Gwerz Skolan

"Gwerz Skolan" is a gwerz from Lower Brittany, especially Léon-Trégor and Cornouaille. Found in the 13th-century Welsh Black Book of Carmarthen, it was sung and performed until the 19th century, with some late examples from the 20th century. The poem, whose many versions differ in their details, describes a man who had died after living a life of rape and murder, and now comes back from hell to ask for forgiveness.

Black thy horse, black thy cope,
Black thy head, black thyself,
Yes, black! art thou Yscolan?

I am Yscolan the scholar,
Slight is my clouded reason,
There is no drowning the woe of him who offends a sovereign.

For having burnt a church, and destroyed the cattle of a school,
And caused a book to be submerged,
My penance is a heavy affliction.

Creator of the creatures, of supports
The greatest, pardon me my iniquity!
He who betrayed Thee, deceived me.

A full year was given me
At Bangor on the pole of a weir;
Consider thou my suffering from sea-worms.

If I knew what I now know
As plain as the wind in the top branches of waving trees,
What I did I should never have done.

--"The First Song of Yscolan", from The Four Ancient Books of Wales, by W. F. Skene, 1868

Content

The main character, Iannic Skolan (also Skolvan, Yscolan (in Gaulish), and a variety of spellings; "Skolan" meaning "the phantom"[1]), is guilty of a variety of crimes (depending on the version)—in one version, he killed a priest, raped his three sisters and killed the offspring, and set fire to a church full of children. He returns from hell to ask his mother for forgiveness, in the company of his godfather.[2] The "book [he caused] to be submerged" (quoting the 1868 translation by Skene) is a book written with the blood of Christ that Skolan drowns in the sea; Gowans asks whether this might be the book found in "King Arthur and King Cornwall",[3] in lines 184-189.[4]

The character is connected to Merddin, or Myrddin Wyllt, the source for the character Merlin;[5] Bihan considers these characters all "avatars" of Merlin.[6] In the early 19th century Merddin was considered the author of an "Ode to Yscolan".[7]

Versions

A version of the poem is found in the Welsh 13th-century collection Black Book of Carmarthen.[8] This version is called "Dv dy uarch du dy capan", "The First Song of Yscolan", as item 26 of the manuscript.[9] It was sung for centuries in Lower-Brittany, in many versions, by the "little people" of Brittany, who were frequently illiterate, and it is cited as one of the songs that suggest an unbroken oral tradition dating back to before the settlement of Armorica by Celtic Britons in the 6th century.[10]

Examples recorded by Breton scholars of folk literature go back to before the 1850s. A version was published by Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué in the first (1839) edition of his Barzaz Breiz, but he was preceded by Jean-Marie de Penguern, a lawyer from Lannion, who had recorded a version in Trégor; he found another in Léon in 1851. In 1856, Breton writer Gabriel Milin recorded one from a worker at the Brest Arsenal. Folklorist and poet François-Marie Luzel recorded a version, again in Trégor, from a beggar from Pluzunet. Two years later Luzel heard another version, also in Trégor, from the mother of Marc'harid Fulup, the famous beggar and singer of Breton songs. Emile Ernault, linguist and writer, recorded two versions in 1889, in the same region, in Trévérec and Plougouver. Breton writer Maurice Duhamel had two versions sung for him during a tour in 1910, Port-Blanc and Ploëzal. Folklorist Yves Le Diberder recorded it in 1910 in Pont-Scorff, and in 1938 a version by a retiree from Pleuven was published.[11]

A version sung by Marie-Josèphe Bertrand, recorded by Claudine Mazéas in the 1950s, was released on CD in the 2010s; her version is considered classic.[12] The Celtic folk music group Skolvan includes a sample of Bertrand's recitation from 1959 on their 1994 CD Swing & Tears.[13] Yann-Fañch Kemener recorded a version by Jean-Louis ar Rolland in 1979, released on CD in 1996.[14]

References

Notes

1. Bihan, p. 121.
2. Laurent, p. 47.
3. Gowans, p. 190.
4. Hahn (ed.), "King Arthur and King Cornwall".
5. Laurent, pp. 35-38.
6. Bihan, p. 121.
7. "Bardic Portraits: Merddin", p. 261.
8. Gowans, p. 190.
9. Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin.
10. Defrance, p. 274.
11. Laurent, p. 20.
12. Kemener, "Mme BERTRAND".
13. Winick, p. 350.
14. Defrance, p. 274; Kemener, Carnets de Route.

Bibliography

• "Bardic Portraits: Merddin". The Cambro-Briton. 2 (18): 256–264. 1821. JSTOR 30069112.
• Bihan, Herve Le (2011). "An Dialog Etre Arzur Roe d'an Bretounet ha Guynglaff and its Connections with Arthurian Tradition". In Conley, Kassandra; Boon, Erin; Harrison, Margaret (eds.). Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 2009. Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium Series. 29. Harvard University Press. pp. 115–26. ISBN 9780674055957.
• Defrance, Yves (1998). "Poésies orales chantées en France. Travaux récents". Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles (in French). 11: 272–79. doi:10.2307/40240323. JSTOR 40240323.
• Gowans, Linda (1997). "Reviewed Work(s): Breton Ballads by Mary-Ann Constantine". Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung. 42: 189–190. doi:10.2307/848056. JSTOR 848056.
• Hahn, Thomas, ed. (1995). "King Arthur and King Cornwall". Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications.
• Kemener, Yann-Fañch (1996). Carnets de route de Yann-Fanch Kemener (in French). Morlaix: Skol Vreizh.
• Kemener, Yann-Fañch (2009). "Mme BERTRAND - Enfin le CD chez Dastum !" (in French). Retrieved 1 March 2020.
• Laurent, Donatien (1971). "La gwerz de Skolan et la légende de Merlin". Ethnologie Française, News Series (in French). 1 (3/4): 19–54. JSTOR 40988167.
• "Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, The Black Book of Carmarthen; Peniarth MS 1". Celtic Literature Collective. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
• Skene, William Forbes (1868). The four ancient books of Wales.
• Winick, Stephen D. (1995). "Breton Folk Music, Breton Identity, and Alan Stivell's Again". The Journal of American Folklore. 108 (429): 334–54. doi:10.2307/541889. JSTOR 541889.