Читать книгу Legends & Romances of Brittany - Льюис Спенс - Страница 51

Table of Contents

The old fragmentary romance of Bruno of La Montagne is eloquent of the faëry spirit which informs all Breton lore. Butor, Baron of La Montagne, had married a young lady when he was himself of mature years, and had a son, whom he resolved to take to a fountain where the fairies came to repose themselves. The Baron, describing this magic well to the child’s mother, says (we roughly translate):

“Some believe ’tis in Champagne,

And others by the Rock Grifaigne;

Perchance it is in Alemaigne,

Or Bersillant de la Montagne;

Some even think that ’tis in Spain,

Or where sleeps Artus of Bretaigne.”

The Seigneur gave his infant son into the keeping of Bruyant, a trusty friend of his, and they set out for the fairy fountain with a troop of vassals. They left the infant in the forest of Broceliande. Here the fairies soon found him.

“Ha, sisters,” said one whose skin was as white as the robe of gossamer she wore, and whose golden crown betokened her the queen of the others, “come hither and see a new-born infant. How, I wonder, does he come to be here? I am sure I did not behold him in this spot yesterday. Well, at all events, he must be baptized and suitably endowed, as is our custom when we discover a mortal child. Now what will you give him?”

“I will give him,” said one, “beauty and grace.”

“I endow him,” said a second, “with generosity.”

THE FAIRIES OF BROCELIANDE FIND THE LITTLE BRUNO

“And I,” said a third, “with such valour that he will 73 overthrow all his enemies at tourney and on the battlefield.”

The Queen listened to these promises. “Surely you have little sense,” she said. “For my part, I wish that in his youth he may love one who will be utterly insensible to him, and although he will be as you desire, noble, generous, beautiful, and valorous, he will yet, for his good, suffer keenly from the anguish of love.”

“O Queen,” said one of the fairies, “what a cruel fate you have ordained for this unfortunate child! But I myself shall watch over him and nurse him until he comes to such an age as he may love, when I myself will try to engage his affections.”

“For all that,” said the Queen, “I will not alter my design. You shall not nurse this infant.”

The fairies then disappeared. Shortly afterward Bruyant returned, and carried the child back to the castle of La Montagne, where presently a fairy presented herself as nurse.

Unfortunately the manuscript from which this tale is taken breaks off at this point, and we do not know how the Fairy Queen succeeded with her plans for the amorous education of the little Bruno. But the fragment, although tantalizing in the extreme, gives us some insight into the nature of the fairies who inhabit the green fastnesses of Broceliande.