Gwalarn was a Breton language

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

 literary journal. By extension, the term refers to the style of literature that it encouraged. 166 issues (numbered from 0 to 165) appeared between 1925 and May 1944.

The journal was founded by Roparz Hemon

Roparz Hemon

Roparz Hemon , officially named Louis-Paul Némo, was a Breton author and scholar of Breton expression.He was the author of numerous dictionaries, grammars, poems and short stories...

 and Olier Mordrel

Olier Mordrel

Olier Mordrel is the Breton language version of Olivier Mordrelle, a Breton nationalist and wartime collaborator with the Third Reich who founded the separatist Breton National Party. Before the war he worked as an architect. His architectural work was influenced by Art Deco and the International...

.

Manifesto

The journal published a manifesto in February 1925. The manifesto stated the aim of Gwalarn was to prove that the Breton language could be a vehicle of high culture. This was written in response to some French authors who argued that Breton was nothing more than the crude speech of peasants, a view articulated by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

, among others.

Gwalarn is above all something new and unique: a literary magazine aimed at the Breton elite, and whose ambition is nothing less than setting Breton literature on the road that follows the longstanding literature of many small nations: Bohemia, Flanders, Catalonia, among others...For the first time, a Breton revue will publish a pure literature, closing the door on patois... [it] will adopt a language of classical formality with a rigorous othography. Gwalarn is an experiment: to determine whether there is an audience in Brittany educated enough to understand literary language (as far from the language of the Breton peasant as that of Mr. France

Anatole France

Anatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...

 is of the French peasant), a public informed enough to engage with a Breton literature that, while seeking to tap the sap in the genius of the race, wants to be European in spirit, drawing on modern European literary techniques, both in expression and in thought.

Contents

The main contributors were mostly very young. In addition to Hemon, the most important writers were Abeozen

Abeozen

François Eliès, born Fañch Eliès and better known by the pseudonym Abeozen, was a Breton nationalist, novelist and dramatist who wrote in the Breton language. Abeozen was also a noted scholar of the Welsh language.Abeozen started contributing to the Breton literary journal Gwalarn in 1925...

, Youenn Drezen

Youenn Drezen

Youenn Drezen is the Breton language name of Yves Le Drézen, a Breton nationalist writer and activist. He is also known as Corentin Cariou and Tin Gariou.-Youth:...

, Jakez Riou, Gwilherm Berthou

Gwilherm Berthou

Gwilherm Berthou was a Breton nationalist terrorist and neo-Druidic bardic poet. He was a member of the Breton artistic movement Seiz Breur.-Terrorism:...

, Yannn-Eozen Jarl, Kenan Kongar, Fant Rozec

Meavenn

Meavenn was the pen name of Francine Rozec, also known as Fant Rozec, a Breton language poet, novelist and playwright linked to Breton nationalism.-Biography:...

, Xavier de Langlais

Xavier de Langlais

Xavier de Langlais was a Breton painter, printmaker and writer. He usually signed his work with the name Langleiz, a Breton language version of his surname.-Early career:...

, and Maodez Glanndour. These writers produced the "classic" literary Breton of the twentieth century.

The content was varied. There were many Breton translations of famous authors such as Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Boccaccio, Synge, Pushkin, and so on. There was also great emphasis on Celtic traditions and legends such as the Mabinogion

Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...

. Essays on philosophy and Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

 cultures were also common, including discussions of Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. It also published essays on current issues, poems and plays.

History

Olier Mordrel no longer participated in the journal after 1928, but Roparz Hemon stayed on as an editor until the last issue. Gradually, Gwalarn expanded, producing a popular supplement "kannadig Gwalarn" in 1932 and books for children. The latter were distributed free in schools to children who had participated in essay competitions in the Breton language.

Associated with collaborationist politics during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the magazine was linked to the Breton language radio station Radio Rennes Bretagne

Radio Rennes Bretagne

Radio Rennes Bretagne was a radio station based in Rennes, and the first station to have regular Breton language programming. However, it was not powerful enough to broadcast to the Breton-speaking western parts of the peninsular...

, which was set up by the Germans. In consequence, it was forced to close after the Liberation of France. After the war, a new magazine with the same function was created under the title Al Liamm, which continued the project of creating a Breton literary culture.