In Brittany in winter nights the Ankou travels in search of souls, he is the Companion, the one who leads souls from one world to the other.
The Breton Ankou guides souls to the door of Hell.
In folk tales he looks like a lanky farmer-carter and with a big hat on his head that obscures his face, sometimes he is accompanied by two helpers, also dressed in black.
he drives the boat of the dead, sometimes he is on horseback, sometimes he drives the cart (le Carrier an Ankou) pulled by two black horses.
The Door to Hell in Brittany
In Brittany, the door to hell opens into the Yeun Ellez on the Mont d’Arrée (in the center of Finistère), a swampy depression located right in the center. Saint Michael is waiting at the door, with his balance to weigh each soul. It is no coincidence that its chapel (built on Mont Saint-Michel de Brasparts) is nearby.
The bog in the form of lush fields hides its pitfalls from the unwary travelers who leave the paths and end up drowning imprisoned by the slime.
The Ineludible Cart of Ankou and the Paths of Death
No force can stop the cart, which is often empty or full of people, some say that on the cart there is also a musical band that plays a suave song. When the cart stops or when it is heard passing (and for this reason the wheels squeak) the own eath or the death of a relative or an acquaintance, it’s near.
“It is along particular paths that you can meet this dismal crew: they are usually ancient streets abandoned by the usual traffic and cut off from everyday life. The paths of Death are called in Breton by henkou ar Maro; it is inconvenient and dangerous to close them, because you can disturb the passage of Ankou. In the areas along the coast, the Master, as he is also called, likes to travel by sea using a boat, the bag-noz or the night boat. On the boat or with the wagon, anyone who meets him, returns home to lie down and disappear from this world a few days later (translated from here).
The objectivity of Death
In the Breton depictions (mostly sculptures and bas-reliefs but also wall paintings) Ankou is a skeleton that holds an arrow, a spade or a sickle, which are not offensive instruments but rather symbols, it is in fact a peaceful figure , an integral part of community life.
Ankou is similar to the Greek Charon and as the mute ferryman of Souls, but it is also the skeleton of the Macabre Dance and as Alessio Tanfoglio writes in his essay “Ankou e la danza macabra di Clusone” (2016) it is “the skeleton or the representation of the reality of death in its objective form, without deception or masking “.
The legends about the Ankou have been transcribed by Anatole Le Braz in the late nineteenth century collected from the last living storytellers during the veillées, the nocturnal vigils in the isolated farms that he was visiting by bicycle: “La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons armoricains”
Marjanig, O, put your little foot,
Ankou is the main subject of a nursery rhyme for children entitled “O, lakait ho troadig” (O, put your little foot, in French O, mettez votre petit pied) structured as a progressive count in which the choir introduces a new word which becomes the first of the new series. The song dates back to the 16th century
Christophe Kergourlay
O, lakait ho troadig, ma dousig Marjanig
O, lakait ho troadig e-kichen va hini
Ni vo troadig hon-daou
Ken na teuy an Ankou
Da gerc’hat ac’hanomp hon-daou
O, lakait ho karig, ma dousig Marjanig
O, lakait ho karig e-kichen va hini
Ni vo karig hon-daou
Ni vo troadig hon-daou
Ken na teuy an an Ankou
Da gerc’hat ac’hanomp hon-daou.
Ni vo klinig hon-daou
Ni vo dornig hon-daou,
Ni vo jodig hon-daou,
Ni vo begig hon-daou,
Ni vo jodig hon-daou,
Ni vo dornig hon-daou,
Ni vo klinig hon-daou
Ni vo karig hon-daou
Ni vo troadig hon-daou
Ken na teuy an Ankou
Da gerc’hat ac’hanomp hon-daou
O, put your little foot, my sweet Mary Jane
O, put your little foot beside mine.
We’ll be foot to foot
Until Death
Comes to fetch us
O, put your little foot, my sweet Mary Jane
O, put your little foot beside mine.
We’ll be leg to leg
We’ll be foot to foot
Until Death
Comes to fetch us
We’ll be knee to knee…
We’ll be hand to hand …
We’ll be cheek to cheek …
We’ll be mouth to mouth …
We’ll be cheek to cheek …
We’ll be hand to hand …
We’ll be knee to knee…
We’ll be leg to leg
We’ll be foot to foot
Until Death
Comes to fetch us
LINK
Alessio Tanfoglio: “Quaderno 4. Lo spettacolo della Morte: il cadavere e lo scheletro”, “Ankou e la danza macabra di Clusone” (2016)
http://lanimadelmostro.blogspot.com/2017/11/anime-di-mostri-lankou-tristo-mietitore_2.html
http://perstorie-eieten.blogspot.it/2010/09/la-leggenda-dell-ankou-il-rapporto-dei.html
http://per.kentel.pagesperso-orange.fr/o_lakait_ho_troadig1.htm
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=66
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=fs&p=66
http://stq4s52k.es-02.live-paas.net/items/show/42662
http://www.arcadia93.org/bretoni.html
https://to.kan.bzh/chant-01341.html
Cette chanson “O lakit ho troadig” , je la chante depuis 25 ans. Je l’ai apprise avec mon “Maître” Loeiz Ropars (1921 / 2007 ).
Nozvez vad deoh
Christophe Kergourlay
Bonjour,
Surpris de me trouver en vidéo sur votre site !!! Bonne journée à vous !!!
A Galon
Christophe Kergourlay
Un saluto dal Piemonte, Italy
No, mi spiace, quello che so è che a Denez l’ispirazione del gwerz venne dalle rovine di un vecchio castello a Ker’hwerv, distrutto dal fuoco, dove si intravedevano dipinte le figure di due persone di cui una era l’Ankou e un’altra un giocatore di carte. Si trattava di Yann Ar C’hozhker che era si il più grande giocatore del paese ma anche un grande baro. Una notte la Morte lo incontrò e gli chiese di giocarsi con lei mille scudi in cambio della sua vita, Yann vinse imbrogliando e la Morte pagò il suo pegno….poi entrano in scena due uccelli, uno bianco e uno nero che consigli a Yann di donare tutti i soldi prima che la Morte se ne accorga ma lui, avido, spende tutto per costruirsi un castello che il fuoco divorò…al chiaro di luna ancor oggi verso la mezzanotte sembra che le due figure dipinte prendano ancora vita e si rimettano a giocare ma in un altro mondo e questa volta è la Morte che vince.
Flavio Poltronieri
Bellissima leggenda, che ricorda anche tradizioni irlandesi e scandinave.
Vero è che il canto di Prigent ti emoziona senza capire il testo, ma quando ho iniziato a scrivere il blog la mia intenzione era quella di raccogliere le mie traduzioni dei testi e gli appunti su cartaceo raccolti negli anni, poi il blog è cresciuto e aiuti e suggerimenti di preziosi collaboratori hanno fatto il resto. Così spero tanto che tu abbia tradotto An trucher hag an Ankoù · Denez Prigent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHbjSyWgobw
e voglia ampliare il post in oggetto