Erwan Berthou

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Erwan Berthou (4 September 1861 - January 30, 1933) was a French and Breton language poet, writer and neo-Druidic bard. His name is also spelled Erwan Bertou and Yves Berthou. He also used the bardic pseudonyms Kaledvoulc'h, Alc'Houeder Treger and Erwanig.

He was born in Pleubian, Côtes-d'Armor. He studied at the small seminary of Tréguier, then at the college of Lannion. He worked as an engineer in Le Havre, later moving in 1892 to Rochefort. On 12 June 1892, he married Elisa Mézeray.

He joined the Navy for five years. During his service he visited the Caribbean, Africa and China. Berthou returned to Le Havre in 1896. He then began contributing to the journals L'Hermine and Revue des provinces de l'Ouest. In 1897, he published a magazine La Trêve de Dieu (The Truce of God), but it folded after a year. He continued to work as an engineer, especially in construction of settlements in 1898 in Paris.

In the following year was one of twenty-two Bretons who went to Cardiff to establish links with Welsh neo-Druidism, being received at the Gorsedd. He also joined the Union Régionaliste Bretonne, helping to create the Breton nationalist movement. He participated in all stages of the creation of the Gorsedd of Brittany, of which he was Archdruid from 1903 to 1933, using the bardic name Kaledvoulc'h. He occasionally participated in Emile Masson's journal Brug. Much of his writing is imbued with pantheist ideas.

In 1918, he returned to live in Pleubian, to take over his parents' farm. He found it difficult to keep it solvent, and was reduced to great poverty a result of the inflation after the war. His last years were severely impoverished, leading to his wife's mental breakdown. Members of the Breton national movement organised financial assistance for him.

[edit] Writings

Cœur breton, premières poésies, 1892
La Lande fleurie, 1894
Les Fontaines miraculeuses, 1896
Âmes simples, dramatic poem, 1896
La Semaine des Quatre Jeudis, ballads, 1898
Le Pays qui Parle, poem, 1903.
Dre an dellen hag ar c'horn-boud. (By the harp and by the horn of war). Saint-Brieuc/ Paris René Prud'homme & Moriz an Dault 1904
Triades des Bardes de l’île de Bretagne, 1906
Istor Breiz, 1910.
Kevrin Barzed Breiz, treatise of Breton language versification, 1912.
Les Vessies pour des Lanternes, tract, 1913.
Lemenik, skouer ar Varzed, 1914.
Ivin ha Lore, gwerziou, 1914.
Dernière Gerbe, poems, 1914.
Avalou Stoup, rimadellou, 1914.
Hostaliri Surat, 1914.
Daouzek Abostol, 1928.
Sous le chêne des druides P. Heugel Editeur 1931
En Bro-Dreger a-dreuz parkoù (1910-1911), republished
Lemenik: skouer ar varzhed. - Lesneven : "Hor yezh", 2001