Legends & Romances of Brittany

The romantic region which we are about to traverse in search of the treasures of legend was in ancient times known as Armorica, a Latinized form of the Celtic name, Armor ('On t...

In the mind of the general reader Brittany is unalterably associated with the prehistoric stone monuments which are so closely identified with its folk-lore and national life. I...

Whatever the origin of the race which conceived the demonology of Brittany--and there are indications that it was not wholly Celtic--that weird province of Faëry bears unmistaka...

The idea of the evil spirit, malicious and revengeful, is common to all primitive peoples, and Brittany has its full share of demonology. Wherever, in fact, a primitive and illi...

I have entitled this chapter 'World-Tales' to indicate that the stories it contains are in plot or _motif_ if not in substance common to the whole world--that, in short, althoug...

The stories told here under the title of 'folk-tales' are such as do not partake so much of the universal element which enters so largely into Breton romance, but those which ha...

"The legend," says Gomme, in a passage most memorable for students of folk-lore as containing his acute and precise definition of the several classes of tradition, "belongs to a...

Soon after the Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué published his _Barzaz-Breiz_, a collection of popular ballads from the Breton, critics who possessed a knowledge of the language...

Sorcery is a very present power in most isolated communities, and in the civilized portions of Brittany it is but a thing of yesterday, while in the more secluded departments it...

Fierce and prolonged has been the debate as to the original birthplace of Arthurian legend, authorities of the first rank, the 'Senior Wranglers' of the study, as Nutt has calle...

The wonderful _Lais_ of Marie de France must ever hold a deep interest for all students of Breton lore, for though cast in the literary mould of Norman-French and breathing the...

An important department in Breton folk-lore is the hagiology of the province--the legendary lore of its saints. This, indeed, holds almost as much of the marvellous as its folk-...

Distinctive national costume has to a great extent become a thing of the past in Europe, and for this relinquishment of the picturesque we have doubtless in a measure to thank t...