The concealed death

There is hardly anyone in France who does not remember at least odd snaches of the lament of "King Renaud who returns from the war carrying his guts in his hands" and of his unfortunate spouse who gave birth to a son. The repeated, albeit failed, attempts to conceal his death from this feathful wife who eventually chooses to follow her husband into the grave, have caused much ink to flow. And many tears too. It was the great collector of Breton lore, Théodore de La Villemarqué, who first pointed out the relationship between the French lament "King Renaud" and the Breton "gwerz" "Sir Nann", to which, among many others, the Scottish "Clerk Colvill" and even a Serbian "pesma" are akin. Herewith he opened a field of investigation where several names became famous, at least within the boundaries of the new discipline, ethnomusicology: the Dane Svend Grundtvig, the American Francis Child, the Briton R. C. A. Prior, the French Gaston Paris and George Doncieux, the Italians Costantino Nigra and Giuseppe Ferraro, the Catalans Milà i Fontanals and Pelai-Briz, the Spaniard Diego Catalàn... The place occupied by Brittany is remarkable: the Breton narrative, like the Scandinavian versions of the myth, begins with a fantastic prologue: the hero encounters death personified with whom he comes to terms. When the song migrated to the French language areas, this introduction fell off. And yet it contained the clues to the problem implied by this tragical tale: Is it about conjugal piety or the maintenance of a lineage? The author of the present survey, Christian Souchon, dedicated to the" Mysteries of the Barzhaz Breizh" a study in three volumes, completed by an investigation of the "Songs of Keransquer".