#broceliand forest

[hochgouez-nerzhus]

The Golden Tree - Broceliande - Forest of Paimpont - Brittany - France

[cicadawings]

x

[ibijau]

Omg no, Celtic mythology is so much more than just that?!? It’s really badass and also batshit crazy! I work in Medieval Celtic palaeography, and genuinely the mythology contains some of the most madcap shenanigans imaginable - absolutely rife for reimagining! Dragons, curses, other worlds, animal transformations, gods… Not to mention all the legendary histories beyond just Arthur! I would totally recommend a deep dive into old texts; Celtic mythology only seems lacklustre from the outside because it HASNT been overexploited in modern media. (Hope this doesn’t come across as condescending btw, you’re one of my absolute favourite artists/authors/bloggers! I’m just delighted at any mention of Celtic mythology and unreasonably excited over sharing about it!) Hope you have a good day! x

ok to be clear, I was talking about the folklore of that specific region, which is part of of the celtic area, I didn't mean to imply that celtic mythology in general is limited. There's a lot of cool stuff in celtic folklore in general! It is the coolest shit!

but that region has the city of Ys, the Ankou, Arthur, and korrigans. And saints. So many saints. Too many saints, one might argue ahah

but it's cool to know that there's more to it. I probably should look into that, if only I can find books that are more than just the usual stories that get repeated every time ahah

Also Medieval Celtic palaeography sounds like the coolest field ever! I hope you're enjoying that a lot!!

[florentinv]

🌰☺️📷 #france #bretagne #bretagnetourisme #paimpont #paimpontforest #paimponttourisme #broceliande #broceliandeforest #broceliandetourisme #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #naturelover #chestnut #forest #forestphotography #forestlovers #lightroom #hdr #instagood #photooftheday #picoftheday #instalike #autumn #roadtrip #trip #holiday #travel #travelphotography #instatravel (à Forêt de Paimpont) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmrSwWnseag/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[eloiselelca]

After chaos come the quiet moments. The serie.

[prosebushpatch]

this current wip has just been me spending more time doing shallow research about manuscripts in Old French for a single simile rather than writing

[f0rg0ttenw0rks]

[talonabraxas]

The Enchanter Merlin and the Fairy Vivien in the forest of Broceliande, from 'Vivien', poem by Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) Gustave Doré Vivien and Merlin enter the woods (Illustration for Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King) 1868 Engraving DORÉ, Gustave (1832-1883)

[mask131]

A fantasy read-list: A-3

Fantasy read-list

Part A: Ancient fantasy

3) Medieval fantasy - the Arthuriana

While one root of the fantasy genre lies within the mythologies of the world, the other is coming from numerous medieval tales and supernatural stories, most of them being centered around what we call today the “Arthurian myth” or the “Arthuriana”. Though, in truth, the genre of these texts is a bit bigger - it is the “Matter of Britain”, which is larger than the Arthurian texts themselves.

And we will begin our list with... French texts! It might surprise you - you might say “But aren’t Arthurian texts all English?”. No. The Matter of Britain designates all the medieval texts that are not the “Matter of Rome” or the “Matter of Thebes” (aka coming from the texts and topics of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece). Britain is, of course, England, as in “Great-Britain”. But if there is a GREAT Britain, it means there is a “Little Britain”... And this Little Britain is none other than the Bretagne region of France, aka the north-west of France. The Arthurian myth is half-rooted in England, yes, but another half of the origins and founding texts of the Arthurian legend come from France. The famous Broceliande forest is in France, not in England. 

# The founding texts of the French Arthurian literature are without a doubt the novels of Chrétien de Troyes. Considered the very first French novel of history, they created many of the well-known “Arthurian legends” of today. There is a total of five of these novels. Two are indirectly tied to the Arthurian world - Eric and Enide, Cligès. Two are right at the heart of the Arthuriana: Yvain or the Knight of the Lion, as well as Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart. And his final novel is incomplete, but it is the one that created the most famous part of the Arthurian literature: Perceval or the Story of the Grail, the first literary apparition of the famous “Holy Grail” (fun fact: the Grail wasn’t originally a cup, but a fish-plate. Go read the book, you’ll understand Xp). 

# Equating and rivaling Chrétien’s novels, we find the lais of Marie de France. A “lai” is actually a short fiction typical of the Middle-Ages, something halfway between a narrative poem and a fairytale, telling short, concise, but very efficient stories. We have a LOT of lais that came to us anonymously, carrying numerous literary stories or folktales of medieval times - but in France the most famous lais are those attributed to a certain “Mary of France”. She wrote twenty or so VERY famous lais that are seen as one of the defining feature of old medieval French literature. We are talking Bisclaveret, one of the oldest werewolf stories, we are talking of the supernatural romance of Guigemar, we are talking about the twin-shenanigans of Le Fresne, about the tragic love of Chevrefoil, and about the Arthurian lai of Lanval, about a man in love with a fairy but wooed by Guinevere herself. 

Mind you, there are other lais not composed by Marie de France, such as the one of Guingamor or the one of Sir Orfeo, but they are mostly anonymous.

# The works of Robert de Boron. Robert de Boron continued the work started by Chrétien de Troyes (and also took inspiration from the poet’s Wave semi-historical semi-fictional work, such as the Roman de Brut, a historical chronicle where Merlin and dragons appear), and built the next “step” in the Arthurian myth in France. Unfortunately we do not have his full work anymore, merely a fragment of his poem “Merlin” (where he presents the famous story of the “born of a demon” episode), a short “Perceval” story, and his full “Estoire du Graal ou Joseph d’Arimathie”, which is where the background of the Grail as the cup that collected Christ’s blood appears. Together they are considered as “le Petit Cycle du Graal”, “The Small Cycle of the Grail”, preceeding the following item...

# More interestingly, after the enormous success of Chrétien de Troyes’ work, there was an entire series of books that were created, remembered today as the Lancelot-Graal, or the Prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle. These are five texts in prose (in opposition to Chrétien and Boron’s verse works), who continue or rewrite the previous author’s texts - these are L’Estoire del Saint Graal (L’Histoire du Saint Graal/The History of the Holy Grail), L’Estoire de Merlin (L’Histoire de Merlin/Merlin in prose),  Le Lancelot (also called Lancelot in prose or Lancelot proper), La Queste del Saint Graal (The Quest of the Holy Grail), and La Mort d’Artu (The death of Artu). This cycle was followed by three prose texts known as “The Post-Vulgate Cycle” (Histoire du Saint Graal, Merlin, Queste-Mort Artu) which are merely the transcription in prose of some of Boron works, mixed with a rewrite of the “Tristan en prose”, an old novel of the Tristan and Iseult cycle (and the first that links the legendary duo with the Arthurian world).

# The Roman de Perceforest is a quite unique work designed to unite the “romans d’Alexandre” (Alexandrian novels, a big branch of medieval French literature centered around the adventure of Alexander the Great) and the Arthurian novels - more importantly, Perceforest is the oldest known literary version of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty.

# A section should be left here for the various novels involving the fairy Mélusine, one of the main characters of the French medieval legends. In fact, she is recognized (by Georges Dumézil’s work and those that continued it) as one of the two archetypal fairies of the middle-ages (the Melusinian fairy being the fairy entering the human world to live with humans, opposing the Morganian fairy who snatches humans into the otherworld). The legend of Mélusine was most notably recorded in Jean d’Arras “Roman de Mélusine”, and in Coudrette’s own “Roman de Mélusine”.

# There are many, MANY more literary works of medieval France, but to stay in the angle of “ancient fantasy” I will merely quote two more. On one side, la Chanson des quatre fils d’Aymon, a famous medieval epic which notably depicts the figure of Maugis the Enchanter, the other main sorcerer of medieval texts alongside Merlin (he has his own poem, La Chanson de Maugis d’Aigremont). On the other, the one one, the classic, the best-seller, the unavoidable Roman de Renart, the Novel of Reynart, the tentacular set of texts depicting the numerous adventures of the most famous European trickster in an animalistic parody of the Arthurian world.

If we jump outside of France to England, we have a different set of texts:

# The works of Geoffrey of Monmouth. This man wrote some of the earliest works part of the “Arthurian myth”, and from which a lot of elements were taken to create the “Arthuriana”. While his most famous work is “Historia Regum Britanniae”, a semi-historical chronicle of the kings of Britain which contains one of the earliest appearance of King Arthur as we know him today, he also wrote two texts fundamental to the figure of Merlin: Prophetiae Merlini, and Vita Merlini. 

# Otia Imperialia, by Gervase of Tilbury. It was a work created as a gift to emperor Otto V, and it was supposed to be an encyclopedia of geographical, historical and scientific matters - but it is actually containing a LOT of mythical and legendary elements, including entire part of the “Arthurian myth” presented as historical facts - hence its latter name “The Book of Marvels”. 

# Of course, we can’t list the major Arthuriana English works without talking about the most famous one: “Le Morte d’Arthur”, the final result of the “evolution” of the Arthurian myth. Thomas Malory’s attempt at creating a complete legend uniting all of the English and French Arthurian texts (though heavily inspired by the Lancelot-Graal cycle I described above). This text became the “definitive Arthurian text” in England for a very long time - and in more recent days, it was the main inspiration for the famous Arthurian novel “The Once and Future King” by T. H. White.

And while the Arthurian corpus is mostly made of English and French texts, you also have Arthuriana sources in other European countries - such as in Germany, where you can find Lanzelet, by Ulrich von Zazhikhoven, which marks the first apparition of Lancelot in German literature. 

[bala5]

Detail view of “The enchanter Merlin and the fairy Vivien in the forest of Broceliande” by Gustave Doré in 1863

[christophercant]

Day 23: Esclados, Lord of the Storm-Fountain

The otherworldly protector of Broceliande forest, Esclados was accidentally summoned by Sir Calogrenant when he stumbled upon a fountain in a hidden glade. He spilled some of the water from the fountain, causing a storm and drawing the spirit out to defeat him for his impudence. Many years later, his cousin Sir Ywain travelled to the same fountain, drew out Esclados and destroyed him, taking his place as the guardian of the fountain.

I intended this sketch to be for the Black Knight, brother to the Faerie Knight, but it just refused to look right.  So I made him into a different red and spiky character, and liked it much better!

[gawrkin]

I was reading Historia Regum Britanniae again and noticed Ywain/Eventus was mentioned to having succeeded his uncle Anguselaus after he died.

Am I not alone in thinking Ywain, son of Morgan and Urien, didn't die at Camlann?

Like, the story of Knight of the Lion is about Ywain failing to go back to his wife after a year, and subsequently trying to redeem himself for it. He never goes back to Camelot - he resumes his status as Laudine's husband and Guardian of the Fountain, something that can't happen if he frequents Arthur's court.

The "Ywains" that die during the Grail Quest and Fall of Camelot could just easily be Ywain the Bastard and/or Ywain White Hands. (There are a lot of Ywains)

So, in the end, Ywain probably never participated in the battle of Camlann since he's busy running the northern kingdoms and "Broceliande Forest".

In the chaos following Constantine's shenanigans, Ywain, Laudine and Lunete probably evacuated out of Scotland/Britain to Avalon.

(There's that mention in French literature that Ywain, along with Gawain and others, managed to reach Avalon and are currently living with the fairies)

[beautifulbizarremagazine]

2022 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize INPRNT PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD FINALIST: Psyché Ophiuchus - "Grecian Reverie" [Digital]

“I spent my childhood in Normandy, surrounded by the history and myths of Northern Europe. After studying psychology, I moved to Brittany, attracted by the strong identity and folklore of this region, as well as by the mythical forest of Broceliande, where I live today. Model for several years, I chose in 2016 to train as a photographer in order to create my own visual universe, with the need to give life to my personal imagination. I draw my inspiration from painting (the Art Nouveau and Pre-Raphaelite movements), the Romantic movement and the Gothic novel. My passion for fantasy literature and my experience as a clinical psychologist led me to explore the themes of the imaginary, dreams and the unconscious.”

The 2022 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize is proudly sponsored by:GOLD SPONSORS: Raymar Art, INPRNT, iCanvas, Yasha Young Projects, ArtStation SILVER SPONSORS: SmArt School, PoetsArtists, Digitalprintmaker, Static Medium Print & Photo, Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes 

See all 25 Photography Award Finalists at https://buff.ly/2F2oww9 [link in our profile]

...

#beautifulbizarre #beautifulbizarreartprize #internationalartprize #artprize #portrait #photography #artphotography #traditionalart #alternativeart #artwork #style #contemporaryart #newcontemporary #art #artist  #visualart

[florentinv]

Au début je croyais que c'était un animal qui m'observait, mais en fait non c'était du bois mort ^^ 😂📷 #france #bretagne #bretagnetourisme #paimpont #paimpontforest #paimponttourisme #broceliande #broceliandeforest #broceliandetourisme #nature #naturephotography #photo #photography #trees #deadtree #forest #forestphotography #lightroom #hdr #instagood #photooftheday #picoftheday #instalike #autumn #roadtrip #trip #holiday #travel #travelphotography #instatravel (à Forêt de Paimpont) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmtz2loMyeH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[eloiselelca]

After chaos come the quiet moments. The serie.

[ihaveonlymydreams]

“The image of a wood has appeared often enough in English verse. It has indeed appeared so often that it has gathered a good deal of verse into itself; so that it has become a great forest where, with long leagues of changing green between them, strange episodes of poetry have taken place. Thus in one part there are lovers of a midsummer night, or by day a duke and his followers, and in another men behind branches so that the wood seems moving, and in another a girl separated from her two lordly young brothers, and in another a poet listening to a nightingale but rather dreaming richly of the grand art than there exploring it, and there are other inhabitants, belonging even more closely to the wood, dryads, fairies, an enchanter's rout. The forest itself has different names in different tongues - Westermain, Arden, Birnam, Broceliande; and in places there are separate trees named, such as that on the outskirts against which a young Northern poet saw a spectral wanderer leaning, or, in the unexplored centre of which only rumours reach even poetry, Igdrasil of one myth, or the Trees of Knowledge and Life of another. So that indeed the whole earth seems to become this one enormous forest, and our longest and most stable civilizations are only clearings in the midst of it.”

- Charles Williams