BRITTANY
Triphyna was the beloved daughter of Guerech, Count of Vannes, the Land of White Corn. One day an embassy arrived from Comorre, Prince of Cournuaille, the Land of Black Corn, demanding Triphyna’s hand in marriage.
Triphyna and her father were alarmed. Comorre was a wicked giant, known for his cruelty. When he chased and failed to catch a peasant, he would set his dogs loose to tear him to pieces. But, from Triphyna’s point of view, the most distressing aspect of Comorre’s reputation was that he had married four wives and killed all of them, or at least it was suspected that he had, whether by fire, water, poison, or the knife.
Guerech would not agree to the ambassadors’ demand. He sent them away and went out to meet Comorre, who approached with a band of warriors. It seemed that bloodshed was inevitable.
St. Gildas visited Triphyna, who was sheltering in her oratory, and persuaded her to consent to the marriage. He gave her a magic silver ring, which would turn as black as a raven’s wing when she was in imminent danger.
Comorre’s army halted, the marriage was agreed, and the wedding took place amid great celebrations.
Comorre’s nature seemed to have changed. His prisons were empty; the wind blew through his empty gibbets. Yet Triphyna was uneasy, and every day she went to pray at the tombs of his four earlier wives.
An assembly of Breton princes was called at Rennes. Comorre gave Triphyna his keys before he set off and asked her to entertain herself while he was away. He was gone five months and when he returned, he found her trimming a baby’s cap with gold lace. Comorre turned pale when he saw this. Triphyna told him he was soon to be a father and he left her in a rage. She could not understand it, but noticed that her silver ring had turned as black as a raven’s wing, so she knew she was in danger. She went down into the vaulted chapel to pray.
When she rose at midnight to return to her chamber, there was a sound of movement in the chapel. Frightened, she hid in a recess. From there, she saw the four tombs of Comorre’s wives slowly opening. Out they stepped in their winding sheets.
The spectral wives cried out to Triphyna, “Take care, poor lost soul! Comorre will seek to kill you.”
“But what have I done?”
“You have told him you will become a mother. He knows from consulting a spirit that his child will kill him. We died at his hand when we told him what you have told him.”
“What can I do? How can I save myself?” Triphyna cried.
“Return to your father,” the spectral wives replied.
“But how can I reach him, when Comorre’s savage hound stands guard?”
“Give him this poison, which first killed me,” said the first wife.
“But how can I climb down the high castle wall?”
“Use this cord, which first strangled me,” said the second wife.
“But how can I find my way home through the dark?”
“By the light of the fire, which first burned me,” said the third wife.
“But how shall I make such a long journey?”
“Lean on this staff, which first broke my skull,” said the fourth wife.
Armed with the staff, the rope, and the poison, Triphyna made her way out of Comorre’s castle. She silenced the dog, climbed down the curtain wall, and found her way by a magical glowing light that led the way to Vannes.
The next morning, when Comorre woke, he discovered that his wife had gone and pursued her on horseback.
Triphyna, still on the road, saw her ring turning black, black as a raven’s wing. She stepped aside from the road and hid until nightfall in a shepherd’s hut, with only a magpie in a cage for company. There, in the hut, the baby was born.
Comorre gave up the chase, turned back, and then heard the magpie imitating the voice of Triphyna, and calling out, “Poor Triphyna!” He guessed that his wife must have passed close by and unleashed his savage hound.
Triphyna was exhausted now and though she had set off again she had to lie down on the ground with her newborn child to rest. She looked up and saw in the sky a falcon wearing a golden collar, which she recognized as her father’s. She called to it and it flew down and came to her She gave it the magic silver ring of St. Gildas and told it to take it to her father.
The falcon flew away like the wind, but just then Comorre arrived. Triphyna only just had time to conceal her baby in a hollow tree before he savagely threw himself upon her. He whirled his sword and with a single stroke severed her head from her body.
The falcon flew into Count Guerech’s hall while the count was at dinner with St Gildas. It hovered over the count and dropped the magic ring into his silver cup.
Guerech and St. Gildas recognized it at once, and it was black, black as a raven’s wing. Guerech cried out, “Saddle the horses and let Gildas here come with us.”
They followed the falcon, which took them to the spot where Triphyna lay dead on the ground. Guerich and Gildas knelt in prayer.
Then Gildas said to Triphyna, “Rise up. Take your head and your child, and follow us.”
The body obeyed, but gallop as fast as they could, it was always ahead of them, never behind, bearing the bloodless head in its right hand and the baby in its left.
Soon they reached the castle of Comorre. As they stood at the gates, St. Gildas shouted to Comorre, “Count, here is your wife, just as your wickedness has made her, and your child, just as heaven has given it. Will you receive them under your
Roof?”
Comorre did not answer.
Three times St. Gildas repeated his question and three times Comorre made no reply.
St. Gildas took the baby from its mother and set it on the ground. The child walked to the edge of the castle moat, picked up a handful of earth, and threw it at the castle wall, piping, “Let the Trinity take judgment.”
The great towers of the castle trembled and fell with a crash, the walls yawned open, and the ruined castle sank into the ground, taking Comorre and all his supporters with it.
St. Gildas then took Triphyna’s head, set it on her shoulders and brought her back to life. Guerech was overjoyed.
World History
