Breton Legends Part 24

He now sets forth in quest of the graal, and meets with a thousand obstacles. A woman, whom he has loved, White-Flower, appears, and endeavours to detain him; but he escapes from her. He fastens his horse to the golden ring of a pillar rising on a mountain called the Mount of Misery, arrives at length at the castle for which he sought, and this time fails not to inquire into the history of the lance and the graal. He is told that the lance is that with which Longus pierced the side of Christ, and that the graal is the basin in which Joseph of Arimathea received His divine blood. This has come down by inheritance to the fisher-king, who is descended from Joseph, and is Perceval's uncle. It procures all good things, both spiritual and temporal, heals all wounds, and even restores life to the dead, besides becoming filled with the most delicious dainties at its owner's desire.

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 a.s.sures 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 b.u.t.ter, 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 Peredur, 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 Leon to see some of these unfortunates, clad, whatever may be their age, in a long dress with bone b.u.t.tons, and holding a white wand in their hands. They are tenderly cared for, and only spoken of under the endearing t.i.tle 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 G.o.d 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 ailees. The fly commonly called demoiselle in French, in Brittany is nadoz-aer; 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 thres.h.i.+ng-floor reserved especially for black wheat.

[10] This is the exact distance at which the Bretons define h.e.l.l to lie.

[11] Good or bad, these etymologies of Ahez 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-Ahez (town of Ahez); at any rate, the old paved road which leads from the Bay of Douarnenez 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 Gwenole.

[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 Douarnenez; 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-Pontreau, 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.