François Eliès, born Fañch Eliès and better known by the pseudonym Abeozen, (1896 Saint-Sauveur, Finistère

Saint-Sauveur, Finistère

Saint-Sauveur is a commune in the Finistère department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Saint-Sauveur are called Salvatoriens.-References:** -External links:*...

 - 1963 La Baule) was a Breton nationalist

Breton nationalism

Breton nationalism is the nationalism of the traditional province of Brittany in France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations...

, novelist and dramatist who wrote in the Breton language

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

. Abeozen was also a noted scholar of the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

.

Abeozen started contributing to the Breton literary journal Gwalarn

Gwalarn

Gwalarn was a Breton language literary journal. By extension, the term refers to the style of literature that it encouraged. 166 issues appeared between 1925 and May 1944....

in 1925. He worked as a teacher in Saint-Brieuc

Saint-Brieuc

Saint-Brieuc is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-History:Saint-Brieuc is named after a Welsh monk Brioc, who evangelized the region in the 6th century and established an oratory there...

 from 1927 to 1940 and founded the local branch of the communist Secours Rouge organization. During the German occupation of France, he joined Roparz Hemon

Roparz Hemon

Roparz Hemon , officially named Louis-Paul Némo, was a Breton author and scholar of Breton expression.He was the author of numerous dictionaries, grammars, poems and short stories...

 at the newly founded Radio Rennes Bretagne

Radio Rennes Bretagne

Radio Rennes Bretagne was a radio station based in Rennes, and the first station to have regular Breton language programming. However, it was not powerful enough to broadcast to the Breton-speaking western parts of the peninsular...

 and wrote for La Bretagne, L'Heure Bretonne

L'Heure Bretonne

L'Heure Bretonne was a Breton nationalist weekly newspaper which was published from June 1940 to June 1944. It was the organ of the Breton National Party and was strongly associated with collaborationist politics during World War II....

and Arvor. He was also a member of Seiz Breur

Seiz Breur

Seiz Breur was an artistic movement founded in 1923 in Brittany. Although it adopted the symbolic name seiz breur, meaning seven brothers in the Breton language, this did not refer to the number of members, but to the title of a folk-story...

 and the Institut celtique de Bretagne.

As France was liberated Abeozen, like many Breton nationalists, was arrested for collaborating with the German occupants and spent fourteen months in prison. (See also Breton nationalism and World War II

Breton nationalism and World War II

Before and during World War II, the Breton nationalist movements were associated, as a whole, with anti-French and even pro-Nazi positions. The extent of and motivation for these affiliations has been a matter of historical controversy....

 for the political background.) He was further fired from the Éducation nationale and forbidden to stay in Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

.