Neither flesh nor fowl: Merlin as bird-man in Breton folk tradition

Arthurian Literature

Volumn 21, Issue , 2004, Pages 95-113

  Constantine, Mary Ann ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 70449825969     PISSN: 02619946     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. Laurent, Aux Sources du Barzaz-Breiz
2. Gourvil, La Villemarqué, p. 389
3. cf. F.-M. Luzel, De l'Authenticité des chants du Barzaz-Breiz de M. de la Villemarqué (Saint-Brieuc, Paris and Brest, 1872)
4. For the debate about the 'lost' Breton literature of the Middle Ages see Y.-B. Piriou 'Contribution à une histoire de la "littérature bretonne perdue" ', 2 vols. (unpublished doctoral thesis, Université de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes, 1982)
5. C. Brett, 'Breton Latin Literature as Evidence for Literature in the Vernacular AD 800-1300', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 18 (Winter 1989), 1-25
6. See Constantine, Breton Ballads, pp. 61-5, for a brief overview
7. Laurent, Aux Sources p. 292-3
8. See also A. Le Braz, 'Mme de Saint-Prix et La Villemarqué', Le Fureteur breton (1912), 95-7. Thanks to Diarmuid Johnson for comments on the dialect of the piece
9. K. Hollo, 'Conchobar's "Sceptre": The Growth of a Literary Topos', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 29 (Summer 1995), 11-25
10. For full references and a detailed discussion see D. Jenkins, 'Bardd Teulu and Pencerdd', in The Welsh King and his Court, ed. T. M. Charles-Edwards, M. E. Owen and P. Russell (Cardiff, 2000). Thanks to Sara Elin Roberts for this reference. Note that the Breton prose piece calls him Merlin Vraz (Merlin the Great): one can easily imagine the substitution of braz for the rarer barz
11. The Life of Merlin: Vita Merlini, ed. B. Clarke (Cardiff, 1977)
12. The Life of Merlin, p. 65
13. See Clarke's analysis of Geoffrey's Celtic sources, The Life of Merlin, pp. 1-5
14. For the Welsh Myrddin see A. O. H. Jarman, 'The Merlin Legend and the Welsh Tradition of Prophecy', in The Arthur of the Welsh, ed. R. Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman and B. F. Roberts (Cardiff, 1995), pp. 117-45
15. for the Irish analogue see Buile Shuibhne (the Frenzy of Suibhne) being the Adventures of Suibhne Geilt, ed. and trans. J. G. O'Keeffe (London and Dublin, 1913)
16. Seamus Heaney's Sweeney Astray (1983) is a fine adaptation. Oliver Padel recently re-examined the relationship between the Welsh material and the Vita in a paper delivered to the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth, in March 2002
17. Donatien Laurent, in 'La gwerz de Skolan et la légende de Merlin', Éthnologie française 1:3-4 ( 1971), 19-54, plausibly identifies the Welsh 'Ysgolan' as a wild-man type, thus linking it to the Myrddin material. In the Breton gwerz Skolan is a penitent soul returning to beg his mother's blessing: his story is not directly relevant to the present discussion
18. The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, ed. H. O. Sommer, 7 vols. (Washington, 1908-13) II (Lestoire de Merlin), 281-92
19. L. Allen Paton, "The Story of Grisandole: A Study in the Legend of Merlin', PMLA 22 (1907), 234-76
20. The episode is also discussed by Aileen Ann Macdonald in The Figure of Merlin in Thirteenth Century French Romance (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter, 1990), pp. 98-101
21. P. Delarue and M.-L. Tenèze, Le Conte populaire français: catalogue raisonné des versions de France, 4 vols. (Paris, 1976-85), II, s.v. Type 502
22. For the other published versions see J. Foulon-Ménard, 'La Tradition de Merlin dans la forêt de Brocéliande', in Mélanges historiques, littéraires, bibliographiques publiés par la Société des Bibliophiles Bretons (Nantes, 1878), 10-21
23. 'Kontadenn Jozebig', in J. Philippe, War roudoù Merlin e Breizh (Lezneven, 1986), pp. 23-72
24. 'Le Capitaine Lixur ou le satyre', in F.-M. Luzel, Contes populaires de la Basse-Bretagne, ed. F. Morvan (Rennes, 1996), II, 235-52. Donatien Laurent has also collected further versions of the tale
25. F. Cadic, 'Georgie et Merlin', Contes et légendes de Bretagne (Paris, 1922), pp. 207-16. Two other versions (10 and 11) in Delarue and Tenèze's index also have a bird instead of a wild man
26. 'Kontadenn Jozebig', see n. 20 above
27. 'Le Murlu ou l'homme sauvage', Contes populaires de la Basse-Bretagne, II, 221-33
28. For Luzel's change of mind see Laurent, Aux Sources, p. 296, n. 26
29. E. Philipot, 'Contes Bretons relatifs à la légende de Merlin', Annales de Bretagne: Mélanges Bretons et Celtiques offerts à J. Loth (Rennes and Paris, 1927), 349-63 (p. 350)
30. and Paton 'The Story of Grisandole'. See also P. Doob, Nebuchadnezzar's Children: Conventions of Madness in Middle English Literature (New Haven, 1974)
31. For the Dialog and associated material see G. Le Menn, 'Du nouveau sur les prophéties de "Gwenc'hlan": du texte moyen-breton (XVe s.) aux traditions populaires modernes', Bulletin de la Société d'Emulation des Côtes-du-Nord 111 (1982), 45-71
32. M.-A. Constantine, 'Prophecy and Pastiche in the Breton Ballads: Groac'h Ahès and Gwenc'hlan', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 30 (Winter 1995), 87-121
33. For a general overview of the figure in Europe see R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1952)
34. T. Husband, The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism (New York, 1980)
35. D. Giraudon, Traditions populaires de Bretagne: du coq à l'âne (Douarnenez, 2000), pp. 117-18
36. For an alternative name, drev, see below; for variant names and further wren lore see Giraudon, Traditions populaires, pp. 110-23
37. The literature on this subject is extensive, but for wren traditions across Europe see E. A. Armstrong, The Folklore of Birds, 2nd edn (New York, 1970), pp. 141-66
38. For the Irish material, which is especially well attested, see S. Muller, 'The Irish Wren Tales and Ritual: To Pay or not to Pay the Debt of Nature', Béaloideas 64-5 (1996-97), 131-69
39. Armstrong, The Folklore of Birds, p. 144 and p. 147
40. This song is printed and briefly discussed in Ph. Kinney and M. Evans, eds., Canu'r Cymry (Cymdeithas Alawon Gwerin Cymry/ Welsh Folk Song Society, 1984), p. 11 and p. 61
41. For the ritual in Wales see T. M. Owen, Welsh Folk Customs (Cardiff, 1959), pp. 63-8
42. 'Contes Bretons', p. 363. Philipot finds the argument (which seems to have wide acceptance) unconvincing
43. For the Breton belief see Laurent, 'La gwerz de Skolan', p. 39
44. Le Devin maudit, pp. 12, 13
45. Translator's definition in Goodrich, The Romance of Merlin, p. 127. Cf. W. A. Nitze, 'The Esplumoir Merlin', Speculum 18.1 (Jan. 1943), 69-79, who also thinks this is a pun
46. The Shamanic option is pursued by both Walter, Le Devin maudit, pp. 12-13
47. and N. Tolstoy, The Quest for Merlin (London, 1985), pp. 145-6
48. B. Toelken, Morning Dew and Roses: Metaphor and Meaning in Traditional Songs (Illinois, 1995)
49. Ridley's songs and the allusive nature of the genre as a whole are discussed in M.-A. Constantine and G. Porter, Fragments and Meaning in Traditional Song (Oxford, 2003)
50. Giraudon, Traditions Populaires, p. 110
51. The Romance of Merlin, p. 148