The Breton Gorsedd - 2009

Sunday the 12th July saw the Breton Gorsedd, and for this my wife Myrgh Casnewydd, and I went as delegates of the Gorsedd Kernow.

The Gorsedd was held in a field belonging to the tavern ‘Cleusyow’ - around a mile and a half from Arzano -a name which I believe to be ‘kleysyow’ in Cornish. It would seem that the tavern was originally a farmhouse, but now altered to take in tourists and - as happened on the Sunday of the Gorsedd - local people to celebrate weddings etc.

Although the Gorsedd was held at Cleusyow, we stayed for the four days we were there in a town called Pont Aven, some twenty miles or so from Arzano. This town is really pretty, with a population of around a thousand or fifteen hundred. It is a centre for painting, and nearly every second shop in the streets is a gallery or artist’s workshop.

The town itself is built around the river Aven, which is also beautiful, with a quay on the edge of the town, and further downstream there are thick woods on each side, which gives people the chance of having lovely sheltered walks over several miles to the coast.

The Gorsedd ceremony followed much the same pattern as it does every year. Each bard robed in the tavern, and after some brief instructions, we all processed to the Gorsedd field, first some 500 yards along a tarmac road, and then on a farm ‘grass’ road.

The Gorsedd circle was located in the centre of a largish field, the circle marked with granite stones. We processed directly to it, and with the bards standing around the circle of stones, The Grand Druid of the Breton Gorsedd and the delegates from Cornwall and Wales went to the centre of the circle, were was set the men omborth.

As usual in the ceremony - as in the gorsedhow of Cornwall and Wales, the Grand Druid welcomed the delegates from Cornwall and Wales, who, in their turn, brought greetings to him and the people of Brittany from their own countries. This time, one of the Welsh delegates read a poem in honour of Thomas Payne, famous for his book, The Rights of Man’, and who died exactly 200 years ago. This year, there was only one bard - or in truth, she was an ovate - received into the Gorsedd. She was admitted as the ‘Mistress of the Robes’, an office that has never before been in the Breton Gorsedd.

To finish the ceremony, and before ‘Bro Goth Agan Tasow’ was sung, was the distribution of mistletoe to everbody on the field, as a symbol of health and youth. The mistletoe was first distributed to each bard in the circle, and then the remainder was given to members of the public who were in the field for the ceremony.

But the thing that we remember about the week-end above all was the exceptional hospitality of our hosts.

Although we get a great welcome every time we go to Brittany for their Gorsedd, never have we had one like that we received this time.

A week-end and a Gorsedd that will live in our memories for a long time.

Gourseiz Breiz - 2009

Tewennow

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