Gwalarn ("Northwesterly") was a

Breton language Breton (, , ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic languages, Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albei ...

literary journal. By extension, the term refers to the style of literature that it encouraged. 166 issues (numbered from 0 to 165) appeared between 1925 and May 1944. The journal was founded by Roparz Hemon and Olier Mordrel.

Manifesto

The journal published a manifesto in February 1925. The manifesto stated the aim of ''Gwalarn'' was to prove that the

could become a vehicle for

high culture In a society, high culture encompasses culture, cultural objects of Objet d'art, aesthetic value that a society collectively esteems as exemplary works of art, as well as the literature, music, history, and philosophy a society considers represen ...

. This was written in response to some French authors, including

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

, who had alleged that Breton was nothing more than the crude speech of peasants:

Gwalarn is above all something new and unique: a literary magazine aimed at the Breton elite, and whose ambition is nothing less than setting
Breton literature Breton literature may refer to literature in the Breton language (''Brezhoneg'') or the broader literary tradition of Brittany in the three other main languages of the area, namely, Latin, Gallo and French – all of which have had strong mutu ...
on the road that follows the longstanding literature of many small nations:
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
,
Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...
,
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, among others...For the first time, a Breton revue will publish a pure literature, closing the door on
patois ''Patois'' (, same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon or sl ...
... twill adopt a language of classical formality with a rigorous
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
. ''Gwalarn'' is an experiment: to determine whether there is an audience in Brittany educated enough to understand
literary language Literary language is the Register (sociolinguistics), register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic writing, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. ...
(as far from the language of the Breton peasant as that of Mr. France is of the French peasant), a public informed enough to engage with a Breton literature that, while seeking to tap the sap in the genius of the race, wants to be European in spirit, drawing on modern European literary techniques, both in expression and in thought.Alain Deniel, ''Le mouvement breton'', Maspéro, 1976, , p. 69

The main contributors were mostly very young. In addition to Hemon, the most important writers were Abeozen, Youenn Drezen, Jakez Riou, Gwilherm Berthou, Yannn-Eozen Jarl, Kenan Kongar, Fant Rozec, Xavier de Langlais, and Maodez Glanndour. These writers produced the "classic" literary Breton of the twentieth century. The content was varied. ''Gwalarn'' regularly published

literary translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

s into Breton of foreign authors and poets, including

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...

J. M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Renaissanc ...

, and

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

. Great emphasis was placed on

Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed ...

and legends, including the

Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...

preserved in the ''

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

''. Essays on philosophy and

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

cultures were also common, including discussions of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. Additionally, ''Gwalarn'' published poems, plays, and essays on contemporary concerns.

History

Olier Mordrel no longer participated in the journal after 1928, but Roparz Hemon stayed on as an editor until the last issue. Gradually, ''Gwalarn'' expanded, producing a popular supplement "kannadig Gwalarn" in 1932 and books for children. The latter were distributed free in schools to children who had participated in essay competitions in the Breton language. Associated with collaborationist politics during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the magazine was linked to the Breton language radio station Radio Rennes Bretagne, which was set up by the Germans. In consequence, it was forced to close after the

Liberation of France The liberation of France () in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany in ...

. After the war, a new magazine with the same function was created under the title '' Al Liamm'', which continued the project of creating a Breton literary culture.

References

{{Authority control Breton nationalism Breton-language newspapers

Manifesto

Contents

History

References