#breton folklore

[loubatas-art]

Teir Garanoù (2023)

Water birds were seen as magical in many Celtic folklores, as they were living in the three worlds (water, sky, and land), and often represented in groups of three. The Breton name of the crane, garan, also means "etching, carving, engraving", and garaniñ or garanañ means "to carve, to engrave". In Breton, the expression chom garanet (literally "to keep engraved") means to remember something vividly; and so, cranes were associated with memory and knowledge. This association can also be seen in Irish mythology, where some stories say that Manannán mac Lir's crane bag contained, on top of his many other treasures, the letters of the first Ogham, the Irish alphabet that was originally written carved on stones

(Reposting this one because I deleted the original post accidentally last year)

[wilderbas]

folkbruary #6

tristam & iseult

[briefbestiary]

Take care and be aware, it takes only three return shouts for this spirit to reach you if it believes you are mocking them.

[gawrkin]

I think I found the chapel Morgan built/attends Mass. Here

Anyway Catholic!Morgan FTW

[chrysocomae]

The Flight of King Gradlon, oil on canvas made around 1884 by Evariste-Vital Luminais

King Gradlon and the Legend of Ys:

"King Gradlon (Gralon in Breton) ruled in Ys, a city built on land reclaimed from the sea, sometimes described as rich in commerce and the arts. He lived in a wealth palace of marble, cedar and gold. In some versions, Gradlon built the city upon the request of his daughter Dahut, who loved the sea. To protect Ys from inundation, a dike was built with a gate that was opened for ships during low tide. The one key that opened the gate was held by the king.

Some versions, especially early ones, blame Gradlon's sins for the destruction of the city. However, most tellings present Gradlon as a pious man, and his daughter Dahut as a sorceress or a wayward woman who steals the keys from Gradlon and opens the gates of the dikes, causing a flood which destroys the whole city. A Saint (either St. Gwénnolé or St. Corentin) wakes the sleeping Gradlon and urges him to flee. The king mounts his horse and takes his daughter with him, but the rising water is about to overtake them. Dahut either falls from the horse, or Gradlon obeys a command from St. Gwénnolé and throws Dahut off. As soon as Dahut falls into the sea, Gradlon safely escapes. He takes refuge in Quimper and reestablishes his rule there." - Gradlon wikipedia article

[mask131]

Deadly fall: Even more about the Ankou

Category: French culture / Breton folklore

Freely translated from Edouard Brasey’s “Encyclopedia of Fantasy Heroes” (the translation is really incorrect but the French notion of “merveilleux” is hard to translate so I’ll stick with “fantasy”)

Chapter 4: Travelers of the Otherworld

The Ankou

In Bretagne, the wraith that announces death is called the Ankou. He was first written about in the 18th century. He appears as a grinning skeleton, dressed in a large black cloak that only reveals his head and hands. He is armed with a scythe whose blade is turned upside-down, so that he can reap in a much wider way – and he uses a human bone to sharpen the blade. He usually stands upright on a cart with iron-wheels and creaking axles, the “karrik ann Ankou”, with two white horses, one skinny and lanky, the other fat and shiny. Sometimes the cart is invisible: you can only hear its sinister creaking. The Ankou is sometimes helped by two assistants who walk by the cart. The first holds the bridle of the first horse, while the other opens the field gates and house doors, plus throws in the cart the dead that the Ankou reaped.

If he points his bony finger at someone, it means they will die very soon. If he touches someone, the person will feel a cold chill and they will know it is time for them to die. The Ankou then takes his victims into the otherworld, located in the direction of the sunset, by forcing them to climb on his “bag noz”, his “night boat”. The Ankou is at the same time the “oberour ar maro”, the laborer/workman of death ; a ferryman of the dead similar to Charon in Greek mythology ; and the kind of the dead, of which he leads the macabre hordes. But sometimes, it is said that the Ankou is actually Death itself.

Every year, on All Saints Day (corresponding to the ancient holiday of Samhain), the Ankou and the dead come together, in an invisible shape, to the feasts the living prepare for them : tradition says that on Toussaint (All Saints Day), you must cook crêpes and curdled milk mixed with cider, and place it all on a white tablecloth while playing music. While the living can’t see the dead when they consume these offerings, many testimonies talk of plates, cutlery or chairs moving on their own. When the rooster sings, the gathering of ghosts disappears, leaving behind them a lot of leftovers the living can eat freely. Sometimes the Ankou is said to be the last dead of the year, working for twelve whole months before he is “dethroned” and replaced by a new deceased.

Other tales claim that in the depths of the Huëlgoat forest, in the Arrée mountains, there is a gaping opening to hell. The Ankou sits there, in a palace filled with thousands of candles, each of them corresponding to the life of a human being. Sometimes the Ankou blows on a candle, which causes the death of the corresponding person. Legend also describe how the Ankou can sit on the threshold of newly-built houses, waiting patiently for the first living being to cross it, so that he may take them away. This is why people, after building a new house, pushed an animal first inside, or placed an egg on the stone of the threshold. The Ankou takes away his “prey”, and the livings can enter the new house without fear.

Even if the character of the Ankou is only known in Bretagne, the “cart of death” is also found in Ireland, where it is called “dead coach” or “deaf coach”. Black and silet, it is dragged by four headless horses and its coachman is also headless. It always follows the same road: leaving the church and making a big circle around the area before returning to the church. Similar beliefs are also found in Cornwall.

[the-pink-prince]

Dahut-Ahes of Brittany :)

[kroashent]

Laundry Day of the Damned

Sometimes one stumbles across something magical in folklore research. The "Kannerez-Noz", the phantom washerwomen of Brittany, haunt rivers and streams, washing out bloody linens and demanding passerby helping them wring out the clothes. Refusal results in drowning, while complying results in broken bones and mangling.

Phantom washerwomen are pretty common in Celtic mythology and folklore from Ireland to Spain. But, according to one source in the Southern town of Vaucluse, France, a pair of enterprising thieves exploited the fear of these vengeful spirits. Dressing in white gowns, they were spotted washing clothing in a stream by a guard, who they then demanded help them wring out the clothing. The guard noted the high-quality of the garb, but continued working throughout the night for fear of being drowned by the spectres. Only in the morning when they had vanished did he learn the nearby castle had been robbed and he had spent the night assisting the thieves in washing their ill-gotten gains of fine clothing and linens!

[mask131]

Reblogging a French painter depicting one of the most famous French types of ghosts (well... Breton to be precise. Bretagne is in many ways its own thing) - because it's the Halloween season!

I was quite shocked when I discovered as a teenager other countries did not always have their own version of the Night Washerwoman, due to how big they were in French media and legends. Some countries have their equivalents and others not at all apparently...

Jean Edouard Dargent (1824-1899) - Les Lavandières de la nuit (The Washerwomen of the Night), c. 1861

[maypoleman1]

3rd March

St Winnol’s Day

Source: Dreamstime.com

First comes David, then comes Chad,

Then comes Winnol, roaring like mad.

This folklore rhyme is just about all we know know about St Winnol, whose day it is today. He was a Breton saint in origin, named Winnaloe, and was a fierce ascete, insisting that his brothers join him in wearing hair shirts and prostrating themselves in front of the Lord. Winnol also had strange miracles attributed to him, including possession of a mysterious bell which, once sounded, would result in all the fish in a stream coming to him, and an ability to carry churches. Apparently the churches at East Portlemouth in Devon, and Lizard in Cornwall, owe their locations to Winnol.

Unsurprisingly, it is highly unlikely that Winnol ever existed.

[odetokeons]

MY Holy Trinity™ of esc

[briefbestiary]

The nocturnal demon that wanders the countryside, his appearance is that of a wild man or troll.

Interestingly, his candle-holding hand has been compared to the Hand of Glory legend.

[mask131]

These are pictures of les lavandières de nuit, the night washerwomen.

'Breton Legends' illustrated by Maurice de Becque, 1921.

[bleublancrage]

[nanshe-of-nina]

Medieval Women Week || Favorite fictional medieval woman ↬ Melusine

In this, the novel follows in a long tradition of artistic and scholarly fascination for the puzzling figure who is Mélusine. Indeed, there has been much critical debate on her true nature: some scholars see Mélusine as a benevolent fairy lover, some categorize her as a foundational ancestor or mother goddess figure, whilst others argue that her serpentine nature links her with demons, the Eden serpent or the monstrous races of sirens, undines, and succubi. However, Mélusine’s character is so remarkably ambiguous and multifaceted that it is misleading to attempt to define her by one particular characteristic alone. Just as Mélusine’s body continually changes – from human to hybrid and eventually to animal – so does her character, allowing for a multitude of possible readings. Undoubtedly, it is this flexibility and open-endedness which lies at the root of the ongoing fascination with the Mélusine story and with her hybrid body. Nowadays, Mélusine’s monstrous figure not only appears in a postmodern novel such as Possession but is also found in video games, fantasy literature, graphic novels, gothic metal songs, and the logo of a well-known coffee chain. — The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, and Material Contexts by Lydia Zeldenrust

[postcard-from-the-past]

Breton folklore garments and the chapel of La Clarté, Perros-Guirec, Brittany region of France

French vintage postcard