Ar rannoù
File:LES SERIES (AR RANNOU).svg]]
"Ar rannoù" ("The Series", published as "The Series, or the Druid and the Child"),{{cite book |language=French |last=Hersart de La Villemarqué |first=Théodore |author-link=Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué |title=Barzaz Breizh |publisher=A. Franck |location=Paris |year=1846 |url=https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Barzaz_Breiz/1846/Les_S%C3%A9ries,_ou_le_Druide_et_l%E2%80%99enfant |access-date=18 July 2020 }} also known as "Gousperoù ar raned" ("The Frogs' Vespers"),{{cite web |title=Ar rannoù - Œuvre - Ressources de la Bibliothèque nationale de France |url=http://data.bnf.fr/13322855/ar_rannou/ |publisher=Bibliothèque nationale de France |language=French |access-date=18 July 2020 }} is a traditional Breton folksong, composed in twelve parts or "series".
Origin and significance of the song
The real origin of the song remains unknown.
Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué collected this song in Cornouaille, Brittany, and published it in Barzaz Breiz, making it the opening piece of his work. For him the origin of the song stretches back to the time of the Druids and is a testimony of the past, treating of Breton mythology, the composition of the world, life and battles.
For others, including François-Marie Luzel who collected around twenty different versions in Cornouaille and Trégor (Gousperoù ar raned), it is only a rimadell, intended to exercise the memory.{{cite book |language=French |last=Abjean |first=René |title=La musique bretonne |location=Châteaulin |publisher=Jos Le Doaré |year=1975 |page=24 }} Luzel rejected La Villemarqué's version, which he declared erroneous because overinterpreted as to the mythological aspect. However, some variants collected by Luzel have elements very close to the version of de La Villemarqué.{{cite web |url=http://bibnum.univ-rennes2.fr/items/show/679 |title=Gousperou ar raned =Les vêpres des grenouilles |last=Luzel |first=F. M. |author-link=François-Marie Luzel |website=Collections numérisées |publisher=Université de Rennes |language=French |access-date=18 July 2020 }}
In both cases, the real meaning of the lyrics remains surrounded by a certain mystery, the people from whom these songs are collected themselves admitting their ignorance of the real meaning of the lyrics.
Manner of singing
The song is a dialogue between a child and a teacher (a druid for de La Villemarqué). The teacher asks the child what he wants to know, at which the child asks him for the first strophe (a "series" for de La Villemarqué). The teacher sings the first strophe, then again asks the question. The child then asks for the second strophe. The teacher sings the second strophe and repeats the first one. Then the child asks for the third strophe, and so on. The song carries on with these repetitions of the previous stanzas already sung, until the twelfth stanza is sung.
Comparison of the translated lyrics
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! Strophe ! Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué – "Ar rannoù" | François-Marie Luzel – "Gousperoù ar raned" |
style="text-align:left;" |1
| style="text-align:left;" |No series for number one: the single Need; Death, father of pain; nothing before, nothing more. | style="text-align:left;" |A silver ring to Mary |
style="text-align:left;" |2
| style="text-align:left;" |Two oxen harnessed to a shell; if they pull, they will die; behold a miracle! | style="text-align:left;" |Two silver rings to Mary |
style="text-align:left;" |3
| style="text-align:left;" |There are three parts to the world: three beginnings and three ends, for man and for the oak too. | style="text-align:left;" |Three queens in a palace, |
style="text-align:left;" |4
| style="text-align:left;" |There are four whetstones: Merlin's whetstones, which sharpen swift swords. | style="text-align:left;" |Four acolytes |
style="text-align:left;" |5
| style="text-align:left;" |There are five zones around the earth: five ages in the span of time; a dolmen on our sister. | style="text-align:left;" |Five very black cows, |
style="text-align:left;" |6
| style="text-align:left;" |There are six little children of wax, quickened by the energy of the moon; if you don't know it, I know it. | style="text-align:left;" |Six brothers and six sisters |
style="text-align:left;" |7
| style="text-align:left;" |There are seven suns and seven moons, seven planets with the hen | style="text-align:left;" |Seven days and seven months |
style="text-align:left;" |8
| style="text-align:left;" |There are eight winds blowing; eight fires with the fire of the father, lit in the month of May on the mountain of war. | style="text-align:left;" |Eight little threshers on the barn-floor |
style="text-align:left;" |9
| style="text-align:left;" |There are nine little white hands on the threshing-floor table near Lezarmeur's tower, and nine mothers who groan aloud. | style="text-align:left;" |Nine sons in arms returning from Nantes |
style="text-align:left;" |10
| style="text-align:left;" |Ten enemy ships have been seen coming from Nantes. Woe to you, woe to them, men of Vannes! | style="text-align:left;" |Ten ships on the shores |
style="text-align:left;" |11
| style="text-align:left;" |Eleven armed belek coming from Vannes, with their swords shattered; and their robes bloodied; and their hazel-wood crutches; of three hundred of them only eleven are left. | style="text-align:left;" |Grunting, growling |
style="text-align:left;" |12
| style="text-align:left;" |There are twelve months and twelve signs; the last but one, Sagittarius, shoots his arrow armed with a sting. | style="text-align:left;" |Twelve pretty little swords |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb13322855g Bibliographical details] at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (in French)
- [https://data.bnf.fr/en/13322855/ar_rannou/ More bibliographical details] at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (in French)
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Category:Breton mythology and folklore