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Breizh- Brittany- Bretagne. ‘Tad-Kozh’. Brittany-Bretagne-Breizh. France’s Celtic Enclave. Breton language- Brezhoneg. Unan Daou Tri Pevar Pemp C’hwec’h Seizh Eizh Nav Deg. Map of Brittany-carte de la Bretagne. The ‘d é partements’ of Brittany. Brittany (Breizh).
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Breizh- Brittany- Bretagne ‘Tad-Kozh’
Brittany-Bretagne-Breizh France’s Celtic Enclave
Breton language- Brezhoneg Unan Daou Tri Pevar Pemp C’hwec’h Seizh Eizh Nav Deg
Brittany (Breizh) • The flag of • Brittany:
Carnac Prehistoric standing stones in Carnac 4500-2000BC
Traditional Brittany Bigoudenn
Brezhoneg-The Breton language Gallo-speaking Areas Haute-Bretagne Breton-speaking Areas Basse- Bretagne
Breton language (Brezhoneg) • An Taol Lagad- television news in Breton • http://jt.france3.fr/regions/popup.php?id=l35b_locale • Music in Breton: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpycKwAb0rM&feature=related • Breton dance: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgWcNwzucaM
Breton Music • Bombarde and biniou • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDwfBx2MzYc&feature=related • Bagad • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMwInVN56Gg&feature=related • Alan Stivell • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpNVMjnDmY • Denez Prigent • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TnUodKx6LY
Brittany • The inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh-la Bretagne) are called Bretons. • Today the majority speak French. • Formally (until approximately c1880) the main language was Breton, a Celtic language related to Welsh and Cornish. • In the Breton language the word for Brittany is Breizh, and the word for the Breton language is Brezhoneg.
Ancient Brittany Brittany in the Iron Age
Brittany was called Armorica in the Celtic Iron Age period (c500-50BC). Ancient Brittany Armorica
Early Brittany: the Iron Age • Julius Caesar wrote the following about the Veneti tribe of southern Brittany c57-6BC: • Now of all the peoples of the coastal part of that area, the Veneti are by far the strongest. They have a great many ships and regularly sail to and from Britain. When it comes to knowledge and experience of navigation, they leave all the other tribes standing. (BG III, 8).
Early Brittany: the Iron Age • The tribal names found in Brittany at this time are all Celtic: • Osismi, Coriosolitae, Riedones, Namnetes, Veneti. • Some of these names survive still today as city names: Rennes, Nantes, Vannes (Breton: Roazhon, Naoned, Gwened). • The Breton Iron Age tribes had a very distinctive art-style which is reflected in their coins:
Early Brittany: the Roman period • When Armorica (Brittany) was defeated together with the rest of Gaul (France) after 52BC, the slow process of Romanisation began, but was never really complete in this westerly outpost of the Celtic world. • It was an area,which maintained its Celtic traditions ans language. Traded with SW Britain.
Early Brittany: the Roman period • There is every reason to believe that while towns, and perhaps large rural estates, accommodated a mixed population using either a debased Latin, or Gaulish or both, the very large rural population still spoke the Celtic language of Gaul (France), namely Gaulish. • (Gaulish=ancient Celtic language of France and other regions, extinct by c400AD).
Early Brittany:early identities • During the 3rd and 4th centuries AD Armorica (Brittany) like much of Roman Gaul was seized by civil disturbances and economic chaos.(Decline of the Roman Empire). • In Brittany such upheaval was led periodically by the Bacaudae who wanted some form of independence for their western districts. Their main target being the Roman villas and estates. BACAUDAE
Creating ‘Brittany’. The Migrations from SW Britain c380-c550
Early Brittany: after Rome • The transition from Roman/Celtic Armorica to Celtic Brittany was a gradual process which took place between the late fourth and early seventh centuries (c380-c620, but mainly c380-550). • This happened as a result of an important influx of population from Late and post-Roman Britain (other side of the channel). IMMIGRATION TO BRITTANY
Creating Brittany • In succeeding centuries these Brittones (‘Celtic’ Britons) most likely merged with the indigenous Armoricans to become the basis for the Bretons of the Middle Ages and the Modern period.. • This very important immigration had profound effects on all aspects of life in the peninsula.
Creating Brittany • Probably the most important of these effects was linguistic and religious. • The peninsula became divided between those who preserved Brittonic speech (ie the Celtic language of southern Britain) and those who spoke colloquial Latin which evolved into early western French (gallo...and other varieties of langue d’oil)
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • Firstly, from the 3rd century AD, Britons and Armoricans were classed as Roman citizens. • But why would thousands and thousands of Britons have wanted to relocate to Brittany? • There is evidence that ‘Celtic’ Britons travelled and settled widely in the Roman Empire, especially as members of the Late Roman Army.
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • There is evidence of these Britons in the Rhineland, Dalmatia, as well as Gaul (France), between the Somme and the Loire rivers. As the Roman empire began to collapse, this tendency seems to have increased. • One result was the creation of a British (ie Celtic British) colony in Galicia, in today’s Spain.
British Settlements in Early France
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • Perhaps more substantial for the view that the earliest British settlers were Britons who had fought in the Roman army comes from the work of Jordanes who mentions how in 469-70, a force under Riothamus (a Celtic name=supreme king) was fighting for the Emperor Anthemius in the Loire Valley.
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • Even one of the near contemporary writers, a Briton called Gildas, writing around 540AD, says that after the Anglo-Saxon invasions, Britons ‘made for lands beyond the sea where beneath the swelling sails they loudly wailed, singing a psalm that took the place of a shanty’.
The Creation of Brittany Legendary Tales
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • Given that there were many cases of British troop movements to the Continent as defenders of the Empire. • and even in one case as an army supporting the Imperial pretender Magnus Maximus in 388 • another theory developed (in the middle ages) that Brittany was initially founded by the remnants of these British armies (under Roman rule), and especially that of M Maximus’ army.
The Legend of Conan Meriadoc • The story known both in medieval Brittany and Wales (and found in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, c1136) was that the remnants of this army were led by Conan Meriadoc and that they stayed behind in Gaul, took wives and founded a long-lasting dynasty in Brittany.
Conan Meriadoc- the legend. • In Geoffrey of Monmouth, Conan is given Brittany as a reward after helping the emperor of Rome to conquer Gaul. • From him were descended the later kings of Brittany (the forebears of Arthur). • Similar stories are told in The Dream of the Emperor Maxen , and in a Breton ms called the Cartulaire de Quimperlé.
Conan Meriadoc • Founder figure in the genealogies of several Breton dynasties. • Ancestor of the House of Rohan in Medieval Brittany. • Alain I of Rohan (1084-1147) • Hercule Meriadoc de Rohan • Mentioned in Welsh sources (Geoffrey of Monmouth, The Dream of Macsen Wledig)
The Seven Founder Saints of Brittany • St Pol- Aurelian (St Pol-de Leon) • Saint Tudwal (Treguier-Treger) • St Brioc (St Brieux) • St Malo, St Malou (St-Malo) • St Samson (Dol-de-Bretagne) • St Patern (Quimper-Kemper) • St Corentin (Vannes)
Christianity in Brittany The Introduction of Celtic Christianity during the Immigrations c400-700AD
The Immigration to Brittany from Britain • Many of the ‘saints’ (the religious leaders commemorated in so many Breton place-names), and assigned a directing role in the exodus, were members of princely and aristocratic families. • Many of these religious leaders came from South Wales.
