Gwenc'hlan is the cognomen of a legendary 6th century
Breton druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
and
bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's a ...
called Kian, the subject and purported author of a
Breton song called "Diougan Gwenc'hlan" (Gwenc'hlan's prophecy), published by
Hersart de la Villemarqué in his 1839 anthology ''
Barzaz Breiz
''Barzaz Breiz'' (in modern spelling ''Barzhaz Breizh'', meaning "Ballads of Brittany": ''barzh'' is the equivalent of "bard" and ''Breizh'' means "Brittany") is a collection of Breton popular songs collected by Théodore Hersart de la Villemar ...
''.
In this song, Gwenc'hlan is imprisoned after having his eyes gouged out for refusing to convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, sings out that he isn't afraid to die and makes a prophecy wherein he will be avenged. The motive of the blinded prisoner is reminiscent of the historical fate of
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...
.
One Gwenc'hlan or Guinclaff around 1450 wrote a "chant royal", or "
Dialogue between King Arthur and Gwenc'hlan", quoted by
Dom Le Pelletier and
Gregory of Rostrenen. The poem was rediscovered in 1924. The Breton used by this Gwenc'hlan is already deeply pervaded by French. The legend of the 6th century bard is largely a creation of de la Villemarqué's, but he may have based his account on the 15th century author, as well as on other traditional Breton tales. He quotes 6th to 12th century
Welsh poems attributed to the bards
Aneurin,
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...
and
Llywarch Hen as his sources.
Literature
*Mary-Ann Constantine ''Prophecy and Pastiche in the Breton ballads: Groac'h Ahès and Gwenc'hlan'', Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 30, (Winter, 1995) 87-121.
*Antone Minard, ''The Dialogue between King Arthur and Gwenc'hlan: a translation'' in: Comitatus. A journal of medieval and renaissance studies 30 (1999), 167-177.
See also
*
Blind musicians
Blind musicians are singers or instrumentalists, or in some cases singer-accompanists, who are legally blindness, blind.
Resources
Historically, many blind musicians, including some of the most famous, have performed without the benefit of form ...
External links
Data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwenchlan
Druids
Poets from Brittany
French male poets