Dahut, also spelled Dahud, is a princess in Breton legend and literature, associated with the legend of the drowned city of Ys.
Dahut, also spelled Dahud, is a princess in Breton legend and literature, associated with the legend of the drowned city of Ys.
From Old Breton da, "good" (cf. Welsh da, same meaning), and hud, "magic" (cf. Welsh hud, same meaning). Amy Varin suggests that Dahud was given the name Ahes due to confusion with "alc'hwez" (key). [1]
Dating to the 15th century, the earliest mentions of Ys and its king, Gradlon, do not mention Gradlon's daughter Dahut, and the king himself is to blame for the destruction of the city. [2] [3] Dahut was first mentioned in the third edition of Albert Le Grand's Vie des Saincts de la Bretagne Armorique (1680). In this early version, the "shameless" Dahut intends to kill her father and steals the key which symbolizes his royalty. Her wickedness causes a storm which floods Ys, and she dies in the destruction. [1]
In most retellings, the city of Ys is protected from floods by a dike, with King Gradlon possessing the keys to its gate. His daughter, Dahut, is a wicked and lustful young woman. In some versions she has many lovers, whom she murders, until the Devil himself comes to seduce her. Dahut steals the silver or gold keys, and during her carousing with her lover winds up opening the gate. The sea floods the city. A saint, either St. Gwénnolé or St. Corentin, wakes Gradlon and warns him. Gradlon attempts to flee on his horse with Dahut riding behind him, but the water almost overtakes him. He either throws Dahut off or she falls off. As soon as Dahut falls into the water, Gradlon is able to escape to safety. The ruins of Ys can still be seen and its bells can be heard underwater. In some versions, Dahut transforms into a Mari-morgan or mermaid who haunts the area and can still be heard singing. [4] [5]
Some renditions add the story of Dahut's mother, a sorceress or Valkyrie named Malgven who may have died in childbirth. It is debated how much of this story is traditional, with the first known mention of Malgven coming from Édouard Schuré's essay Les Grandes légendes de France in the 1890s. [6] [7]
In one legend, King Mark of Cornwall was hunting and shot an arrow at a white doe. The doe transformed into the beautiful Ahès, daughter of Gradlon, who gave Mark the ears and the mane of his horse Morvarc'h as punishment. This variant seems to have originated with a story collected by Yann ar Floc'h in 1905 which combined the stories of Mark and Ys. [8] Other versions of the Mark legend do not include Dahut. [9] [10]
"Ahez" appears in the Breton folktale Kristof, a variant of the fairytale "The Lazy Boy" (Aarne-Thompson type 675) recorded in 1870. Kristof, the lazy son of a fisherman, catches a talking fish which allows him to wish for whatever he wants. Kristof travels to the city of Ys and uses his powers to uproot and ride an oak tree. When Princess Ahez mocks him, Kristof wishes that she would become pregnant; his wish comes true and she bears a son. With help from a druid, King Gradlon identifies Kristof as the baby's father. He puts Kristof, Ahez and the child into a wooden chest and sets them out to sea, but Kristof uses the fish's power to create an island and mansion far more wealthy than Gradlon's. Impressed, Gradlon offers to let the three of them return to Ys, but Kristof refuses and predicts that the city of Ys will be destroyed by the next high tide, due to the loss of the oak tree. Matthieu Boyd notes the general scholarly consensus that this tale is a literary creation, and interprets Kristof as a Christian figure who ends the pre-Christian society of Ys. [11]
Ahès is sometimes attributed with building roads in Brittany and her name is connected to Carhaix, "Ker Ahès" (city of Ahès). However, some scholars argue that her name instead derived from the town. In a medieval tradition, Ahès is the name of an ancient woman who builds roads. [12]
French singer Nolwenn Leroy recorded a song titled "Ahès" on her 2012 album Ô Filles de l'Eau.
Modern authors and artists such as Patrig ar Goarnig have sometimes interpreted Dahut as a heroic pagan figure. [11]
Dahut is a primary character in M.T. Anderson's graphic novel, The Daughters of Ys (2020). [13] In this adaptation, Dahut manages her father's kingdom and is forced to use sorcery to protect the city of Ys. Her sister and the kingdom's heir, Rozenn, acts as a foil for Dahut. As the novel progresses, the destruction of Ys is due in part to Dahut's continued use of sorcery as well as the inaction of King Gradlon and Princess Rozenn.
Lyonesse is a kingdom which, according to legend, consisted of a long strand of land stretching from Land's End at the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, to what is now the Isles of Scilly in the Celtic Sea portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It was considered lost after being swallowed by the ocean in a single night. The people of Lyonesse were said to live in fair towns, with over 140 churches, and work in fertile, low-lying plains. Lyonesse's most significant attraction was a castle-like cathedral that was presumably built on top of what is now the Seven Stones Reef between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, some 18 miles (29 km) west of Land's End and 8 miles (13 km) north-east of the Isles of Scilly.
Brittany is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as a separate nation under the crown.
Ys, also spelled Is or Kêr-Is in Breton, and Ville d'Ys in French, is a mythical city on the coast of Brittany that was swallowed up by the ocean. Most versions of the legend place the city in the Baie de Douarnenez.
Mark of Cornwall was a sixth-century King of Kernow (Cornwall), possibly identical with King Conomor. He is best known for his appearance in Arthurian legend as the uncle of Tristan and the husband of Iseult who engages with Tristan in a secret liaison, giving Mark the epithet "Cuckold King".
Carhaix-Plouguer, commonly known as just Carhaix, is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France. The commune was created in 1957 by the merger of the former communes Carhaix and Plouguer.
Gradlon the Great was a semi-legendary 5th century "king" of Cornouaille who became the hero of many Breton folk stories. The most famous of these legends is the story of the sunken city of Ys. He is supposed to have been the son of Conan Meriadoc, but Conan lived much earlier in the late 4th Century.
Cantre'r Gwaelod, also known as Cantref Gwaelod or Cantref y Gwaelod, is a legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales. It has been described as a "Welsh Atlantis" and has featured in folklore, literature, and song.
Morgens, morgans, or mari-morgans are Welsh and Breton water spirits that drown men.
Le roi d'Ys is an opera in three acts and five tableaux by the French composer Édouard Lalo, to a libretto by Édouard Blau, based on the old Breton legend of the drowned city of Ys. That city was, according to the legend, the capital of the kingdom of Cornouaille.
Corentin of Quimper is a Breton saint. He was the first bishop of Quimper. Corentin was a hermit at Plomodiern and was regarded as one of the seven founding saints of Brittany. He is the patron saint of Cornouaille, Brittany, and is also the patron saint of seafood. His feast day is December 12.
Annie Ebrel is a traditional Breton singer of traditional Kan ha diskan and Gwerz (ballads).
François Bazin was born in Paris on 31 October 1897 and died in Paris in 1956. His parents were engravers and medalists. Early years were spent in Chile where his parents taught at the Santiago art college. The family returned to Paris in 1913 and Bazin enrolled at the Paris École des Beaux-Art. He was mobilized in 1916 and attached to a squadron whose planes were equipped with Hispano Suiza engines. After the war he completed his studies and was runner-up for the Prix de Rome in 1925. Although not a Breton many of his works can be seen in Brittany including "The monument aux bigoudens", the monument at the Pointe de Pen Hir and the "Filles de la mer" statue at Quimper.
The Argol Parish close, including the Église Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul, is located in Argol in the arrondissement of Châteaulin in Finistère in Brittany in north-western France. The parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul was built in 1575, restored in 1617 and enlarged in 1674. In 1784, the side walls were completely reconstructed as was the porch in 1839. The lintel of the belfry on the west gable of the church records the date 1582, Both the church and the "arc de triomphe" were listed as historical monument in 1914.. The church is also associated with Saint Geneviève who was nominated as the secondary patron in 1634. Records show that there was a priory run from the Benedictine abbey at Landévennec in the Middle Ages.
A groac'h is a kind of Breton water-fairy. Seen in various forms, often by night, many are old, similar to ogres and witches, sometimes with walrus teeth. Supposed to live in caverns, under the beach and under the sea, the groac'h has power over the forces of nature and can change its shape. It is mainly known as a malevolent figure, largely because of Émile Souvestre's story La Groac'h de l'île du Lok, in which the fairy seduces men, changes them into fish and serves them as meals to her guests, on one of the Glénan Islands. Other tales present them as old solitary fairies who can overwhelm with gifts the humans who visit them.
Morvarc'h is the name of a fabulous horse of Breton legend found in two folktales reworked in the 19th and 20th centuries. Though its name appears in older sources, it was invented or reinterpreted by Charles Guyot, who named it Morvark in his version of the legend of the city of Ys in 1926. It belongs to the "Queen of the North" Malgven, who gives it to her husband King Gradlon. Endowed with the ability to gallop on the waves, Morvarc'h is described as having a black coat and as breathing flames through its nostrils. It also appears in a Breton folktale about King Marc'h of Cornouaille. In the course of a deer hunt it is killed by its own rider's arrow, which has been turned around by the spell of Dahud, the daughter of Malgven. She then puts the ears of the horse Morvarc'h on the head of King Marc'h, who seeks in vain to hide them.
The Gwerz Santes Enori is a Breton gwerz, a type of folk song that combines literary with musical characteristics. The song, which is preserved in many versions and fragments, tells a story that resembles a saint's life, a 14th-century version of the hagiography of the Breton saint Budoc. Its general theme has been called that of "the girl with a golden breast", as told in stories throughout the Celtic world and surviving in oral form into the 20th century.
Yann ar Floc'h, pseudonym of Jean Le Page, was a Breton folklorist. He collected the oral traditions of the Aulne region in the department of Finistère and published them in Breton periodicals. He was one of the few folklorists of that time to publish this kind of material in the Breton language. These texts were posthumously published in the collection Koñchennou eus Bro ar Ster Aon.
Malgven, or Malgwen(n), is a character introduced into the legend of the city of Ys, a mythical city on the coast of Brittany, at the end of the 19th century by Édouard Schuré, and is possibly based on a local legend from the Cap Sizun. She was made known by Charles Guyot (Géo-Charles) at the beginning of the 20th century, in his literary adaptation of the legend of Ys. As a valkyrie and queen of the "North", Malgven reigns over the land with her ageing husband, King Harold. She meets King Gradlon while he is raiding and falls in love with him. She persuades him to kill her husband and to flee with her on her horse Morvarc'h, towards Gradlon's lands in Brittany. The journey lasts a year, during which time she gives birth to a daughter, Dahut. Malgven dies in childbirth.
Ahez is a French vocal group from Carhaix, Brittany, consisting of Marine Lavigne, Sterenn Diridollou and Sterenn Le Guillou. The trio represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 together with Alvan with the song "Fulenn".
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