Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué (6 July 18158 December 1895) was a Breton

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and man of letters.

Biography

La Villemarqué was born in

Quimperlé Quimperlé (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Geography Quimperlé is in the southeast of Finistère, 20 km to the west of Lorient and 44 km to the east of Quimper. Historically, it belo ...

Finistère Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.

on 6 July 1815. He was descended from an old Breton family, which counted among its members an Hersart who had followed Saint Louis to the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

, and another who was a companion in arms of

Bertrand du Guesclin Bertrand du Guesclin ( br, Beltram Gwesklin; 1320 – 13 July 1380), nicknamed "The Eagle of Brittany" or "The Black Dog of Brocéliande", was a Breton knight and an important military commander on the French side during the Hundred Years' Wa ...

. La Villemarqué devoted himself to the elucidation of the monuments of

Breton literature Breton literature may refer to literature in the Breton language (''Brezhoneg'') or the broader literary tradition of Brittany in the three other main languages of the area, namely, Latin, Gallo and French – all of which have had strong mutual l ...

. Introduced in 1851 by

Jakob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...

as correspondent to the Academy of Berlin, he became in 1858 a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. He died at Castle Keransker near Quimperlé on 8 December 1895.

Works

His works include: ''Contes populaires des anciens Bretons'' (1842), to which was prefixed an essay on the origin of the romances of the Round Table; ''Essai sur l'histoire de la langue bretonne'' (1837); ''Poèmes des bardes bretons du sixième siècle'' (1850); ''La Légende celtique en Irlande, en Cambrie et en Bretagne'' (1859). The popular Breton songs published by him in 1839 as '' Barzaz Breiz'' were considerably retouched. La Villemarqué's work has been superseded by the work of later scholars, but he has the merit of having done much to arouse popular interest in his subject.

Literature

On the subject of the doubtful authenticity of ''Barzaz Breiz'', see Luzel's Preface to his ''Chansons populaires de la Basse-Bretagne'', and, for a list of works on the subject, the ''

Revue Celtique A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own durin ...

'' (vol. V).

References

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hersant de la Villemarque, Theodore 1815 births 1895 deaths People from Quimperlé French philologists French lexicographers Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Writers from Brittany Poets from Brittany Arthurian scholars Breton-language writers 19th-century French poets Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur 19th-century lexicographers