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(brĭt'n-ē) pronunciation also Bre·tagne (brə-tän'yə)

A historical region and former province of northwest France on a peninsula between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. It was settled c. 500 by Britons driven out of their homeland by the Anglo-Saxons. The region was formally incorporated into France in 1532.

Brittany

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Brittany

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Peninsula that forms a historical and governmental region, northwestern France. Known in ancient times as Armorica, it comprised the coastal area between the Seine and Loire rivers. Inhabited by Celts, it was conquered by Julius Caesar and organized as a Roman province. Invaded in the 5th century by Britons (Celtic people from Britain), the extreme northwestern part was thereafter called Brittany. Subdued by Clovis I, it was never effectively part of the Merovingian or Carolingian kingdom. France claimed Brittany in the 13th century, but it remained a separate state until the 15th century. It was formally incorporated into France in 1532 and had province status until the French Revolution. Roughly coextensive with but smaller than the historical region, the current administrative rgion of Brittany (pop., 2004 est.: 3,011,000) covers 10,505 sq mi (27,209 sq km). Its capital is Rennes. It is an important agricultural region.

For more information on Brittany, visit Britannica.com.

Oxford Companion to French Literature:

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The distinctiveness of Brittany is due to large-scale immigration from south-western Britain in the Dark Ages. The Brittonic or insular Gaulish language thus introduced is thought to have fused with surviving Armorican Gaulish and ensured that peninsular Brittany would remain massively Celtic-speaking until the beginning of the 20th c. In 850 the Bretons extended their hegemony deep into Romance-speaking territory, annexing definitively the large cities of Rennes and Nantes, which became the centre of gravity of a bi-ethnic duchy. The frontiers of Brittany remained stable until 1789, although its autonomy, already variable in medieval times, was further limited by a treaty of union with France in 1532.

1. Writing in Breton

Old Breton (800-1100), quite abundantly, if fragmentarily, attested in glosses and proper-names, is very similar to Old Cornish and Old Welsh. Technical terms indicate its use in learning and government, though one can only speculate as to its literary traditions on the basis of evidence found sparingly in Middle Breton texts (1450-1659) and more abundantly—but more problematically—in the matière de Bretagne and in Modern Breton oral literature.

Middle Breton, when after three barely documented centuries it appears in writing, is heavily Gallicized in spelling and vocabulary. There is no evidence of any official use of the language, and beyond two dramatized lives of British saints and one Arthurian fragment, the literature, dominated by religious verse and drama, shows little thematic originality. Evidence for a tradition of cultivation by trained practitioners is to be found, however, perhaps in the relative uniformity of the language and certainly in the versification. This makes systematic use of elaborate schemes of internal rhyme, a feature found in the more complex and more consonant-based cynghanedd of Welsh.

Early Modern Breton printed texts are almost exclusively devotional and practically all translations. There is, however a substantial body of manuscript plays which, although rarely original, cover a wider spectrum of themes. Their performance by humble amateurs for mass audiences was repeatedly proscribed under the ancien régime, yet the tradition survived down to the mid-19th c. The 19th c., through a Romantic nationalism sharpened by counter-revolution, reawakened the interest of intellectuals, bringing the first wave of puristic standardization in the work of Le Gonidec. Oral literature was first presented to a general public in Hersart de La Villemarqué's Barzaz-Breiz (1839), a collection of ballads with translations. Their basic authenticity has only recently been finally demonstrated, but the texts were very heavily edited and accompanied by generally spurious historical explanations. With increasing literacy popular publications became numerous, with secular material increasing; these were mainly didactic and traditionalist in character.

Literacy in Breton had never been a majority phenomenon and, after nearly 40 years of compulsory schooling exclusively through the medium of French and the upheavals of World War I, the 1920s saw the traditional readership of Breton begin to melt away quite rapidly. This is when Roparz Hemon (1900-78) launched as a supplement to the nationalist Breiz Atao the bimonthly Gwalarn, whose declared policy was to develop a Breton-language literature aimed at a modern educated middle class. Despite deep-seated tensions and contradictions, these ambitions have to some extent been realized in the last 30 years. More is being published in Breton than ever before, with 60 or more books appearing every year. There are 50 or more writers of sustained and regular productivity, but given the small size of their public, they cannot live by their pens and are generally confined to the shorter genres. It is remarkable to find so much variety and reassuring to find some real creative skill, but not surprising to find that the works with most depth to them are autobiographical [see Hélias]. This is all happening against the depressing backdrop of the rapid collapse of Breton as a community language, with speakers representing less than a third—an ageing third—of the peak figure of 1, 500, 000 estimated for 1914.

There have in recent times been attempts to develop the Romance vernaculars of Upper Brittany, traditionally referred to as le (s) patois gallo(s), as a written medium, often in this case called la langue gallèse. In substance, they are very close to the vernaculars of rural Maine and Anjou, but being more peripheral to the Île-de-France have rather more archaisms. One important figure from the Pays gallo is Paul Sébillot (1843-1918), whose Revue des traditions populaires and collection Littératures populaires de toutes les nations were milestones in the study of oral literature in France.

Before passing on to French texts, which after all represent the great bulk of literature emanating from both halves of Brittany, it should be noted that the Breton language has considerable symbolic power. Some writers ignore or reject it, while at the other end of the spectrum others claim it to be the sole defining characteristic of Bretonness. A strange, though not uncommon, phenomenon can be found in critics' claims that the Breton language is viscerally present in French works in which the Breton-speaker would never discover any such thing. Paradoxically, in written Breton literature French influences are all-pervasive: very few texts in any period are the work of monoglots.

2. Writing in French

Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin was cultivated as elsewhere in Europe. Hagiography was the most interesting genre of the period, with the first complete text dating from the 9th c. The most notable medieval French texts produced in Brittany are: La Chanson d'Aiquin, a verse epic located in north-eastern Brittany, a 12th-c. composition preserved in a 15th-c. manuscript; the 12th-c. satirical Livre des manières by Étienne de Fougères, also a productive Latinist; and Meschinot's allegorical Lunettes des princes (1491). An interesting feature is a late-medieval school of historiographers best represented by Pierre Le Baud and Alain Bouchart, continued by Bertrand d'Argentré; this provided the basis for further development by Dom Lobineau (1667-1727).

16th-c. production extends from mystery plays (a Vie de sainte Catherine being published as late as 1576) to typical Renaissance verse best exemplified by Charles d'Espinay (1531-91); the outstanding author is Noël du Fail. The 17th and 18th c. show greater integration with French norms, with what is specifically Breton tending to be confined to works of erudition, of which the Celtomania of père Paul-Yves Pezron's Antiquité de la nation et de la langue des Celtes (1703) is fortunately not typical, although it turned out to be quite influential. In a general climate of conformism, the Enlightenment was far from absent, especially in parliamentary circles—the Encyclopédie sold 400 copies in Rennes. The novelist Lesage, the critic Fréron, the essayist Trublet, and the philosopher Maupertuis made their careers on the Parisian scene, as have many Breton writers.

Of the three best-known names of the 19th c., Chateaubriand and Lamennais show no specific Bretonness, whereas Renan, despite his travels and erudition, never lost contact with the Breton-speaking milieu of his childhood. For most outside observers such as Balzac and Mérimée, Brittany was a convenient reserve in which to imbibe the local colour of savages both noble and otherwise from a perspective of authoritative ignorance; Flaubert and Loti are the honorable exceptions. Poetry is abundant throughout the century, with Auguste Brizeux (1803-58) the best-remembered of the Romantics and Tristan Corbière the most striking in his cultivation of the barbaric—his father Édouard, a Morlaix slave-trader, wrote seafaring novels. Paul Féval was the most prolific of the novelists, a popular and successful writer of cloak-and-dagger fiction, some of it specifically set in Upper Brittany. The interpretation of Lower Brittany and its inhabitants to a French-speaking public is a genre which developed and expanded; the precursor was Émile Souvestre (1806-54), and the most important name Anatole Le Braz (1859-1926).

The 20th-c. writers who have established themselves firmly in the general French literary scene have almost all been primarily novelists. The first generation is represented by Segalen and Max Jacob, both innovative, the former in his quest for the exotic, the latter in his Surrealism. Next come Guéhenno, Queffélec, and Guilloux, and the much younger Le Quintrec, Mohrt, and Hallier, all of them classic in the sense that they associate reflection with careful naturalistic observation. Robbe-Grillet, the best-known of them, stands out as a pioneer of the Nouveau Roman. The less public literature of poetry is also widely practised, the foremost names being Guillevic, Angèle Vannier (b. 1917), Le Gouic (b. 1936), Le Men (b. 1943), and Keineg (b. 1944). Themes range from the cosmic to the political, often associated with the sudden changes in both society and landscape which economic change has brought since World War II. The question of identity is ever-present and some of its aspects can be profitably followed up in Morvan Lebesque's influential pamphlet Comment peut-on être breton? (1965).

— Humphrey Lloyd Humphreys

Bibliography

  • J. Balcou and Y. Le Gallo, Histoire littéraire et culturelle de la Bretagne (1987)
Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology:

Brittany

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Former duchy and province of north-western France on the Armorican peninsula, coextensive with modern French Departments of Finistére, Côte d'Armor, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique (although the last is officially declared not a part of Brittany since the Vichy Regime, 1941). Occupying 18,630 square miles, the region is more than twice as large as Wales and more than half the size of Ireland. Brittany has been occupied by Celtic-speaking populations since pre-Roman times, but it takes its name from the Brythonic people who fled the isle of Britain in the 5th century. In Breton it is known as Breizh (cf. Breizh Uhel, ‘east or Upper Brittany’ (Fr. Haute Bretagne); Breizh Izel, ‘west or Lower Brittany’ (Fr. Basse Bretagne)); in Welsh it is Llydaw; Cornish Breten Vyghan; Old Irish Letha; Modern Irish An Bhriotáin; Scottish Gaelic Breatainn na Frainge; Manx Yn Vritaan. The coastal regions are known in Breton literature and folklore as Arvor [Breton Ar-Mor, sea], while the interior is known as Argoad [Breton Ar-Goat, Ar-Koad, woods, forest]. In early Christian times the region now called Brittany was divided among three petty kingdoms, Domnonia in the north, Cornouaille in the south and west, Bro Waroch in the south and east. The Fir Morca of early Irish myth, although sometimes placed in west Limerick, are Armoricans/Bretons.

In Welsh tradition the emigrants to Brittany were led by the legendary St. Cynan Meiriadog (or Meriadoc), who is described as a conqueror in Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig [The Dream of Macsen Wledig]. According to that story, the Roman emperor Macsen [Maximus] rewarded his British allies with a portion of Gaul then called Brytanieid. Macsen had married a British princess, Elen, whose brother Cynan had brought a British army to Rome. Cynan and his allies cut out the tongues of all the women of the province lest the language of the conquerors be corrupted, and thus they name it Llydaw [Welsh lled, half; taw, silent]. Cynan is also described as the British invader in Breton legends, where he is known as Conan. With the subsequent influx of British ecclesiastics, the area increasingly became known as ‘Brittany’ instead of Armorica, although the two terms were interchangeable for many centuries.

A P-Celtic language of the Brythonic family, Breton is historically linked to both Welsh and the now extinct Cornish. On the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis (12th cent.), spoken Breton was more closely related to the Cornish of his day than to Welsh. But despite many lexical similarities, modern spoken Breton and Welsh are not mutually comprehensible. In 1907 scholars determined that Breton language and tradition should be divided into four parts. Three in the north and west are closely interrelated: KLT, named for Kernev (Cornouaille), Leon (or Léon), and Treger (Trégor, Tréguier). The G dialect of the south-west stands somewhat apart, taking its name from Gwened, Breton for Vannes, capital of Morbihan; the dialect is also known as Vannetais in French, Gwenedeg in Breton. The first great political leader of the Bretons, subject of many legends, was Nominoë (9th cent.), who first accepted Frankish suzerainty but later revolted and restored Breton independence.

Although Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of ‘tale-telling Bretons and their singers’, no Breton literature survives from before 1450. The Anglo-Norman writer Marie de France (1160–80) brought the purported Breton lai or lay, often employing Breton subject matter, into the mainstream of European literature. Breton folk-tales and songs were not collected until the 19th century. An attempt to fill the void of early Breton tradition was made by Hersart de La Villemarqué's spurious, Macpherson-like ‘translations’ in 1839. Traditional symbols of Breton national culture are the ermine, triscele or triskelion, and biniou (a distinctive Woodwind instrument). See N. K. Chadwick, ‘The Colonization of Brittany from Celtic Britain’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 50 (1966); Early Brittany (Cardiff, 1969); Léon Fleuriot, Les Origines de la Bretagne: I'émigration (Paris, 1980). See also the Bibliography under ‘Breton’.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Brittany

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Brittany (brĭt'ənē), Breton Breiz, Fr. Bretagne, region and former province, NW France. It is a peninsula between the English Channel (N) and the Bay of Biscay (S) and comprises four departments, Ille-et-Vilaine, Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, and Morbihan. Historically the duchy and province of Brittany also included the Loire-Atlantique dept.

Land and People

The coast, particularly at the western tip, is irregular and rocky, with natural harbors (notably at Brest, Lorient, and Saint-Malo) and numerous islands. Important rivers include the Odet and Vilaine. The emigration of the young has resulted in a serious decline in the region's population. Brittany and the Breton people have retained many old customs and traditions. Breton, their Celtic language (akin to Welsh), is spoken in traditionalist Lower (i.e., western) Brittany outside the cities (see Breton literature). Brittany has remarkable stone calvaries, some built at the close of the 16th cent. to ward off the plague. Many megalithic monuments, formerly ascribed to the druids, dot the Breton landscape, notably at Carnac. These sights and the local traditions (old-fashioned peasant dress and high lace headgear, processions, and pilgrimages), which its inhabitants jealously maintain, have made Brittany an outstanding tourist attraction.

Economy

The economy of the region is based on agriculture, fishing, and tourism. Apples, from which the distinctive Breton cider is made, are grown extensively inland. Industry includes food processing, and automobile manufacturing. A major space telecommunications center is at Pleumeur-Bodou. There is a nuclear power plant in the Arrée Mts. and a tidal power station at Rance.

History

A part of ancient Armorica, the area was conquered by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars and became part of the province of Lugdunensis (see Gaul). It received its modern name when it was settled (c.500) by Britons whom the Anglo-Saxons had driven from Britain. Breton history is a long struggle for independence-first from the Franks (5th-9th cent.), then from the dukes of Normandy and the counts of Anjou (10th-12th cent.), and finally from England and France.

In 1196, Arthur I, an Angevin, was acknowledged as duke. King John of England, who presumably murdered him (1203), failed to obtain the duchy, which passed to Arthur's brother-in-law, Peter I (Peter Mauclerc). The extinction of his direct line led to the War of the Breton Succession (1341-65), a part of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). With the end of the Breton war, the dukedom was won by the house of Montfort. The dukes of Montfort tried to secure Brittany's neutrality between France and Britain during the remainder of the Hundred Years War.

The unsuccessful rebellion of Duke Francis II against the French crown led to the absorption of Brittany into France after the accession of his daughter, Anne of Brittany, in 1488. King Francis I formally incorporated the duchy into France in 1532. Brittany's provincial parlement met at Rennes, and its provincial assembly remained powerful until the French Revolution.

The 16th and 17th cent. were generally peaceful in Brittany, but the region, never reconciled to centralized rule, became one of the early centers of revolt in 1789. However, its staunch Catholicism and conservatism soon transformed it into an anti-Revolutionary stronghold; the Chouans (anti-Revolutionary peasants) were never fully subdued, and in S Brittany and the neighboring Vendée the Revolutionary government resorted to ruthless reprisals.

Breton nationalism grew in the 19th cent. and was fueled by the anticlericalism of the Third Republic. The Breton autonomists, long successfully repressed by the French government, nevertheless resisted German bids for collaboration in World War II. During the 1970s, Breton nationalists once again protested the French repression of Breton culture. Groups such as the Breton Revolutionary army and the Movement of National Liberation by Socialism committed sporadic acts of violence, such as the exploding of a bomb in the palace of Versailles in June, 1978.

Bibliography

See N. Lands, Brittany (1986); E. Baclone, The Appointed Hour (1989).

Gale Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World:

Brittany

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Jutting into the ocean, far from Paris's central state, Brittany had close economic and cultural ties to its Atlantic neighbors. Until 1550, when larger and more efficient Dutch ships displaced them, Breton fleets swarmed European coastal waters, carrying salt, linen, hemp, hides, grain, and wine to distant ports. They returned with oranges, leather, and silver from Spain, with herring, cheese, and naval stores from Holland, and with cloth from England, Holland, and Flanders. Brittany remained a bustling manufacturing power until 1680: its two million inhabitants gave it a population density matched in Europe only by the urban regions of the Low Countries.

In western Brittany, war between France and England disabled the manufacture of linen, crucial to the region's economy, at the end of the seventeenth century. This region lapsed into an enduring poverty, and became a leading center of emigration to Paris in the nineteenth century. Nantes followed a different path: it prospered mightily in colonial trade, becoming the largest French slaving port, and reexporting West Indian sugar and coffee throughout Europe.

Brittany enjoyed a quasi-independent status until 1491, when the last Breton ruler, Duchess Anne (1477–1513), married Charles VIII of France (ruled 1483–1498). He died childless; she then married Louis XII (ruled 1498–1515). Their eldest daughter, Claude, married Francis I (ruled 1515–1547); Claude's son, Henry II (ruled 1547–1559) inherited the duchy, making it the personal property of subsequent kings of France.

Brittany until 1790 preserved its provincial Estates, which met annually until 1626 and biannually after 1630; a full complement of local courts, headed by the parlement at Rennes; its customary laws; and its tax system, run primarily by the Estates. These local institutions enabled the Breton nobility to maintain unusually tight control over the province: alone among early modern French peasant rebels, the Breton bonnets rouges ('red caps') in 1675 targeted noble landlords, rather than royal taxes.

Western Brittany stood out culturally because its inhabitants spoke Breton Gaelic. Many French speakers shared the views expressed by the marquis of Lavardin, lieutenant general of Brittany, in 1675: Celtic Brittany "is a rude and ferocious country, which produces inhabitants that resemble it. They poorly understand French and scarcely better reason." The Catholic Church sent out "missionaries," led by the Jesuit Julien Maunoir, to "convert" the nominally Catholic Bretons, whom it viewed as pagans. One of his hymns set forward the church's view of peasant sociability: "Listen all of you [Bretons]/The evil of your veillées,/And your savage dances/That the mad devil/Has brought here/To plunge young people/Into eternal torments . . . From these dances/Come lewd thoughts!" (The veillées, evening village gatherings, for storytelling, matchmaking, and general socializing, remained a staple of Breton life into the 1930s.)

Bretons left a visual legacy of their remarkably rich civilization in parish closes, ensembles of churches, Calvary scenes, and ossuaries. The wealth produced by linen and livestock enabled the peasant-merchants of a St-Thégonnec or a Pleyben to commission magnificent statuary, often created by the workshop of Jean Dauré (1706?–1736/1747?) of Landerneau. Artists richly decorated the interiors of the rural churches, either with imaginative paintings on ceilings and pillars, or with stunning altars, as at Lampaul-Guimiliau, whose gilded fallen angels are based on a painting by Rubens (1577–1640). These masterpieces show the European dimension of early modern Breton civilization, and offer some of the richest rewards rural France has to entice the twenty-first-century visitor.

Bibliography

Collins, J. B. Classes, Estates, and Order in Early-Modern Brittany. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1994.

Croix, Alain. L'âge d'or de la Bretagne, 1532–1675. Rennes, France, 1993.

Tanguy, J. Histoire de la Bretagne et des pays celtique: La Bretagne province 1532–1789. Morlaix, 1986.

—JAMES B. COLLINS

Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:

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Wikipedia on Answers.com:

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This article is about the cultural region in the north-west of France. For the current French administrative region, see Brittany (administrative region). For other uses, see Brittany (disambiguation).
Brittany
Bretagne / Breizh / Bertaèyn

Flag
Coat of arms
Motto: Kentoc'h mervel eget bezañ saotret
Rather death than dishonour
Anthem: None (de jure)
De facto "Bro Gozh ma Zadoù"
Old Land of My Fathers
Location of Brittany (dark blue) within the European Union (light blue)
Country  France
Largest settlements
Area
 • Total 34,023 km2 (13,136 sq mi)
Population (January 2007 estimate)
 • Total 4,365,500
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)

Brittany (French: Bretagne [bʁətaɲ] ( listen); Breton: Breizh, pronounced [brɛjs]; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain (as opposed to Great Britain). Brittany is considered as one of the six Celtic nations.[1][2][3][4]

Brittany occupies the northwest peninsula of continental Europe in northwest France. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the south. Its land area is 34,023 km² (13,136 sq mi). The historical province of Brittany is divided into five departments: Finistère in the west, Côtes-d'Armor in the north, Ille-et-Vilaine in the north east, Loire-Atlantique in the south east and Morbihan in the south on the Bay of Biscay.

In 1956, French regions were created by gathering departments between them.[5] The Region of Brittany comprises, since then, four of the five Breton departments (80% of historical Brittany), while the remaining area of the old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department, around Nantes, forms part of the Pays de la Loire region. This territorial organisation is regularly contested. The Kingdom and the Duchy of Brittany, the province of Brittany, and the modern Region of Brittany cover the Western part of Armorica, as it was known during the period of Roman occupation.

In January 2007 the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,365,500. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire. At the 1999 census, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes (711,120 inhabitants), Rennes (521,188 inhabitants), and Brest (303,484 inhabitants).

Contents

History

Main article: History of Brittany

The peninsula that came to be known as Brittany was a centre of ancient megalithic constructions in the Neolithic era. It has been called the "core area" of megalithic culture.[6] It later became the territory of several Celtic tribes, of which the most powerful was the Veneti. After Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, the area became known to the Romans as Armorica, from the Celtic term for "coastal area". Its transformation into Brittany occurred in the late Roman period, with the establishment of Romano-British settlement in the area. The history behind such an establishment is unclear, but medieval Breton and Welsh sources connect it to a figure known as Conan Meriadoc. Welsh literary sources assert that Conan came to Armorica with the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus, who took his British troops to Gaul to enforce his claims and settled them in Armorica. Regardless of the truth of this story, Brythonic (British Celtic) settlement probably increased during the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Scholars such as Léon Fleuriot have suggested a two-wave model of migration from Britain which saw the emergence of an independent Breton people and established the dominance of the Brythonic Breton language in Armorica.[7] Over time the Armorican British colony expanded, forming a group of petty kingdoms which were later unified in the 840s under Nominoe in resistance to Frankish control.[8]

Anne of Brittany
Historical regions of Brittany in the 14th century

In the mid-9th century Nominoe and his successors won a series of victories over the Franks which secured an independent Duchy of Brittany. In the High Middle Ages the Duchy was sometimes allied to England and sometimes to France. The pro-English faction was victorious in 1364 in the Breton War of Succession, but the independent Breton army was eventually defeated by the French in 1488, leading to dynastic union with France following the marriage of Duchess Anne of Brittany to two kings of France in succession.[9] In 1532 the Duchy was incorporated into France.

Two significant revolts occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries: the Revolt of the papier timbré (1675) and the Pontcallec Conspiracy (1719). Both arose from attempts to resist centralisation and assert Breton constitutional exceptions to tax.[10] The Duchy was legally abolished during the French Revolution and divided into five departments. The area became a centre of royalist and Catholic resistance to the Revolution during the Chouannerie. During the Second Empire conservative Catholic values were reasserted. When the Republic was reinstituted in 1871, there were rumours that Breton troops were mistrusted and mistreated at Camp Conlie during the Franco-Prussian War because of fears that they were a threat to the Republic.[11]

In the 19th century the Celtic Revival led to the foundation of the Breton Regionalist Union (URB) and later to independence movements linked to Irish, Welsh and Scottish independence parties in the UK and to pan-Celticism. There was a cultural renaissance in the 20th century associated with the movement Seiz Breur.[12] The alliance of the Breton National Party with Nazi Germany in World War II weakened Breton nationalism in the post-war period. In 1956, Brittany was legally reconstituted as the Region of Brittany, although the region excluded the ducal capital of Nantes and the surrounding area. Over this period the Breton language declined precipitously. Children were not allowed to speak Breton at school, and were punished by teachers if they did. Famously, signs in schools read: "It is forbidden to speak Breton and to spit on the floor" ("Il est interdit de parler breton et de cracher par terre").[13] As a result, a generation of native Breton speakers were made to feel ashamed of their language and avoided speaking it or teaching it to their children. These factors contributed to the decline of Breton. Nevertheless Brittany retained its cultural distinctiveness.

Sights

Megaliths at Carnac.
Vitré, old fortified town.
Cap Fréhel

Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments which are scattered across the peninsula. The largest alignments are near Karnag/Carnac. The purpose of these monuments is still unknown, and many local people are reluctant to entertain speculation on the subject.

Brittany is also known for its calvary sculptures, elaborately carved crucifixion scenes found at crossroads in villages and small towns, especially in Western Brittany.

Besides its numerous intact manors and châteaux, Brittany also has several old fortified towns. The walled city of Saint-Malo (Sant-Maloù), a popular tourist attraction, is also an important port linking Brittany with England and the Channel Islands. It was the birthplace of the historian Louis Duchesne, the acclaimed author Chateaubriand, the corsair Surcouf and the explorer Jacques Cartier. The town of Roscoff (Rosko) is served by ferry links with England and Ireland.

Significant urban centres include:

  • Nantes (Gallo: Naunnt, Breton: Naoned) : 282,853 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 804,833 in the urban area.
  • Rennes (Gallo: Resnn, Breton: Roazhon) : 209,613 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 521,188 in the urban area.
  • Brest (Breton Brest) : 148,316 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 300,000 in the urban area.
  • Saint-Nazaire (Gallo: Saint-Nazère, Breton: Sant-Nazer) : 71,373 inhabitants in the commune (2006); located in the urban area of Nantes.
  • Lorient (Breton: an Oriant) : 58,547 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 190,000 in the urban area.
  • Quimper (Breton: Kemper) : 64,900 inhabitants in the commune (2006).
  • Vannes (Breton: Gwened, Gallo: Vann) : 53,079 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 132,880 in the urban area.
  • Saint-Brieuc (Gallo: Saint-Bérieu, Breton: Sant-Brieg) : 46,437 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 121,237 in the urban area (2005).
  • Saint-Malo (Gallo: Saent-Malô, Breton: Sant-Maloù) : 52,737 inhabitants in the commune (2007), 81,962 in the urban area.
  • Redon (Gallo: Rdon, Breton: Redon) : 9,601 inhabitants in the commune (2006), 52,758 in the urban area.

The island of Ushant (Breton: Enez Eusa, French: Ouessant) is the north-westernmost point of Brittany and France, and marks the entrance to the English Channel. Other islands off the coast of Brittany include:


The coast at Brittany is unusual due to its colouring. The Côte de Granit Rose (pink granite coast) is located in the Côtes d'Armor department of Brittany. It stretches for more than 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Plestin-les-Greves to Louannec and is one of the outstanding coastlines of Europe. This special pink rock is very rare and can be found in only three other places in the world, Ontario, Canada, Corsica and China.[14]

The landscape has inspired artists, including Paul Signac, Marc Chagall, Raymond Wintz and his wife Renee Carpentier Wintz, who both painted coastal and village scenes. Paul Gauguin and his famous School of Pont-Aven in the Finistère department, Brittany also painted many village scenes.

Festivals

The Breton musical group Kevrenn Alre at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient

Brittany has a vibrant calendar of festivals and events. Several are of course maritime themed while others reflect Brittany’s lively music heritage or the region’s diverse culture. Traditional Breton festivals, fest noz in Breton, regularly take place in towns and villages throughout Brittany and include local music and dancing. Brittany also hosts some of France’s biggest contemporary music festivals.

Cultural festivals

  • Festival de Cornouaille: July (Quimper, Finistère)

A long-established festival that showcases Brittany’s cultural diversity.

  • Les Filets Bleus: August (Concarneau, Finistère)

This long-standing festival celebrates fishing traditions in the coastal town of Concarneau.

An internationally renowned festival that celebrates Celtic traditions.

  • Festival du Film Britannique: October (Dinard,Côtes-d’Armor)

This British film festival screens previews of British films in France.

Music festivals

  • Art Rock: May (Saint-Brieuc, Côtes d'Armor)

Pop, rock and electro festival.

This music festival is the Breton equivalent of Glastonbury in the UK.

  • Astropolis: July (Brest, Finistère)

A prominent electro and techno festival.

Pop and rock, often with an Anglo-Saxon flavour.

Known for showcasing brand new acts : Nirvana and Portishead did some of their early gigs at this festival.

Maritime festivals

  • Fêtes Maritimes de Brest: July (Brest, Finistère)

This sailing event takes place every 4 years (the next one is in 2012).

This transatlantic single-handed yacht race takes place every 4 years (the next one is in 2014).

Regional languages

Main articles: Breton language and Gallo language
Lower Brittany (in colours), where the Breton language is traditionally spoken and Upper Brittany (in shades of grey), where the Gallo language is traditionally spoken. The changing shades indicate the advance of Gallo and French, and retreat of Breton from AD900.
Bilingual road signs can be seen in traditional Breton-speaking areas.

French, the only official language of the French Republic, is today spoken throughout Brittany. The two regional languages are supported by the regional authorities within the constitutional limits: Breton, strongest in the west but to be seen all over Brittany, is a Celtic language most closely related to Cornish and Welsh. Gallo, which is spoken in the east, is one of the romance Langues d'oïl.

Breton was traditionally spoken in the west (Breton: Breizh-Izel, or Lower Brittany), and Gallo in the east (French: pays Gallo, Breton: Breizh Uhel, Gallo: Haùtt-Bertaèyn, or Upper Brittany). The dividing line stretched from Plouha on the north coast to a point to the south east of Vannes. French had, however, long been the main language of the towns. The Breton-speaking area once covered territory much farther east than its current distribution.

Since the 13th century, long before the union of Brittany and France, the main administrative language of the Duchy of Brittany was French, and previously it was Latin. Breton (in the West) and Gallo (in the East) remained the two languages of the rural population of Brittany, but since the Middle Ages the bourgeoisie, the nobility, and the higher clergy spoke French. Government policies in the 19th and 20th centuries, which forbade the speaking of Breton in schools, along with the demands of education, pushed many non-French speakers into adopting the French language. Nevertheless, until the 1960s Breton was spoken and understood by most of the inhabitants of western Brittany.

In the Middle Ages, Gallo gradually expanded into formerly Breton-speaking areas. Now restricted to a much reduced territory in the east of Brittany, Gallo finds itself under pressure from the dominant Francophone culture. It is also felt by some to be threatened by the Breton language revival, which is gaining ground in territories that were not previously part of the main Breton-speaking area.

Diwan ("seed") schools, where classes are taught in Breton by the immersion method, play an important part in the revival of the Breton language. These schools are privately funded, as they receive no French central government support. The issue of whether they should be funded by the State has long been, and remains, controversial. Some bilingual classes are also provided in ordinary schools.[citation needed]

Bilingual (Breton and French) road signs may be seen in some areas, especially in the traditional Breton-speaking area of Lower Brittany. Signage in Gallo is much rarer.

Some villages have received an influx of English-speaking immigrants and second-home owners, adding to the linguistic diversity.

Be Breizh: Breizh is the Breton word for Brittany and given that the Bretons are particularly proud of their roots, you will see the word – or simply the letters BZH – in evidence throughout the region. Along with the black and white Breton flag (the Gwenn Ha Du) and the triskell, you will see these symbols of Breton identity on cars, t-shirts and shop fronts. In 2011, the regional tourist board adopted the phrase ‘Be Breizh’ to sum up this unique Breton spirit.

Religion

Sculpted "calvaries" can be found in many villages.
The Notre-Dame church in Bodilis, Finistère

While Christianization may have occurred during Roman occupation, the first recorded Christian missionaries came to the region from Wales and are known as the "Seven founder saints":

Other notable early evangelizers are Gildas and the Irish saint Columbanus. With more than 300 "saints" (only a few recognised by the Catholic Church), the region is strongly Catholic. Since the 19th century at least, Brittany has been known as one of the most devoutly Catholic regions in France, in contrast to many other more secularised areas (see "Bl. Julien Maunoir"). The proportion of students attending Catholic private schools is the highest in France. As in other Celtic regions, the legacy of Celtic Christianity has left a rich tradition of local saints and monastic communities, often commemorated in place names beginning Lan, Lam, Plou or Lok. The patron saint of Brittany is Saint Anne, the Virgin's mother. But the most famous saint is Saint Ivo of Kermartin ('saint Yves' in French, 'sant Erwan' in Breton), a 13th century priest who devoted his life to the poor.

Once a year, believers go on a "Pardon", the saint's feast day of the parish. It often begins with a procession followed by a mass in honour of the saint. There is always a secular side, with some food and craft stalls. The three most famous Pardons are:

  • from Sainte-Anne d'Auray/Santez-Anna-Wened, where a poor farmer in the 17th century explained how the saint had ordered him to build a chapel in her honour.
  • from Tréguier/Landreger, in honour of St Yves, the patron saint of the judges, advocates, and any profession involved in justice.
  • from Locronan/Lokorn, in honour of St Ronan, with a troménie (a procession, 12 km-long) and numerous people in traditional costume (Locronan is also very close to a more known city Douarnenez which used to be the very famous rendez-vous point for all sailers in the world every 4 years).

There is a very old pilgrimage called the Tro Breizh (tour of Brittany), where the pilgrims walk around Brittany from the grave of one of the seven founder saints to another. Historically, the pilgrimage was made in one trip (a total distance of around 600 km) for all seven saints. Nowadays, however, pilgrims complete the circuit over the course of several years. In 2002, the Tro Breizh included a special pilgrimage to Wales, symbolically making the reverse journey of the Welshmen Sant Paol, Sant Brieg, and Sant Samzun. It is believed that whoever does not make the pilgrimage at least once in his lifetime will be condemned to make it after his death, advancing only by the length of his coffin each seven years.[15]

Many distinctive traditions and customs have also been preserved in Brittany. The most powerful folk figure is the Ankou or the "Reaper of Death". Sometimes a skeleton wrapped in a shroud with the Breton flat hat, sometimes described as a real human being (the last dead of the year, devoted to bring the dead to Death), he makes his journeys by night carrying an upturned scythe which he throws before him to reap his harvest. Sometimes he is on foot but mostly he travels with a cart, the Karrig an Ankou, drawn by two oxen and a lean horse. Two servants dressed in the same shroud and hat as the Ankou pile the dead into the cart, and to hear it creaking at night means you have little time left to live.[16]

Breton music

Main article: Music of Brittany

Brittany is an area of strong Celtic heritage, rich in its cultural heritage. Though long under the control of France and influenced by French traditions, Brittany has retained and, since the early 1970s, revived its own folk music, modernising and adapting it into folk rock and other fusion genres (see, for example, Alan Stivell, Dan Ar Braz, and Red Cardell).

Gastronomy

A Coreff porter and a Coreff pale ale.
A Galette with savory stuffing.

Although some white wine is produced near the Loire, the traditional drinks of Brittany are:

  • cider (Breton: sistr or chistr) – Brittany is the second largest cider-producing region in France;[17] Traditionally served in a ceramic cup resembling an English Tea cup ("bolennad" in breton, "bolée" in french).
  • beer (Breton: bier) – Brittany has a long beer brewing tradition, tracing its roots back to the seventeenth century; Young artisanal brewers are keeping a variety of beer types alive,[18] such as Coreff de Morlaix, Tri Martolod and Britt;
  • a sort of mead made from wild honey called chouchenn;
  • an apple eau de vie called lambig.

Historically Brittany was a beer producing region. However, as wine was increasingly imported from other regions of France, beer drinking and production slowly came to an end in the early to mid-20th century. In the 1970s, due to a regional comeback, new breweries started to open and there are now about 20 of them. Whisky is also produced by a handful of distilleries with excellent results, such as Eddu distillery at Plomelin near Quimper, which elaborates a real and successful creation using buckwheat, Glann ar Mor distillery which makes an un-peated Single Malt, as well as a peated expression named Kornog. Another recent drink is kir Breton (crème de cassis and cider) which may be served as an apéritif. Tourists often try a mix of bread and red wine. Large, thin pancakes made from buckwheat flour (blé noir) are eaten with ham, eggs and other savoury fillings. They are made with plain buckwheat flour and water in Eastern Brittany and called galettes (Breton: galetes). La Galette Saucisse, a hot grilled pure pork Breton sausage wrapped in a cold galette, is the "fast food" of Eastern Brittany, sold from road side stands, and served at every occasion from football matches to the local school fête.[19] In the western parts of Brittany buckwheat pancakes are made with eggs and called crêpes de blé noir (Breton: krampouezh). Galettes are often served with a cup of cider, but in Brittany they should traditionally be accompanied by Breton buttermilk called lait ribot (Breton: laezh-ribod). Brittany also has a dish similar to the pot-au-feu known as the Kig ha farz, which consists of stewed pork or beef with buckwheat dumplings.

Thin crêpes made from wheat flour are eaten for dessert or for breakfast. They may be served cold with local butter. Other pastries, such as kouign amann ("butter cake" in Breton) made from bread dough, butter and sugar, or far, a sort of sweet Yorkshire pudding, or clafoutis with prunes, are traditional.

Surrounded by the sea, Brittany offers a wide range of fresh sea food and fish, especially mussels and oysters. Among the sea food specialities is cotriade.

Climate

Located on the west coast of France, Brittany has a warm, temperate climate. Rainfall occurs regularly – which has helped keep its countryside green and wooded, but sunny, cloudless days are also common.

In general, Brittany has a moderate climate during both summer and winter. In the summer months temperatures in the region can reach 30 °C (86 °F), yet the climate remains comfortable, especially when compared to parts of France south of the Loire. In Brittany a common expression and response to people complaining about the rain is "En Bretagne, il ne pleut que sur les cons", which literally translates as "In Brittany, it only rains on the idiots", and should be understood as if one is not pleased with Brittany, he should leave it.

Brittany's most popular summer resorts are on the south coast (La Baule, Belle Île, Gulf of Morbihan), although the wilder and more exposed north coast (the Côte de granite rose, Perros-Guirec, etc.) also attracts summer tourists.

Transport

MV Pont-Aven, the flagship that serves the routes connecting Brittany to England and Ireland

Airports in Brittany serving destinations in France, Great Britain and Ireland include Brest, Saint-Malo, Lorient and Rennes. Flights between Brittany and the Channel Islands are served by Saint-Brieuc airport. Several cities in Great Britain and Ireland are also served from Nantes, Loire-Atlantique department and former capital of the historic province of Brittany. The main airlines include, among others, Ryanair, Flybe, Aer Arann, Aer Lingus, Air France and EasyJet.

Others smaller airport operates domestic flights in Quimper, and Lannion

TER Bretagne is the regional train that operates in Brittany and the TGV train services link the region with cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille in France. In addition there are ferry services that take passengers, vehicles and freight to Ireland, England and the Channel Islands.

Brittany Ferries operates the following regular services:

Irish Ferries operates the following routes:

Image gallery

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References

  1. ^ "The Celtic League". The Celtic League. http://www.celticleague.net/. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  2. ^ "Festival Interceltique de Lorient 2010". Festival Interceltique de Lorient. http://www.festival-interceltique.com/festival/nations-celtes.cfm. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  3. ^ "Official website of the French Government Tourist Office: Brittany". Us.franceguide.com. http://us.franceguide.com/Cultural-Brittany.html?NodeID=1&EditoID=193027. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  4. ^ The Celtic connection. Google Books. 30 March 1986. http://books.google.com/books?id=iKIWY4P9uFwC. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Michèle Cointet, op. cit., pp. 183–216 (p. 216 pour la citation)
  6. ^ Mark Patton, Statements in Stone: Monuments and Society in Neolithic Brittany, Routledge, 1993, p.1
  7. ^ Léon Fleuriot, Les origines de la Bretagne: l’émigration, Paris, Payot, 1980.
  8. ^ Smith, Julia M. H. Province and Empire: Brittany and the Carolingians, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp.80–83.
  9. ^ Constance De La Warr, A Twice Crowned Queen: Anne of Brittany, Peter Owen, 2005
  10. ^ Joël Cornette, Le marquis et le Régent. Une conspiration bretonne à l'aube des Lumières, Paris, Tallandier, 2008.
  11. ^ "Rennes, guide histoire" (PDF). http://www.rennes.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Telechargements/rennais/rn382/histoire.pdf. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  12. ^ J. R. Rotté, Ar Seiz Breur. Recherches et réalisations pour un art Breton moderne, 1923–1947, 1987.
  13. ^ Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l ... – Google Books. Google Books. 19 June 2008. http://books.google.com/books?id=h99nAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Il+est+interdit+de+parler+breton+et+de+cracher+par+terre%22&dq=%22Il+est+interdit+de+parler+breton+et+de+cracher+par+terre%22&ei=BcJMS8PWMILmzASN-dn2Cw&cd=2. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  14. ^ "Cote de Granit Rosé (pink granite coast)". Frenchconnections.co.uk. http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/en/guide/miniguidepage/150687-cote-de-granit-ros%C3%A9---brittany. Retrieved 6 February 2009. 
  15. ^ Bretagne: poems (in French), by Amand Guérin, Published by P. Masgana, 1842: page 238
  16. ^ Anatole le Braz, La Legende de la Mort, BiblioBazaar reprint, LLC, 2009, pp. 430ff.
  17. ^ "Le Cidre – Mediaoueg , Ar Vediaoueg – La Médiathèque". Servijer.net. http://servijer.net/mediaoueg/Le-Cidre. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  18. ^ "bierbreizh – Accueil". Bierbreizh.info. http://www.bierbreizh.info/. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  19. ^ "Galette saucisse – Wikipédia" (in (French)). Fr.wikipedia.org. 25 April 2011. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galette_saucisse. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brittany
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Breton edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Provinces of France before the revolution

Coordinates: 48°00′N 3°00′W / 48°N 3°W / 48; -3


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Brittany

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Bretagne

Deutsch (German)
n. - Bretagne

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בריטאני‬

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