Au fil des contes: Voyages dans les pays celtes

Name of traveller

Samuel Allo

Reason for travel

• cultural tourist visiting Celtic countries and collecting tales and traditions
• en route from Isle of Man

Date of travel

November 2005

Lorsque je chante la chanson des korrigans "dilun dimeurzh dimerec’h...", ils [les élèves] me regardent tous avec de grands yeux étonnés . . .. Ils ont compris les jours de la semaine dans la chanson. . . . Ma joie est intense. Le breton est donc plus qu’une langue régionale et peut permettre à deux personnes de pays différents de communiquer, de se comprendre. Les élèves me chantent une belle mélodie du Pays de Galles. Le moment est beau. (Allo 50-1)

Content

• customs: desire to meet with a famous harpist in west Wales, but the harpist is too busy to receive him
• language:
  • visits a Welsh-medium school along the Anglo-Welsh border
  • impressed by anglophone parents' commitment to Welsh-language education for their children
  • comments on increasingly complicated place names the further west he travels
  • talks to secondary school pupils in Machynlleth and meets with a Breton teacher from Cléguérec
  • Welsh pupils are amazed and delighted when they understand some lyrics in a Breton song; pupils sing a Welsh song in return
• literature:
  • account contains the legend attached to Beddgelert as told by a school librarian in Machynlleth
  • school children in Taliesin proudly tell the story of the bard Taliesin
  • references to the Mabinogion
• people: contains a number of character studies and sketches of the people he meets during the journey
• politics: complimentary about the political decision in Wales to teach Welsh in all schools as the best way to save the language
• recreation:
  • sees himself as modern travelling troubadour, therefore has made resolution not to pay for accommodation or travel, apart from ferries
  • allowed by a farmer to sleep in a cold prefabricated building; is allowed to borrow a heater and is given breakfast
  • is allowed to sleep in a cold storeroom in Cardiff; the owner of the place makes anti-Islamic comment
• terrain:
  • relatively imprecise descriptions about some of his travel locations
  • travels in bitterly cold weather
• transport: travels on foot and as hitchhiker

Nationality of traveller

Breton, French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

collection of stories; travelogue

Citation

Allo, Samuel. Au fil des contes: Voyages dans les pays celtes. Saint Brieuc [Breizh]: Imprimerie Jacq, 2014. Print.