QUIMPER-VANNES

Pardons in Brittany have their origins in pre-Christian rites. They are held on the feast day of the patron saint of a village. They are most often held at the parish church, although they can also be held outside in woodland, on moors or on the cliffs. Many are pilgrimages and involve vows, prayers and observances made by the participants. Unfortunately, one of the most remarkable pardons is now a thing of the past. This used to be held on the edge of the forest of Dualt ('black hill' from  Breton: du, ‘dark’, black’ [Old Cornish: duw; Welsh: du ] and Old Breton: alt, ‘hill’   [Breton: aod; Old Cornish: alt; Welsh: allt ] )   and attracted 17,000 pilgrims or more from Ouimper and Vannes , the two adversaries at this pardon. Saint Servais, or Gelvest in Breton, was invoked here on May 13th every year to protect crops from late frosts. On the night before, men and women arrived in troops, the men armed with staffs and cudgels. The story now continues as ...

The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely...One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders.  Erquy?  The evidence is quite straightforward: 1. The coastline pictured in the map under the magnifying glass at the front of the Asterix books matches Erquy's position nicely. 2. The map clearly identifies 3 rocks off the coast near the Village Gaulois. They are also clearly marked as the Pointe de Trois Pierres on Google's map of Erquy. 3. Albert Uderzo, Asterix's creator, knew Brittany well and his brother escaped to Erquy during the War to evade forced enlistment by the Germans.  Uderzo himself  worked for  a year in Brittany as a teenager  and loved it.  When he was given a free hand in deciding where to locate Asterix's village he didn't have to think - he chose Brittany. 4. Erquy has ancient granite rose quarries dating back to Roman times and beyond... ...

It’s all in the name: road signs and language memory in Brittany A very interesting article that looks at some of the underlying political and cultural issues associated with placenaming in Brittany. It reminds me a little of Sri Lanka (and Wales), although Sri Lanka has raised its political street naming to an entirely new level. See: www.colombojumbo.com

Quimper-Vannes has a Facebook page: brittanyplacenames

Mellionnec     Melioneg There is a chance (however slim) of a connexion with either Saint-Melanius (6 th century Bishop of Rennes) or Saint-Mellonius (3 rd century Bishop of Rouen). This would link Mellionec with St. Mellon’s, near Cardiff; St. Mellion, Mullion and Lamellion (Cornwall). On the other hand, its origins may lie in W: meillion, ‘clover’ [B: melchen/melchon; C: mellyon ]  which would link it with Cwm Meillionen and Maes-meillion , ‘clover hill’ and ‘clover field’ (Wales).  Cwm Meillionen A last possibility is OB: mellhionou, ‘violets’ [C: mellyon; W: mellhionou ]. What surprised me, however, is that the two are related in Cornish: it is an either/or as shown above. Maybe they are in (Old) Breton and (Old) Welsh too.

Glomel     Groňvel    [Glomael, 1295] Goulou in Breton means ‘bright’ or ‘light’ [W: golau ; OC: golou ] and Gaulish : mello means  ‘ hill’ or ‘promontory’ [W: moel ; Sc: mull ].  The name can be compared to Bringolo in  C ô tes d'Armor; Alltgolau, Nant-y-moel and Moelfre in   Wales . The Breton and Welsh examples all refer to hills. This makes sense, particularly with moel which is a ‘bare/bald hill’ and is very likely to refect the sunlight cf. Rhyd-y-foel  (Wales). Rhyd-y-foel Glomel's other treasure is a menhir ( 8.5 x 4m ): Mégalithes du Monde The Megalithic Portal

I visited Aucaleuc yesterday (near Dinan in eastern Brittany), but no sign of any thistles. Here's the place name etymology: Aucaleuc      Oskaleg     [Oscalloc 12 th C]   ‘Place of thistles’. From OB : scal, ‘thistle’ becoming oscalloc, ‘place of thistles’  [W: ysgallog , ‘full of thistles’]. Cf: Pantysgallog, Dolysgallog (Wales) .

SEE HERE:  14 Welsh Place Names with no English Vowels I'm pretty sure this couldn't happen with place names in Brittany.

The Eglise-Saint-Gal has a reputation for being a particularly unstable, topsy-turvy sort of church. But it has survived and so has the name of its famous saint.  St Gal (550-646) was an Irish saint who travelled as a missionary to Europe with St Colomba to found monasteries and seats of religious learning.    Their first port of call was Brittany where they lived as hermits and founded a monastery here at Langast, which is named after him. St Gal is the same saint as St Gall of  Gallen Abbey on the banks of Lake Constance in Switzerland  with its magnificent cathedral built on the same spot where St Gal had his hermitage - 2,300ft up. The Abbey library houses 160,000 books and an important collection of medieval manuscripts which makes it the earliest and the largest monastic library in the world. Here St Gal had indeed founded a 'seat of learning' to be remembered by.

Poole is a pretty amazing place: it has the second largest natural harbour in the world - only Sydney can beat it.  When the Romans invaded Britain in the 1st century they went straight for the jewel in the crown - Poole and, more specifically, the Iron Age settlement at Hamworthy. Bournemouth, the young urban upstart down the road, was only founded in the 19th century - before that it was a wasteland called 'Pool Heath',  fit only for fishermen, tramps and smugglers. POOL HEATH (Bournemouth) 1759 Poole Harbour also has oil. It has the largest onshore oilfield in Western Europe at Wytch Farm: The site produces around 50,000 barrels of oil per day with reserves of nearly 500 million barrels. Poole's name gives another indication of its importance and antiquity.  Poole comes from an old British (Brythonic) root which we find in Old Cornish: pol;  Welsh :  pwll ; and  Breton : poull.  These mean (variously) ‘ pool’, ‘pit’ , ...