François-Marie Luzel
Encyclopedia
François-Marie Luzel often known by his Breton
name Fañch an Uhel, was a French
folklorist
and Breton-language poet.
(which, nowadays, is part of the commune of Le Vieux-Marché
, Côtes-d'Armor
. His father, François, and his mother, Rosalie le Gac, were peasants, but Luzel had a peaceful childhood in his home town, making friends (including the future painter Yan Dargent, and attending many veillées, which were traditional parties held after dark where the villagepeople would assemble and pass the long winter nights in one another's company, often listening to ancestral stories. Thanks to his uncle, Julien-Marie Huërou, he was able to go to the Royal College of Rennes, where Huërou taught.
. Instead of becoming a naval doctor, he went down a different route towards being a professor, but could not find a fixed post, which made his life rather nomadic. An encounter with Adolphe Orain, a folklorist of Upper Brittany
, gave him some direction, and, with the support of Ernest Renan
, he managed to obtain from the Minister for State Education the means to go search for old literary texts in Basse-Bretagne. He succeeded in collecting a huge corpus of songs, tales, legends and plays, enough to make several books. The majority of the contents of this abundant collection came from Tréguier
and the province of Brittany that surrounds it, Trégor. Marguerite Philippe (in Breton, Marc'harit Fulup) is amongst most known of the people whose folklore Luzel collected. After publishing a book including some of his own poetry in 1865, entitled Bepred Breizad, he published in 1868 a selection of the works that he collected, under the name Chants et chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne (Melodies and Songs from Low-Brittany.) There were several volumes of this work, including a volume dedicated to Gwerziou (Laments) and Soniou (Songs.) A year later, a follow-up of sorts appeared, entitled Contes et Récits populaires des Bretons armoricains (Popular Tales and Stories of the Armorica
n Bretons).
, Luzel read a text that he had prepared, in which he raised suspicions about the authenticity of the songs included in the Barzaz Breiz
, which was published by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué 33 years earlier. A public controversy ensued and his speech, which was rejected by the Breton Association, was heavily-edited. The controversy surrounding Barzaz Breiz would last for more than a century. In 1960, the Breton scholar Francis Gourvil wrote a doctorate thesis in which he maintained that Luzel was right. In 1989, the musician and linguist Donatien Laurent demonstrated, in a thesis based on the manuscripts of La Villemarqué, that even if the author had revised the lyrics, he still nearly always relied upon the versions that he himself had collected or transcribed.
editorial
s for the Republican newspaper, l'Avenir de Morlaix, where he would work until 1880. He was later made a justice of the peace
in Daoulas
.
In 1881, he found stable work as a curator of Quimper's Departmental Archives of Finistère. There, he encountered Anatole Le Braz
, who would become his disciple of sorts and would continue his work in finding stories and making an inventory of pieces of Ancient Breton theatre.
Luzel was elected as a Republican
to the municipal council of Quimper, and was later, in 1883, made Vice-President of the Archeological Society of Finistère, a group in which he participated for quite some time, and which La Villemarqué founded.
to intervene in the Ministry of Public Instruction, so that his friend, Anatole Le Braz, could teach Breton at the Quimper Lycée outside school hours, which Le Braz offered to do for free. In his letter to Renan, he stated that he 'would like that, in all our primary schools that Breton children attend, an hour or two were consecrated to teach them Breton by heart and to sing Breton songs and pieces of poetry to instill patriotism in them.' Later in the letter, he referred to the Breton language as being 'the national language.' This request would be flatly refused by the Ministry.
On the 1 January 1890, Luzel was made knight of the Legion of Honour, an accolade that he received from the hands of his old rival, La Villemarqué, in a ceremony that took place on the 30 January of that year. Seemingly reconciled, the pair died in the same year, 1895.
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...
name Fañch an Uhel, was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
folklorist
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and Breton-language poet.
Early years
Luzel was born in the manor of Keramborgne, which then formed part of the commune of PlouaretPlouaret
Plouaret is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Breton language:The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on April 12, 2007.-External links:* *...
(which, nowadays, is part of the commune of Le Vieux-Marché
Le Vieux-Marché
Le Vieux-Marché is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France.-External links:*...
, Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.-History:Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to...
. His father, François, and his mother, Rosalie le Gac, were peasants, but Luzel had a peaceful childhood in his home town, making friends (including the future painter Yan Dargent, and attending many veillées, which were traditional parties held after dark where the villagepeople would assemble and pass the long winter nights in one another's company, often listening to ancestral stories. Thanks to his uncle, Julien-Marie Huërou, he was able to go to the Royal College of Rennes, where Huërou taught.
School and a change of direction
There, he met the future historian Arthur de La Borderie, and Émile Grimaud, who became the sub-editor of the Revue de Bretagne et de Vendée. As a young man, he aspired to be a naval doctor, and went to study to such an end in BrestBrest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
. Instead of becoming a naval doctor, he went down a different route towards being a professor, but could not find a fixed post, which made his life rather nomadic. An encounter with Adolphe Orain, a folklorist of Upper Brittany
Upper Brittany
Upper Brittany is a term used to describe the eastern part of Brittany which is predominantly of a Romance culture and is associated with the Gallo language. The name is in counterpoint to Lower Brittany, the western part of the ancient province and present-day region, where the Breton language...
, gave him some direction, and, with the support of Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
, he managed to obtain from the Minister for State Education the means to go search for old literary texts in Basse-Bretagne. He succeeded in collecting a huge corpus of songs, tales, legends and plays, enough to make several books. The majority of the contents of this abundant collection came from Tréguier
Tréguier
Tréguier is a port town in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is the capital of the province of Trégor.-Geography:Tréguier is located 36 m. N.W. of Saint-Brieuc by road. The port is situated about 5½ m...
and the province of Brittany that surrounds it, Trégor. Marguerite Philippe (in Breton, Marc'harit Fulup) is amongst most known of the people whose folklore Luzel collected. After publishing a book including some of his own poetry in 1865, entitled Bepred Breizad, he published in 1868 a selection of the works that he collected, under the name Chants et chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne (Melodies and Songs from Low-Brittany.) There were several volumes of this work, including a volume dedicated to Gwerziou (Laments) and Soniou (Songs.) A year later, a follow-up of sorts appeared, entitled Contes et Récits populaires des Bretons armoricains (Popular Tales and Stories of the Armorica
Armorica
Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast...
n Bretons).
Quarrel over Barzaz Breiz
At the 1872 Congress of the Breton Association at Saint-BrieucSaint-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...
, Luzel read a text that he had prepared, in which he raised suspicions about the authenticity of the songs included in the Barzaz Breiz
Barzaz Breiz
Barzaz Breiz is a collection of Breton popular songs collected by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué and published in 1839. It was compiled from oral tradition and preserves traditional folk tales, legends and music...
, which was published by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué 33 years earlier. A public controversy ensued and his speech, which was rejected by the Breton Association, was heavily-edited. The controversy surrounding Barzaz Breiz would last for more than a century. In 1960, the Breton scholar Francis Gourvil wrote a doctorate thesis in which he maintained that Luzel was right. In 1989, the musician and linguist Donatien Laurent demonstrated, in a thesis based on the manuscripts of La Villemarqué, that even if the author had revised the lyrics, he still nearly always relied upon the versions that he himself had collected or transcribed.
Journalist, justice, and archivist
Luzel's career trajectory changed yet again in 1874, when he started writing politicalPolitics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
s for the Republican newspaper, l'Avenir de Morlaix, where he would work until 1880. He was later made a justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in Daoulas
Daoulas
Daoulas is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:Inhabitants of Daoulas are called in French Daoulasiens.-References:** ;-External links:**...
.
In 1881, he found stable work as a curator of Quimper's Departmental Archives of Finistère. There, he encountered Anatole Le Braz
Anatole Le Braz
Anatole le Braz, the "Bard of Brittany" was a Breton folklore collector and translator. He was highly regarded amongst both European and American scholars, and known for his warmth and charm....
, who would become his disciple of sorts and would continue his work in finding stories and making an inventory of pieces of Ancient Breton theatre.
Luzel was elected as a Republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
to the municipal council of Quimper, and was later, in 1883, made Vice-President of the Archeological Society of Finistère, a group in which he participated for quite some time, and which La Villemarqué founded.
Defence of Breton
In 1888, Luzel asked Ernest RenanErnest Renan
Ernest Renan was a French expert of Middle East ancient languages and civilizations, philosopher and writer, devoted to his native province of Brittany...
to intervene in the Ministry of Public Instruction, so that his friend, Anatole Le Braz, could teach Breton at the Quimper Lycée outside school hours, which Le Braz offered to do for free. In his letter to Renan, he stated that he 'would like that, in all our primary schools that Breton children attend, an hour or two were consecrated to teach them Breton by heart and to sing Breton songs and pieces of poetry to instill patriotism in them.' Later in the letter, he referred to the Breton language as being 'the national language.' This request would be flatly refused by the Ministry.
On the 1 January 1890, Luzel was made knight of the Legion of Honour, an accolade that he received from the hands of his old rival, La Villemarqué, in a ceremony that took place on the 30 January of that year. Seemingly reconciled, the pair died in the same year, 1895.
Posthumous works
- Kontadennou ar Bobl e Breiz-Izel Quimper, Le Goaziou (1939)
- Ma C'horn-Bro. Soniou ha gwerziou Quimper, Le Goaziou (1943).
- Gwerzioù kozh Breizh, col. “Studi ha dudi”, Al Liamm, 1970.
- Kontadennou ar Bobl (5 volumes), Al Liamm, (1984–1994)
- Contes traditionnels de Bretagne, 6 volumes (1994–1995), An Here-Hor Yezh-Mouladurioù Hor Yezh
- Journal de route et lettres de mission, Presses universitaires de Rennes et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1994)
- Contes bretons, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1994), texte établi et présenté par Françoise Morvan.
- Contes inédits Tome I, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1994), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Contes du boulanger, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1995), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Contes inédits Tome II, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1995), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Contes retrouvés Tome I, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1995), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- , PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1995), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Nouvelles Veillées bretonnes, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1995) (Françoise Morvan edition)
- Contes inédits Tome III, Carnets de collectage, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1996), translation by Françoise Morvan by Marthe Vassallo, critical analysis by Françoise Morvan.
- En Basse-Bretagne (impressions et notes de voyage), Hor Yezh, 1996, ISBN 2-910699-17-X
- "Notes de voyage en Basse-Bretagne", PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1997), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Contes retrouvés Tome II, PUR et Terre de Brume, Rennes (1999), texts assembled and presented by Françoise Morvan
- Sainte Tryphine et le roi Arthur , PUR et Terre de Brume (2002, preface by Françoise Morvan.
- Santez Trifin hag ar roue Arzur, Emgleo Breiz.
- Yezh ar vuhez. A selection of poems by Luzel, edited by Per Denez, extracts from the above works.
- Contes de Basse-Bretagne, selected by Françoise Morvan, Ouest-France (2007) ISBN 2737340896
See also
- P. Batany, Luzel, poète et folkloriste breton. 1821-1895. Rennes, Simon (1941)
- Joseph Ollivier, Les contes de Luzel (Preface by Per Denez, followed by a postface about “Breton Stories” Pur-Terre de Brume, 1994), Hor Yezh, 1995 ISBN 2-910699-11-0
- Françoise Morvan, François-Marie Luzel, biographie, Terre de Brume et PUR, Rennes (1999) Bibliographic page Légendes Bretonnes This site has undertaken the online publicationPublicationTo publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
of the three volumes of Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne (Popular Tales of Lower Brittany), after the edition by Maisonneuve & Ch Leclerc, published in 1887.