finn, ' but ask not for thy life, For thou art 'mong the Fians.' . ' I would die,' Said Garry, ' with my head laid on thy thigh; And let young Alvin take thy sword that he May give the death that will mine honour be.' 'Twas so he lay to die. But as the blade Swept bright, young Alvin, keen for vengeance, swayed And slipped upon the sward. And his fierce blow That Garry slew, the Fian chief laid low.- A grievous wound was gaping on his thigh And poured his life-blood forth. A low, weird cry The great Finn gave as he fell back and swooned.- In vain they strove to stanch the fearsome wound.- His life ebbed slowly with the sun's last ray In gathering gloom. ... And when in death he lay, The glory of the Fians passed away. AN OUTLINE OF BRETON HISTORY YVONNE JOSSE After the French of M. DE CALAN BRITTANY is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the sea. It is the sea that has made the Breton type. It is the sea that, from time to time, has given trade, and through trade a little wealth, to a country whose granitic and This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:01:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms AN OUTLINE OF BRETON HISTORY 31 schistous soil, of but moderate fertility, adapted itself only to a pastoral agriculture none too lavish in its return for labour. One could almost say that it is incessant contact with the sea that has turned the aspirations of the Breton soul towards the wide and limitless realm of imagination. In any case nothing can better picture our generally quiet and sometimes passionate race than the great deep which, under la deceptive calm, so often hides violent commotion. At a time the date of which is not known, our country was inhabited by savages living on fishing and hunting, and having splintered stones for their only tools and arms. Little by little strangers came from the eastern countries- people who reared cattle and understood agriculture. Their arms and tools were mostly of polished stone. Later on, foreign trade brought them a few metal articles, either of bronze or of gold. Nothing is known about the history of those men-not even their name and the language they spoke. We can say, however, that if they were not civilised they were not savages. They buried their dead in funeral chambers made of flat stones--dolmens-and covered with sand or gravel so as to form tumuli. On the tombs and in places where notable events had taken place, where we now put up crosses, they erected huge stones-the menhirs- in homage to the gods; more than one thousand of these monuments are to be seen in Brittany. Four or five hundred years B.C., Brittany, with the whole of Gaul, was conquered by the Celts. These were warriors organised in bands or clans, at the heads of which were the chiefs or kings. They knew iron, and used it to make their arms and tools. At regular intervals of time the land belonging to each clan was divided among the families of the clan, but the parts of the kings and nobles were nearly always the same. No people of antiquity believed in the immortality of the soul more firmly than the Celts. In religious matters they obeyed the members of an organisation which had the monopoly of science and instruction, and in case of war interposed between the rival clans between which the This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:01:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 32 THE CELTIC REVIEW country was divided. These Celts spoke nearly the same tongue as that the Irish, Welsh and Bretons are now speaking. In the year 57 B.c. the Romans invaded Gaul. Brittany was then inhabited by several clans called Armoricans- people living near the sea. Part of Maine and Normandy was also inhabited by the Amoricans; their capital was Vannes. Those clans were related to the Celts who lived in the part of Gaul situated between the Seine and the Rhine, and also to the Celts who were in Britain. In 56, Caesar, at the head of the Romans, made a victorious expedition against them. Their confederate fleet was destroyed near Vannes. Notwithstanding, they went on with the fight for five years, and were the very last to submit to the Romans. The Celtic tongue disappeared as a result of the Roman conquest. Four centuries afterwards the inhabitants spoke only Latin. The Romans substituted the individual property of the rich landowners for the collective property of the clan. The country had no roads, and they made some; there were no towns, and they built some. At that time Nantes, Vannes, Rennes were created. In the third century A.D., Christianity was preached to the Armoricans. Nantes was the first town to be evangelised. Two brothers, Tonatien and Rogatien, were martyred during the first persecution. When Constantine gave the Christians liberty for their religion, bishoprics were founded in Brittany at Nantes, Rennes and Vannes. Towards the middle of the fifth century, when Gaul was invaded and conquered by barbarians of Germanic race, Armorica on the contrary received emigrants of Celtic race. They came from the island of Britain, and had been con- quered by the Romans, but not Latinised by them as were the Celts of Gaul. The Britons had kept their habits, their traditions, and their language. Armorica became Celtic again, and was called Brittany. The emigrations of the Britons were caused by the ravages of the Angles and Saxons, pagan barbarians of Germanic race, who, after This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:01:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms AN OUTLINE OF BRETON HISTORY 33 many centuries of war, conquered and subdued the whole island of Britain. Many of the Britons who wanted to keep their Faith and their independence were obliged to seek refuge elsewhere. They had been defeated, but these vanquished ones were courageous and did not accept the consequences of their defeat. They were neither rejected nor absorbed by the inhabitants of the country to which they had fled. Instead, the Britons gave them their own political and religious organisation, and also their traditions. One part of the territory, even, was so Brythonicised that the Breton language took the place of Latin. For more than a century these emigrants continued to land in Armorica in small bands, having at their heads either laymen or religious chiefs. The territories in which the former settled took the names of the bands, and were called ' plous ' or ' trefs ' ; or the religious chiefs took them as dominions, and they were then called ' lans.' The Breton emigrants did not inhabit all the country now called Brittany. Towards the west they did not go farther than a line running from the mouth of the Couesnon to the mouth of the Loire, through Roz, Combourg, Tinteniae and Montfort-where it follows the Meu and the Vilaine up to the confluence of the Semnon, only taking in the right side of the river-Pleuchatel and Messac. From there by Guemene, Guenrouet and Cambon the line goes to Montoir and the banks of the river. At the west of that line some cantons, specially Vannes and its neighbourhood, did not submit to the invaders. On the left bank of the Loire, Paim- bceuf, Corsept, Pornic, St. Brevin, St. Viaud, there are most certain evidences of the Breton colonisation that went as far as the Anglo-Norman islands (Jersey, Guernsey, etc.), the Norman canton of St. Hilaire du Harcouet, and the Manceau canton of Landivy.