Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly these related to the Arthurian legend, as well as in numerous modern works.
Brocéliande first appeared in literature in Wace's 1160 chronicle Roman de Rou that reported on the fanciful tales surrounding its location in Brittany. It is a place of legend due to its uncertain location, unusual weather, and its ties with Arthurian mythology, most notably the tomb of Merlin.[1] In chivalric romance lore, the forest sheltered Morgan's magical Vale of No Return, the faery fountain of Barenton, and the place of Merlin's retirement, imprisonment, or death. Today, it is most commonly identified as Paimpont forest in Brittany, France.
Etymology
The etymology is uncertain.[2] The oldest known form, Brecheliant, could be based on the CelticBrec'h (hill), followed by a man's name.[3] The later form of Brocéliande could be derived from bro (meaning country in Breton, Cornish and Welsh), but this variant does not appear until the 12th century, in the work of Chrétien de Troyes. A popular etymology from Old French derives the term ultimately from "broce" for "forest" and "liande" for "heath".[2]
Medieval historical accounts
First known mention of Brocéliande is found in Roman de Rou, a c. 1160 chronicle Anglo-Norman poet Wace, which covers the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the time of Rollo of Normandy to the battle of Tinchebray.[4] Wace numbers the Bretons from Brocéliande (Brecheliant), about whom there are many legends ("ceux de Brecheliant dont les Bretons disent maintes légendes..."), along with the Breton knights.[5] Wace gives the name of the fountain of Barenton ("La fontaine de Berenton/sort d'une part lez le perron...") and describes how hunters scoop water from it and wet a stone in order to summon rain; he also mentions rumors of fairies and magic. Wace travelled to Brittany in search of these wonders, but found nothing notable[1] and left disappointed: "I saw the forest and the land and looked for marvels, but found none. I came back as a fool and went as a fool. I went as a fool and came back as a fool. I sought foolishness and considered myself a fool."[6]
Brocéliande is briefly mentioned in one historical text in Bertran de Born's 1183 poem dedicated to Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany – the duke to whom Brocéliande belonged. Its unusual weather alone is noted in a handful of texts: Giraldus Cambrensis's c. 1185 expeditionary account, Topographia Hibernica, Alexandre Neckham's c. 1195 work on nautical science, De naturis rerum, and William the Breton's c. 1215 poem, Philippide.[7]
Arthurian legend
The Damsels at the Fountain, F. A. Fraser's illustration for King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1912)
In the 1170s, Chrétien de Troyes mentions the forest of Brocéliande in his Arthurian romance, Le Chevalier au lion. While in Brocéliande, Yvain pours water from a spring into a stone, causing a violent storm to erupt. This in turn summons the knight Esclados le Ros who defends the forest.[1][8]
In the late 12th or early 13th century, Robert de Boron first associates the figure of Merlin with Brocéliande in his poem Merlin. It is also featured in several episodes of the prose adaptations and continuations of the poem, the Vulgate Cycle (Lancelot-Grail), notably in the stories of Merlin and Viviane.[9] Later, Morgan le Fay traps many unfaithful knights in her Vale of No Return within Brocéliande until they are freed by Lancelot.[10]
In Jaufré, the Arthurian romance of unknown authorship composed in Catalonia, the forest of Brocéliande is near King Arthur's palace and the site of a mill where Arthur battles a strange bull-like animal, really a shapeshifting mage knight. The dating of Jaufré is debated and may have been written as early as 1183 or as late as 1225–1228.[11][12] Later, Brocéliande also appears in context of Arthurian knights in Huon de Méry's allegorical poem Tournoiement Antecrist as well as in other texts such as Claris et Laris, where it is the site of Morgan's fairy castle,[13] and Brun de la Montagne.[14]
Early source works provide unclear or conflicting information on the exact location of Brocéliande; different hypotheses exist to place Brocéliande on the map. According to Wace, Brocéliande is in Brittany. Since the 15th century (Jean Cabaret d'Orville), Brocéliande has been linked by some to the forest of Lorge near Quintin in Brittany.[15] Since around 1400 (Ponthus et Sidoine, where the forest is named Berthelien) and commonly in modern times, Brocéliande is considered to be Paimpont forest in Brittany.[15]
Some scholars think that Brocéliande is a mythological place and has never existed.[16]Jean Markale notes that while the forest itself is legendary, it is part of the "remainder of the immense forest that covered the entire center of Brittany until the High Middle Ages."[17] He goes on to point out that the notion of a magical forest in France has its roots in the writings of Lucan who describes a numinous, magical forest full of ominous happenings in Gaul.[18]
William A. Young argues that Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier au lion is derived from earlier tales which have their origins in the post-Roman Brythonic kingdoms beyond Hadrian's Wall in Britain, and suggests that there is a strong case for equating Broceliande with the forest of Celython, also known as the Great Wood of Caledon.[19]
Jean Lorrain wrote the play Brocéliande (1898), about Myrddhin (Merlin) and Viviane (Nimue/Elaine); as in many of the earlier Arthurian works, Brocéliande is the location where Viviane entraps Merlin inside an oak tree.[1]
The television series Once Upon a Time features Brocéliande, therein also known as the "Forest of Eternal Night", in the season 5 episode "Siege Perilous" as the location of a magical toadstool needed for a potion to free the sorcerer Merlin from his imprisonment in a tree.
The poetry of Charles Williams, and its interpretation by C. S. Lewis in "Taliessin Through Logres, The Region of the Summer Stars, Arthurian Torso" (1974) is steeped in the imagery of Broceliande, "the sea-rooted western wood."
Other
Brocéliande is mentioned repeatedly in Andre Norton's Here Abide Monsters using the formula 'Avalon, Tara, Brocéliande, Carnac'.
The name was an inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Beleriand in Middle-earth. The name Broseliand was used in the early sketches of The Silmarillion (1926 to 1930). It is also the setting of Tolkien's poem The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun.[20]
Several short stories in Sylvia Townsend Warner's collection Kingdoms of Elfin (many of which appeared in The New Yorker in the 1970s) are set in Brocéliande or mention it, among several other enchanted forests where Townsend's Elfin folk live.
It appears in the 2010 film Robin Hood as the place where Robert Loxley is ambushed by the French.
Broceliande is the name of a forest in Joan Aiken's young adult novel The Stolen Lake, which, despite taking place in a fictionalized version of South America, has a strong Arthurian theme.
The Witcher novel series by Andrzej Sapkowski features an ancient forest inhabited by magical beings known as Brokilon to humans and Brokiloén in the Elven language.
It is also referenced in Destiny 2's DLC Black Armory. Niobe's Torment puzzle defeated the entire community of Destiny gamers for nearly 24 hours using this word.
A forest called the Brecilian Forest is inhabited by elves and filled with magical ruins in the video game Dragon Age: Origins.
^« Mil chent et soisante anz out de temps et d'espace/puiz que Dex en la Virge descendi par sa grace/quant un clerc de Caen, qui out non Mestre Vace/s'entremist de l'estoire de Rou et de s'estrasce/qui conquist Normendie, qui qu'en poist ne qui place/contre l'orgueil de France, qui encor les menasce/que nostre roi Henri la congnoissë et sace. »
^"e cil devers Brecheliant/donc Breton vont sovent fablant/une forest mult longue e lee/qui en Bretaigne est mult loee"
^Pelan, Margaret, "L'influence de Wace sur les romanciers français de son temps", p. 56, cité par A.-Y. Bourgès
^Markale, Jean Merlin: Priest of Nature, (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1995), page 121.
^Markale, Jean Merlin: Priest of Nature, (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1995), pages 120-121.
^Young, William A. (2022). The Ghosts of the Forest: The Lost Mythology of the North, Inter-Celtic, pp. 330 & 331, ISBN9781399920223
^Tolkien, JRR. as his horse bore him o'er the land to the green boughs of Broceliande (Welsh Review, 1945).
Sources
Eckhardt, Caroline D. (May 2009). "Reading Jaufré: Comedy and Interpretation in a Medieval Cliff-Hanger". The Comparatist33: 40–62.
Lupack, Alan (2007). The Oxford guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend (1st paperback ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press USA. ISBN978-0-19-921509-6.
Markale, Jean (1995). Merlin: Priest of Nature (1st English translated ed.). Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International. ISBN0-89281-517-5.
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