MacCulloch, op. cit., p. 274.
Villemarqué avouches that this version was taken down by his mother from the lips of an old peasant woman of the parish of Névez. It bears the stamp of ballad poetry, and as it has parallels in the folk-verse of other countries I see no reason to question its genuineness.
See “Maro Markiz Gwerrand,” in the Bulletin de la Société Académique de Brest, 1865.
For the criticism on Villemarqué’s work see H. Gaidoz and P. Sébillot, “Bibliographie des Traditions et de la Littérature populaire de la Bretagne” (in the Revue Celtique, t. v, pp. 277 ff.). The title Barzaz-Breiz means “The Breton Bards,” the author being under the delusion that the early forms of the ballads he collected and altered had been composed by the ancient bards of Brittany.
Once a part of the forest of Broceliande. It has now disappeared.