Erwan Berthou

Erwan Berthou, after a photograph by Émile Hamonic

Erwan Berthou (born September 4, 1861 in Pleubian ; † January 30, 1933 ) was a poet, writer and French- and Breton- speaking neodruid bard. His name is also spelled Erwan Bertou and Yves Berthou . He also used the Bardic pseudonyms Kaledvoulc'h , Alc'houeder Treger and Erwanig .

Life

He was born in Pleubian, Côtes-d'Armor . He studied at the Tréguier seminary , then at the Lannion College . He worked as an engineer in Le Havre , later he moved to Rochefort in 1892 . On June 12, 1892, he married Elisa Mézeray.

He went to the Navy for five years . During his service he visited the Caribbean, Africa and China. In 1896 Berthou returned to Le Havre. He then began to write articles for the magazines L'Hermine and Revue des provinces de l'Ouest . In 1897 he published the magazine La Trêve de Dieu (The Armistice of God), which was dissolved after a year. He continued his work as an engineer, particularly building settlements in Paris in 1898.

The following year he was one of twenty-two Bretons who went to Cardiff for links with Welsh neodruidism and who were received at the Gorsedd . He also joined the Union Régionaliste Bretonne and helped found the Breton nationalist movement. He took part in all stages of the establishment of Goursez Breizh , of which he was archdruid from 1903 to 1933, using the Bardic name Kaledvoulc'h. Occasionally, he was at the journal Brug of Emile Masson involved. Much of his writings are permeated with pantheistic ideas.

In 1906 Berthou and Jean Le Fustec Eur an gir von Varzed published the Triades des druides de Bretagne , a translation of the 46 theological triads of the Neobards into Breton, based on a text first written by Iolo Morganwg with his own lyric poems, then in the Barddas was published by J. William from Ithel (1862). The collection, actually a forgery by Morganwg, was supposedly a translation of works by Llywelyn Siôn describing the history of the Welsh Bardic system from its ancient origins to the present day. Based on these ideas, Berthou also published Sous le chêne des druides (Under the Druids' Oak), which described a mystical story of human spiritual and cultural development that culminated in the achievement of "pure white".

In 1918 he returned to Pleubian to take over the parental farm. He found it difficult to keep the farm solvent and was plunged into great poverty by post-war inflation. In his last years he was very impoverished, which led to his wife's mental breakdown. Members of the Breton National Movement organized financial support for him.

Works

• Cœur breton , premières poésies, 1892
• La Lande Fleurie , 1894
• Les Fontaines miraculeuses , 1896
• Âmes simples , dramatic poem, 1896
• La Semaine des Quatre Jeudis , ballads, 1898
• Le Pays qui Parle , poem, 1903.
• Dre an dellen hag ar c'horn-boud. (By the harp and by the horn of war) . Saint-Brieuc / Paris René Prud'homme & Moriz an Dault 1904
• Triades des Bardes de l'île de Bretagne , 1906
• Istor Breiz , 1910.
• Kevrin Barzed Breiz , treatise of Breton language versification, 1912.
• Les Vessies pour des Lanternes , tract, 1913.
• Lemenik, skouer ar Varzed , 1914.
• Ivin ha Lore , gwerziou, 1914.
• Dernière Gerbe , poems, 1914.
• Avalou Stoup , rimadellou, 1914.
• Hostaliri Surat , 1914.
• Daouzek Abostol , 1928.
• Sous le chêne des druides P. Heugel Editeur 1931
• En Bro-Dreger a-dreuz parkoù (1910–1911) , republished
• Lemenik: skouer ar varzhed . - Lesneven  : " Hor yezh ", 2001

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Morlaix: Skol vreiz . In: Anthologie de la littérature bretonne au XXème siècle . 1st edition. 2002.
2. ^ Iann Ar Fustec et Yves Berthou (eds.): Triadon, Eur gir d'ar Varzed, Triades des duides de Bretagne . Bib. de l'Occident, Paris 1906.