Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1873.
[BRITTANY: ITS PEOPLE AND ITS POEMS.]
FOURTH ARTICLE.—CONCLUSION.
Like the Cambrian bards, their brethren of Armorica sang the triumphs and misfortunes of their country, and the deeds of her defenders, during the twelve centuries that they were governed by chiefs of their own race. The great names of Arthur,[156] of Morvan Lez-Breiz, of Alan Barbe Torte, and of Nomenöe, offered stirring subjects for the inspiration of the bards. In a former number, we gave “The March of Arthur,” of which the original, with the exception of the last two lines, bears every stamp of antiquity, and probably dates from the VIth century. The epic of “Lez-Breiz,” of which we proceed to give a translation of the fragments still extant, is about two centuries later.
Morvan, Machtiern or Viscount of Léon, son of a Konan, or crowned chief, was famous in the IXth century as one of the maintainers of Breton independence against the encroachments of the Franks under Louis le Débonnaire, and received from his grateful countrymen the surname of “Lez” or “Lezou Breiz”—the Stay, or the Hammer, of Brittany.
The story of Lez-Breiz, in a weakened and modified form, exists in Wales in the fragmentary ballad of Peredur.
MORVAN LEZ-BREIZ.
Part I.