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Ys, also spelled Is or Ker-Is in Breton, and Ker-Ys in French (ker means city in Breton), is a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean. Most versions of the legend place the city in the Douarnenez Bay.
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The legend
Origins
According to some versions of the legend, Ys was built below sea level by Gradlon (Gralon in Breton), King of Cornouaille, upon the request of his daughter Dahut (also called Ahès), who loved the sea.
In others, Ys was founded more than 2000 years before Gradlon's reign in a then-dry location off the current coast of the Bay of Douarnenez but the sea level had slowly "risen" to the point where Ys was under it at each high tide when Gradlon's reign began.
To protect Ys from inundation, a dike was built with a gate that was opened for ships during low tide. The one key that opened the gate was held by the king.
Fall
Ys was the most beautiful and impressive city in the world, but quickly became a city of sin under the influence of Dahut. She organized orgies and had the habit of killing her lovers when morning broke. Saint Winwaloe decried the corruption of Ys and warned of God's wrath and punishment but was ignored by Dahut and the populace.
One day, a knight dressed in red came to Ys. Dahut asked him to come with her and, one night, he agreed. A storm broke out in the middle of the night and the waves could be heard smashing against the gate and the bronze walls. Dahut said to the knight: "Let the storm rage. The gates of the city are strong and it is King Gradlon, my father, who owns the only key, attached to his neck". He replied: "Your father the king sleeps. You can now easily take his key." Dahut stole the key from her father and gave it to the knight, who was none other than the devil. The devil, or, in another version of the story, Dahut herself, then opened the gate.
Because the gate was open during storm and at high tide, a wave as high as a mountain collapsed on Ys. King Gradlon and his daughter climbed on Morvarc'h, his magical horse. Saint Winwaloe approached them and told Gradlon: "Push back the demon sitting behind you!" Gradlon initially refused, but he finally gave in and pushed his daughter into the sea. The sea swallowed Dahut who became a mermaid or morgen.
Gradlon took refuge in Quimper, which became his new capital. An equestrian statue of Gradlon was made and it is still today between the spires of the Cathedral of Saint Corentin in Quimper. It is said that the bells of the churches of Ys can still be heard in the sea calm. A legend says that when Paris will be swallowed, the city of Ys will rise up from under the waves: Pa vo beuzet Paris, Ec'h adsavo Ker Is (Par-Is meaning, in Breton, "similar to Ys" ).
This history is also sometimes viewed as the victory of Christianity (Gradlon was converted by Saint Winwaloe) over druidism (Dahut and most inhabitants of Ys were worshippers of Celtic gods). However, a Breton folktale asserts that Gradlon met, spoke with and consoled the last Druid in Brittany, and oversaw his pagan burial, before building a chapel in his sacred grove.citation needed
Later use of the legend
The legend of Ys was confined to the folk of Brittany until 1839, when T. Hersart de la Villemarqué published a collection of popular songs collected from oral tradition, the Barzaz Breizh. The collection achieved a wide distribution and brought Breton folk culture into European awareness. One of the oldest of the collected songs was this tale. The medieval poet Marie de France also wrote poetry and stories based around the Ys legend.
Literature
- Alain Deschamps and Claude Auclair are the authors of a comic based on the legend of Ys, called Bran Ruz (red crow).
- Author Robert W. Chambers set the short story "The Demoiselle d'Ys" (from his fantasy collection The King in Yellow, 1895) in medieval/contemporary Brittany.
- Poul Anderson and his wife Karen wrote a tetralogy of novels in the 1980's called The King of Ys. There a Roman centurion becomes king of Ys, which was founded centuries before by Carthaginians. Prior to that series, fantasy writer A. Merritt in his novel Creep, Shadow! drew from the Ys legend.
- Jack Vance sited Ys as one of the cities in the kingdom of South Ulfland in his Lyonesse Trilogy.
- Dutch-born writer Iman Wilkens claims, in his book Where Troy Once Stood, that the Trojan War and other events in Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey took place in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea; he claims the city of Ismarus, sacked by Odysseus' men after leaving Troy, was in fact Ys. Wilkens' suggestions have not attracted the attention of mainstream scholars.
- A. S. Byatt's novel Possession: A Romance, which won the Booker Prize in 1990, makes frequent reference to Breton myth and legend, including the story of Ys.
- Michael Scott Rohan's fantasy trilogy 'The Winter of the World' Features Kerys as a initially semi legendary city which is later visited and does indeed sink beneath the sea.
- French author Gabriel Jan's 2007 novel Ys, le Monde Englouti reworks and retells the legend of Ys.
Painting
- E. V. Luminais' painting scored a success at the Salon of 1884, on May 7, 1888, Édouard Lalo's opera Le roi d'Ys, based on this legend, premiered in Paris.
Music
- In Claude Debussy's first book of Preludes (published 1910), the evocative La Cathédrale engloutie recalls the drowned cathedral in the city of Ys, with the muffled and watery sonority of its spectral bells.
- The French composer Édouard Lalo wrote the opera Le roi d'Ys, which was based on the Breton legend of Ys.
- Breton harpist Alan Stivell recorded an instrumental track called "Ys" on his 1972 album Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique.
- Harpist/folk-singer Joanna Newsom released an album in 2006 called Ys.[1]
- Progressive rock band Il Balletto di Bronzo also has a concept album called Ys.
- The heavy metal band Bal-Sagoth has included Ys in many of its stories/songs.
Video and board games
- The Japanese video game company Falcom created a video game series also named Ys in 1987, and it has become very popular in both Japan and the United States.
- The American video game company Bungie Studios included a subtle reference Ys in their Myth series; the "Drowned Kingdom of Ker-Ys" is visible at the far northeastern corner of the world map.[2]
- The American board game company Rio Grande Games has published a board game based on the legend titled Ys.
Notes and references
Externals links
