F. M. Luzel. Contes Bretons: Recueillis et Traduit [Breton Folk Tales: Collected and Translated]. 1870; Wikisource, 2021.
I recently heard of François-Marie Luzel for the first time. As some readers of these pages may know, I studied folklore and oral transmission in college and have an interest the Grimm Brothers tales (märchen to scholars) as well as ancient epics. Since starting this blog, I have noted Joseph Campbell’s work. Luzel was the Grimm brother of folk tales of Brittany. He spoke the Celtic Breton language, which is very similar to Welsh. A Breton and Welshman can carry on a conversation with one another with nearly 100% understanding. Luzel then translated the folk tales he collected into French. This collection contains six tales, all somewhat reminiscent of folk stories from other places, but with a clear connection to Brittany and France.
Luzel tells us that most of the tales were told by more than one person as he was doing his research. He included what he considered the most representative details of each story with some endnotes describing certain variations. In other words, we can read this as a scholarly collection, but for most of us, we read it as a collection of clever fairy tales. While children can appreciate them, they were probably meant for grownups as were the Grimm tales. And at least one tale has a postscript telling us that the story really happened…
The first tale, “The Giant Goulaffre,” combines a number of typical folk tale elements. Indeed, when our two heroes enter the giant’s castle, the giant first becomes aware of them from their scent: “I smell the odor of a Christian, and I want to eat him!” (257) says the giant, not unlike “I smell the blood of an Englishman…I’ll grind his bones to make my bread” in “Jack and the Beanstalk.” We understand that many animals have a better sense of smell than humans, so this illustrates the animalistic or savage side of the giant.
The main character of the story is a young Breton named Allanic, the only son of his widowed mother. He wants to explore the world to find his fortune, as so many young men in such tales do. He also is skilled musician, playing the pipes. For some of his adventures, he has a dancer friend who accompanies him. (It makes me wonder if Mat and Rand in The Eye of the World were inspired by this or a similar tale.) They outwit the giant to escape his hunger and end up in Paris serving the king.
When the king hears of Allanic’s escapade with the giant, the king sets him back on two quests to regain items the giant has stolen from the king. Allanic is able to very cleverly outwit the giant—indeed, he gets the giant to kill his own wife and daughters. It is no spoiler to say that at the end, Allanic gets to marry the king’s daughter because of his loyalty, bravery, and cleverness, not unlike the ending to many other fairy tales.
“The Man with Two Dogs” is more magical. This also involves an enchanted castle, and our hero is able to outwit evil devils, who also want to devour Christians. He gains the help of a captive princess. In this case, he is actually eaten three times, but each time a piece of his body is left behind so that he is magically recreated, the third time from only a fingernail. In this case our hero is Jean, the son of the king, but Jean is usurped by his older sister and her husband, so there are also three trials to regain his rightful throne. Once again, the cleverness of both the hero and heroine as well as the magical abilities of the two dogs is able to save the day.
The hero of “The Godson of the Holy Virgin” is, as in the first tale, a poor boy who does well. His parents are old when he is born and ask the parish priest to be the godfather of their son because the father had been tricked by a troop of devils to give them his firstborn son. Because he is a priest, the godfather says the boy’s godmother must be the Virgin Mary.
As the boy, Pipi, comes of age, he also must go out on some adventures and overcome those devils. He does so with the help of the Blessed Virgin and a holy book she gives him (presumably some Scriptures). In this case he also helps free the daughter of sorcerers. Their wedding, we are told, was attended by a great-great grandfather of one of the storytellers, so we know that the story really happened.
“Jesus Christ in Lower Brittany” begins by telling us that one time “Our Savior Jesus Christ once had made a tour of Lower Brittany, accompanied by St. Peter and St. John” (816). This is more of a clever moral story with echoes of the Greek myth of Philemon and Baucis. In this case, the lonely widow they bless has to learn a lesson, to distinguish between what God can do and what happens to humans who try to imitate God apart from Him and their own desires. Like the other tales, there is some humor, though in this the humor is more lighthearted. They three travelers teach a similar lesson to the cook of a lord. Both episodes have echoes “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in those lessons.
“The Two Sons of the Fisherman” may be the most magical of the stories here. A fisherman and his wife have twins after being childless for a long time. When one twin comes of age, he wants to seek his fortune. He does, and ends up rescuing a princess in a castle whom he marries. But then trouble begins. Without going into too much detail, this is the second story that involves a deadly “wheel of razors.” (Were they trying to imagine a deadlier circular saw?) Brother number two ends up rescuing brother number one in a heady triumph of good over evil.
“The Miller and His Lord” may be the cleverest of the stories. It is probably the funniest. A miller owes his lord rents but is unable to pay them. Unfortunately, the lord shows no mercy, so the miller leaves for the nearby town with his one valuable possession, a cow. He is attacked by robbers. He escapes, but the cow is captured, killed, and eaten by the thieves. While the thieves are resting after their repast, the miller gets into the cow skin—its head and horns are still intact—and scares the robbers off. He gathers all the money left behind that they have robbed from others.
He is now able to pay the landlord the twenty écus he owes. The lord asks him where he got the money, and he said he sold the hide of his cow for a hundred écus. The greedy lord then slaughters all he cows in his own herd and takes the leather to the town, expecting a hundred écus per hide. The people there laugh him out of town. The miller shares a few other supernatural secrets which his lord believes. Ultimately, the lord loses his wife and his wealth. Without going into detail, the additional devices are equally clever. Towards the end, the positions of the miller and greedy lord are nearly reversed.
One recurring image or idea is that all the protagonists except in “Jesus Christ in Lower Brittany” have to overcome or face three challenges. In the case of “The Man with the Two Dogs” there are three trials followed by three more different trials. There are certain other recurring elements, especially the triumph of clever young men and the helpfulness of high-ranking but endangered young women. and, of course, there is the general triumph of justice over injustice. Readers who like fairy tales will definitely enjoy these. While I read them in French, they have been recently translated into English. Have fun!
N.B.: References are Kindle locations, not page numbers.