From Broceliande to the Gulf of Morbihan
The forest of Broceliande is known as the home of the Arthurian legend. But you will not find it on the map, since its name is not recognized administratively. It is in the forest of Paimpont that you will have to look for the trace of the knights of the round table and of Merlin the magician, whose tomb can be seen! Do you know the importance of fairies in this legendary territory? It is not the least, and it is besides his love for the fairy Viviane which would have made perish Merlin! As for the knights, they had better beware of the fairy Morgana... She, terribly disappointed by the knight Guyomard, would have created a trap to lock up all the unfaithful lovers in love, with the help of Merlin. This was the birth of the Valley of No Return, or the Valley of False Lovers, where she succeeded in imprisoning knights for seventeen years... until Lancelot of the Lake foiled her spell and managed to free 253 knights! As for Guyomard, he is still on the spot, punished and petrified with his mistress for eternity!
The poor fairies, in love with their beautiful forest of Broceliande, would have ended up being chased away by the korrigans, these small creatures similar to goblins, sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent, omnipresent in the Breton stories. The fairies, then alone on a hilly land, at the present location of the Gulf of Morbihan, poured a flood of tears that soon turned into a torrent, so intense was their dismay. In spite of this, they threw away their crowns of flowers... If their tears became the waters of the gulf, it is said that their crowns and the petals that came off them formed its islands. The most beautiful crown, that of the queen of the fairies, drifted off and formed Belle-Île-en-Mer. They would have contributed to the creation of as many islands as there are days in a year... However, out of these 365 islands, travelers seem to count only about 40 today..
But the history of the Gulf of Morbihan is far from stopping there! Among the legends that are told there, there is the one of the separation between the Île-aux-Moines, then called Izenah and populated by sailors, and the Île d'Arz, a territory of fishermen. While these two islands were connected by an isthmus, a young man from Izenah loved a young girl from Arz with pure love. His parents soon discovered this relationship which they violently disapproved of! Disappointed with their son, they locked him up with the monks. But every day, the young girl, enamored and courageous, crossed the isthmus to sing at the foot of the monastery. The monks, tired of these incessant serenades, ordered the korrigans to submerge the isthmus, causing the drowning of this faithful lover and the separation of the two islands forever!
The mysteries of the megaliths
It is a must during a stay in Morbihan: go and see the menhirs alignments of Carnac. This megalithic site, the largest in the world, is now classified as a historical monument, and dates from the Neolithic period. Hundreds of menhirs stand perfectly aligned over more than four kilometers, from the most imposing to the smallest! Between the origin of these granite stones and their strange disposition, the mystery remains immense. However, it is assumed that these alignments were real places of life, and that people played between the menhirs, that they got married there, that they built houses in their alignment... It is even said that women rubbed themselves against these stones to stimulate their fertility! Moreover, megaliths are often linked to burials, especially the most imposing ones like tumuli, dolmens or cairns.
But we cannot ignore the legend of Saint Cornély, one of the first popes, between the years 251 and 253 of our era. Having left Rome following the persecutions of the emperor, he was travelling through Gaul accompanied by two oxen carrying his luggage. Suddenly, this holy man was attacked by the numerous soldiers of the Roman army. To escape, he hid in the ear of one of his oxen, and from there, he transformed his attackers into menhirs!
Many other sites in Morbihan bear the trace of this Neolithic past which fascinates us so much. Among these, the island of Gavrinis, in the heart of the Gulf of Morbihan, is very surprising, and more particularly its stone mound (or cairns). This one is hollowed out by a corridor of dolmens which leads to a burial chamber. This tomb was discovered in 1832, and its great particularity lies in the drawings that are carved on its granite walls, of a rare complexity and regularity. These engravings have been classified as a historical monument since 1901, and their beauty is as impressive as it is intriguing! If some identify motifs like tools or snakes, they continue to keep their secret with determination... As for the way these slabs of several tons were brought to the island thousands of years ago, suppositions remain vague... Perhaps a visit will allow you to feel the hidden history of this place?
Lakes with troubled waters..
The interior of the department is as rich in mysterious stories as its coasts and islands! And as often in the world of legends, some of them have more the gift to make our hair stand on end than to make us tenderly dreaming! At the lake of Guerlédan, you will be served in shivers... The biggest artificial lake of Brittany, created less than a century ago, it delimits the border between Morbihan and Côtes-d'Armor, and its dam feeds an electric plant. But in Brittany, it doesn't matter that a landscape element is relatively recent, it quickly becomes the place of exciting stories. It seems that some walkers hear bells ringing, which would come from a bell tower sunk in the bottom of the lake. The poor buggers... It would be none other than the Ankoù, the dreaded Breton personification of death, announcing its imminent arrival... Perhaps this will reassure you: this lake is dried up from time to time, and the last time, in 2015, we were able to check, there is no trace of this bell tower!
A few steps away, it is the bloodthirsty Count Conomor who left his terrifying mark. Frightened by a prophecy that he would be murdered by his own child, he had already killed four pregnant wives one by one... Until he met Trephine, the daughter of Count Waroc'h, so beautiful and virtuous. He asked for her hand in marriage, and the marriage was concluded after Trephine sought advice from St. Gildas, who had faith in Conomor's conversion through Trephine. But as soon as she too became pregnant, Conomor locked her up in a barricaded room, from which she managed to escape by miraculously breaking the bars. But Conomor soon found her, and beheaded her without hesitation. Saint Gildas then discovered the body of Trephine, and after long prayers, he put her head on her body, and resurrected her! She gave birth to her son Trémeur, and lived hidden in the village that today bears her name: Sainte-Tréphine. As for Trémeur, he died at the hands of his father in the middle of a battle, without the latter knowing his identity.
There is another stretch of water that stimulates the imagination: it is the pond of the Duke, near Vannes. From time to time, one would see a beautiful Mary-Morgane (a mermaid) with green hair, enjoying the summer sun. A soldier, subjugated by her beauty, would have approached her. But she would have dragged him under the water in a long embrace from which he would never have returned. Originally, it is said that this mermaid was a princess, owner of the pond of the Duke, that the neighboring lord, of the pond of Plaisance, wanted to marry. Unable to resolve this, she told him that this day would not come until the pond of Plaisance would flow into that of the Duke, which the lord accomplished by digging a canal between the two lakes! While he was telling her to join him, the princess, in spite of herself, threw herself into the lake and never came out..
Saint-Cado, behind the postcard..
You have surely heard the name of Saint Cado, an island known in the Ria d'Étel for its pretty little house with blue shutters, perched on its neighboring islet. But Saint Cado is also one of the most popular saints of Brittany, represented in a stained glass window of the chapel that bears his name. Living on the island, he would have built the bridge that connects it to the continent to attract the faithful to him. But the devil would have intervened in this construction project, by offering his help to Saint Cado. The latter, accepting the proposal, was faced with a horrible pact: he had to offer the devil the first living being who would pass over the bridge. Fortunately, he managed to fool the evil being by making a cat pass over it!
A rather popular ghost
There will be many creatures and stories that will accompany you during your stay in Morbihan... If we cannot gather here centuries of oral tradition, there is a character that we will greet before closing this file. It is a nice... ghost! And it is in the south of the "Little Sea" that we find him, between the walls of the sumptuous castle of Suscinio, residence of the Dukes of Brittany, on the Rhuys peninsula. It would be a little boy of 6 or 7 years, the young son of a former captain of the guard. But this little ghost would never have finished having fun, and his favorite game would remain hide-and-seek. More teasing than frightening, he would be heard running around especially in the attic, the former children's room, and in the Duke's wardrobe! Will you meet him?
