Chapter VI: Part 6

After the lance and the graal, they bring out a broken sword; the fisher-king presents it to his nephew, begging him to reunite the fragments; in which he succeeds. The king then tells him that, according to prophecies, the bravest and most pious knight in the whole world was to perform this act; that he himself had attempted to weld the pieces together, but had been chastised for his rashness by receiving a wound in the thigh. "I shall be healed," he added, "on the same day that sees the knight Pertiniax perish,--that treacherous knight who broke this wonderful sword in slaying my brother."

Perceval kills Pertiniax, thanks to the aid of the holy graal, cuts off his head, and brings it to the fisher-king, who gets well, and abdicates in favour of his nephew.

The points of accordance between this poem and the Breton story are not very difficult to trace. In the two recitals we hear of the conquest of a basin and a lance, the possession of which ensures corresponding advantages; the heroes both of the French and Armorican version are subjected to dangers and temptations, and success assures to them alike--a crown. Some points of resemblance may even perhaps be discovered between the idiot Peronnik, going ever onwards he knows not whither, and extracting from the farmer's wife his rye-bread, his fresh-churned butter, and his Sunday dripping; and this Perceval, simple, ignorant, boorish, who begins by eating two roebuck pasties, and drinking a great flagon of wine.

Certainly the different details, and the trials imposed on Peronnik, are not in general much like the probation to which Perceval was subjected; but, on the other hand, they closely resemble those to which Perédur, the hero of the Gallic tradition, was exposed. It would seem, therefore, that this Armorican story has drunk successively from the two fountains of French and Breton legendary lore. Born of the Gallic tradition, modified by the French version, and finally accommodated to the popular genius of our province, it has become such as we have it at this day.

Peronnik the idiot seems, moreover, to us worthy of being studied by those who seek, above all else in tradition, for traces of the popular genius. Idiotism, amongst all tribes of Celtic race, was never looked on as a degradation, but rather as a peculiar condition wherein individuals could attain to certain perceptions unknown to the vulgar; and the Celts were led to imagine that they had an acquaintance with the invisible world not permitted to other men. Thus the words of the idiot were looked on as prophetic; a hidden meaning was sought for in his acts; he was, in fact, considered, in the energetic language of an old poet, as having his feet in this world, and his eyes in the other.

Brittany has preserved in part this ancient reverence for persons of weak mind. It is by no means unusual in the farms of Léon to see some of these unfortunates, clad, whatever may be their age, in a long dress with bone buttons, and holding a white wand in their hands. They are tenderly cared for, and only spoken of under the endearing title of dear innocents, unless in their absence, when they are called diskyant, that is to say, without knowledge. They stay at home with the women and little children; they are never called upon to perform any labour; and when they die, they are wept over by their relations.

I remember meeting with one of these idiots one day, in the neighbourhood of Morlaix; he was seated before a farm-house door, and his sister, a young girl, was feeding him. Her caressing kindness struck me.

"Then you are very fond of this poor innocent?" I asked, in Breton.

"It is God who gave him to us," she replied.

Words full of meaning, which hold the key to all this pious tenderness for creatures useless in themselves, but precious for His sake by whom they were confided to our care.

NOTES

[1] Limestra, mantle of some special material, which is highly valued by the Bretons.

[2] Aiguilles ailées. The fly commonly called demoiselle in French, in Brittany is nadoz-aër; literally, "needle of the air."

[3] A proverbial expression in Brittany to designate folly and impertinence.

[4] The song of the Korigans runs thus: Di-lun, di-meurs, di-merc'her. The conclusion of this tale will explain the reason of their keeping only to these first three days.

[5] Cry of encouragement amongst the Bretons. In the same sense they use also the word hardi! but the Celtic origin of this last word seems rather doubtful.

[6] Mettre en foire. Breton expression, signifying a sale at the house of a debtor.

[7] Breton expression, derived from an old custom of parading all insolvents about the parish with a girdle of straw.

[8] Equivalent to the French proverb, "One must not sell the bear-skin till the bear is killed."

[9] In many farms there is a small threshing-floor reserved especially for black wheat.

[10] This is the exact distance at which the Bretons define Hell to lie.

[11] Good or bad, these etymologies of Ahèz and Par-is are accepted by the Bretons. The last word is even treasured in a proverb,

"Since the town of Is was drowned,
The like of Paris is not found."

[12] See the Korigans of Plauden, p. 31.

[13] This legend still finds credence. The spot is shown, not far from Carhaix, whence Grallon's daughter caused her lovers' bodies to be thrown; and some antiquaries are also of opinion that Dahut often visited this town, which has received from her its name of Ker-Ahèz (town of Ahèz); at any rate, the old paved road which leads from the Bay of Douarnénèz to Carhaix proves beyond a doubt that there was frequent intercourse between Keris and this city.

[14] All that follows is more properly ascribed to St. Corentin's disciple Gwenolé.

[15] The peasantry still show the marks.

[16] There appears to exist incontestable evidence of a city named Is lying buried beneath the Bay of Douarnénèz; and the relics which have been discovered from time to time prove beyond all doubt that art had been brought to very high perfection in those early times. It was supposed to date about the fourth century.

[17] The pigs in Brittany are called, no one knows why, mab-rohan, sons of Rohan.

[18] Easter Sunday. So called because blessed laurel is distributed at church upon this day.

[19] Gobelinn. None other than the loup-garou, or were-wolf.

[20] 'Rozennik' is the diminutive of Rosenn; so 'Guilcherik,' "Korils of Plauden," p. 43.

[21] Literally 'will-o'-the-wisp.'

[22] A number of petticoats is considered a mark of great elegance amongst the Breton peasant-girls around Morlaix.

[23] A proverbial expression, denoting some suspicion that people have been acquiring wealth somewhat unfairly. There is an old tradition among the country people, that if you take a black hen to some cross-road, and there use certain incantations, you can summon the devil, who will pay you handsomely for your hen.

[24] Heubeul-Pontréau, a Breton form of reproach to young rustics of ill address.

[25] All European nations have admitted two races of dwarfs, the one mischievous and impious, the other benevolent to man. The first is represented in Brittany by the Korigans, the second by the Teuz. The Teuz is just the same as the elf or fairy of the Scotch and Irish, aiding the labourers in their toil, and resembles the mountain spirit of Germany.

[26] In Brittany they reckon by reals; the Breton real is not worth one franc eight centimes, as in Spain, but only twenty-five centimes.

[27] Miz-du, Breton name of November.

[28] A name given to All Saints.

[29] L'Ankou, literally, "the agony;" a name generally given to the spectre of death.

[30] M. de Ker-Gwen. A joke on the paleness of death; gwen signifying white.

[31] The allusion is to a proverbial Breton verse, in which the inhabitants of the four dioceses are facetiously characterised as thievish, false, stupid, and brutal.

[32] Douez signifies in Breton the moat of a fortified town; but as these moats were formerly full of water, and served the purposes of the washerwomen, the name douez has gradually been appropriated to the washing-places.

[33] Spern-gwenn ("l'épine blanche"), to this day a family name in Brittany.

[34] All the Breton shepherds make these crosses with twigs of furze, on the thorns of which they stick daisies and broom-blossoms; whole rows of these flowery crosses may often be seen along the ditches.

[35] Shend, 'subdue.'

[36] This form of exorcism is supposed to originate in a story related of St. Hervé. A wolf having devoured an ass belonging to his uncle, the saint compelled the savage beast to dwell peaceably thenceforward in the same shed with the sheep, and to perform all the duties of the defunct ass. A similar story is told of St. Malo, another Breton saint.

[37] The legend of the gold-herb (which must be gathered, according to common credence, barefooted, en chemise, without the aid of any iron tool, and whilst one is in a state of grace) comes evidently from the Druids. It is the selage of the ancients, spoken of by Pliny (lib. xiv.), and is said by the Bretons to glitter like gold before the eyes of those who at the moment may fulfil the conditions for perceiving it, and who, by touching it with the foot, are instantly enabled to understand the language of all animals, and to converse with them.

[38] The tradition of the redbreast, who broke a thorn from the crown of our Lord, is current throughout Brittany.

[39] Mor Vyoc'h signifies Sea-cow.

[40] The Breton peasants believe that the fountain of Languengar has the property of promoting the flow of milk in those nurses who drink of it.

[41] In Brittany, as in England, it takes nine tailors to make a man.

[42] This form of taking possession is extremely ancient. In all the legislative systems of "the ancient world" transfer of landed property was effected by symbolical tradition; that is, by the handing over to the new owner of some visible and palpable portion or symbol of the land itself. At Rome, the sale of a field takes place standing on a turf cut from the field itself, which is handed over to the purchaser as a symbol of his new possession. In an old deed of 828 occurs the following: "I make over the underwritten goods and lands to the Church of St. Mary. And I make legal cession by straw and knife, glove and turf, and branch of tree; and so I put myself out, expel, and make myself absent."--D. Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, Preuves, p. 524. And as Brittany is the very chosen home of old customs, it has happened that even quite lately, at a farm near Léon, all these forms of taking possession were gone through, not as having any legal efficacy, but in compliance with ancient usage.

[43] The vervain.

[44] Marc'h-Mor, literally, Sea-horse.

[45] The Breton name for Vannes, Gwen-ed, signifies literally White Wheat.

[46] This form of declaring war, preserved by tradition, is curious, and, as far as we know, peculiar to Brittany. Amongst the ancient Romans they cast upon the enemy's territory a javelin scorched at the fire; in the middle ages the iron gauntlet was thrown, or the finger was gnawed; the savages of North America sent, like the Scythians, bundles of arrows, the number of which indicated that of the combatants; but burning straw flung upon the enemy's land is a peculiar symbol, which we have never noticed elsewhere.

[47] The Breton name of St. Gildas.

[48] This custom still exists in Brittany.

[49] The name Groac'h, or Grac'h, means literally old woman; and was given to the Druidesses, who had established themselves in an island off the south-west coast of Brittany, called thence the isle of Groac'h; by corruption Groais, or Groix. But the word gradually lost its original meaning of old woman, and came to signify a woman endowed with power over the elements, and dwelling amongst the waves, as did the island Druidesses; in fact, a sort of water-fay, but of a malevolent nature, like all the Breton fairies. Such of our readers as are not acquainted with La Motte Fouqué's beautiful tale of Undine, may require to be reminded that the sprites, sylphs, gnomes, and fairies of the popular mythologies are not necessarily, perhaps not even generally, exempt from mortality.

[50] A cluster of islets off the southern coast of Brittany, near the headland of Penmarc'h. The name signifies literally summer-land. One of them is called the isle of Lok, or Lock, and contains a fish-pool, from which it seems to derive its name.

[51] A dwarfish sprite.

[52] Young Breton girls thus address old women from a motive of respect.

[53] Chanteuse de vérité (Dion ganérez), literally qui chante droit, a name given in Brittany to fairies who foretell the future.

[54] These are different kinds of cabbages cultivated in Brittany.

[55] A name given by the Bretons to the tricksy sprite Maistr Yan.

[56] The ribbon covered with lace worn by Breton peasant-girls in their hair.

[57] Negotiators for a wedding, who improvise disputations in verse, like Virgil's shepherds.

[58] See tale at p. 31.

[59] Dibenn-eost, a name given to autumn in Brittany.

[60] This word idiot must not lead to misconception; the idiot of popular tales is the personification of cunning weakness triumphing over strength. Idiotism, in the traditions of Christian nations, plays the same part as physical ugliness in those of the ancients. The latter take the hunchback Æsop to accomplish extraordinary actions; the former Peronnik, or some other lad of weak mind, in order that the contrast between the hero and the action may be more striking, and the result more unexpected.

We refer the reader to the note which follows this story for the more particular examination which it seems to deserve.

[61] On the sea-coast they scrape away the burnt part left in the porridge-kettles with a mussel-shell; in the interior they use for the same purpose a sharp stone, commonly a gun-flint.

[62] The milk of the black cow is considered in Brittany to be at once the daintiest and the most wholesome.

[63] The Bretons attribute to the butter of the White Week and of the Rogation weeks a special delicacy, and even medicinal properties, on account of the excellence of the pastures at this season.

[64] The Bretons believe in a special demon for sending one to sleep in church, and call him ar c'houskezik, from the verb kouska, which signifies to sleep.

[65] Koanta pabaour, a common form of mockery in Brittany.

[66] A proverbial expression, meaning that one has no time to lose.

[67] The Searcher for the Basin,--Myvyrian, t. i. p. 8. The poem of Perceval, or the Quest for the Holy Graal, is to be found in the Royal Library of Paris, Mss. No. 7523, et supp. franc. 450. We give M. de la Villemarqué's analysis, contenting ourselves with abridging his labours.