Jean Markale (May 23, 1928 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– November 23, 2008) was the pen name of Jean Bertrand, a French historian, writer, poet, radio show host, lecturer and high school French teacher who lived in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. As a former specialist in Celtic studies at the Sorbonne, he researched pre-Christian and medieval culture and spirituality. He published numerous books about Celtic civilization, particularly the place of women in Celtic culture, and

Arthurian According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the post-Ro ...

literature.

Works

His many works deal with subjects as varied as summations of various myths, their relationships with subjects like the Templars, the

Cathar Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi- dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a he ...

s and the Rennes le Château mystery,

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

, the

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...

building civilisations, Druidism and the biography of

Saint Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Gaelic Ireland, Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the ...

. *''The Celts: Uncovering the Mythic and Historic Origins of Western Culture'' () *''Montségur and the Mystery of the Cathars'' () *''Women of the Celts'' (1972) *''The Druids: Celtic Priests of Nature'' () *''Cathedral of the Black Madonna: The Druids and the Mysteries of Chartres'' *''King of the Celts: Arthurian Legends and Celtic Tradition'' *''Merlin: Priest of Nature'' *''The Epics of Celtic Ireland: Ancient Tales of Mystery and Magic'' *''The Great Goddess: Reverence of the Divine Feminine from the Paleolithic to the Present'' *''The Church of Mary Magdalene: The Sacred Feminine and the Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau''

Controversy

While Markale presents himself as widely read on the subjects about which he writes, the value of his work is controversial. His 'creative' use of scholarship and his tendency to make great leaps in reasoning cause scholars following more normative and conservative methods to balk and his interest in subjects that his critics consider questionable, including various branches of the

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

, have gained him at least as many detractors as admirers. Another source of controversy is his use of

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

's concept of "

collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...

" as an explanatory device, since the vast majority of psychologists outside Jungian depth psychology do not accept the concept. His already weakened reputation was further tarnished in 1989, when he became involved in a

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

case after he published under his own name a serious and well-documented guide to the oddities and antiquities of

, the text of which had already been published, twenty years before by a different writer, through the very same publisher. The Breton scholar Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h dismissed Markale as follows; "Mr Jean Bertrand, a.k.a. Jean Markale, styles himself as a professor of classical literature. He never says where he teaches; but ..he cannot properly accentuate

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, knows nothing of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

..he doesn't know how many cases there are in Irish declension (sometimes he says two, at other times three) ..Jean Markale very complacently quotes his own works in his later publications and, every time an Irish text is mentioned, he refers the reader to his 'Celtic Epics' as though that book included actual translations or constituted the most basic and essential reference on the matter. All this is, at best, a joke." However, for others, his loose scholarly presentation is balanced by "the insightful points Markale does make about various texts, clever interpretations of certain scenes and thought-provoking parallels to other traditions".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markale, Jean 1928 births 2008 deaths Writers from Paris French folklorists French occultists 20th-century French writers Writers from Brittany Breton nationalists Arthurian legend 20th-century occultists French male writers 20th-century French historians Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature)