THE BALLAD OF BRAN

BRITTANY

In the tenth century, Kerlouan on the coast of Leon was raided by the Norsemen. The Bretons, led by their chief. Even the Great, marched out to repel the raiders. They managed to chase them away, but the Norsemen were, even so, able to capture and carry off several prisoners, and among these captives was a Breton warrior called Bran. A village called Kervran, “The Village of Bran,” is still there, and this is where, according to tradition, Bran was wounded and taken prisoner by the Norsemen.

Finding himself onboard an enemy ship, Bran began to weep bitterly at his misfortune. When the ship reached the land of the Norsemen, he was imprisoned in a tower. He persuaded his gaolers to allow him to send a letter to his mother. They agreed and a messenger was found. Bran advised the messenger to dress as a beggar, for his own safety. He also gave him his gold ring so that his mother would know that the message had really come from him.

“When you reach my country,” he told him, “go at once to my mother. If she is prepared to ransom me, show a white sail when you come back. But if she refuses, you must raise a black sail.”

When the messenger reached Bran’s home in Leon, the lady was at supper with her family and the bards were playing their harps. The messenger showed her Bran’s ring and asked her to read the letter at once. She told the harpers to cease playing. Then she read the letter carefiolly and became agitated. She ordered a ship to be made ready so that she could set sail for her son in the morning.

In his tower, early one morning, Bran called out, “Sentinel, sentinel, do you see a sail on the sea?”

The guard replied, “No. I see nothing but sea and sky.”

A few hours passed in futile waiting, until at midday, Bran asked again, “Sentinel, sentinel, do you see a sail on the sea?”

The guard replied, “No. I see nothing but the billowing sea and the gulls aloft in the sky.”

More hours passed and in the evening, Bran asked again, “Sentinel, sentinel, do you see a sail on the sea?”

This time the guard lied. “Yes, there is a ship close by.”

“What color is the sail?” Bran asked.

Again the guard lied. “It is black, lord.”

Bran was overwhelmed by despair.

When his mother arrived at the town, she asked an old man in the street why the bells were tolling. He told her, “Alas, a noble prisoner kept in that tower died last night.”

She walked to the tower and said to the guard, “Open the door, I want to see my son.”

Once the door was open, she threw herself down on the body of her son and she too died of despair.

At Kerlouan, on the site of the battle between the Bretons and the Norsemen, an oak tree overhangs the shore and marks the place where the Norsemen fled. At night, the birds gather on this oak, whose leaves shine in the moonlight: birds of black feather and birds of white feather, among them an old gray rook and a young crow The birds sing such a beautiful song that the sea itself falls silent to listen to it. All the birds sing except the old gray rook and the young crow The crow says, “Sing, little birds, sing; when you die you will at least end your days in Brittany.” The crow is Bran transformed. The rook is perhaps his mother.

In Breton tradition, the dead may return to Earth in the shape of birds.

Several incidents in the story have parallels in the poem Sir Tristram, such as the journey to a foreign land, the gold ring to prove the authenticity of the messenger, the treacherous gaoler, and the black or white sail. Sir Tristram was probably written in the twelfth century and the source is likely to be Breton. If this story is the original, it is interesting that an old woman, the mother, has been replaced in the later tale by a young woman, a lover. The truth may be unreachable, but what seems to have happened is that a fund of stories and legends was passed back and forth among the Atlantic Celts, from Brittany to Ireland to Cornwall to Wales—and back again—so that the ultimate origin of a tale is untraceable (see Symbols: Rule of Three).