Pêr-Jakez Helias
Encyclopedia
Pêr-Jakez Helias, baptised Pierre-Jacques Hélias, nom de plume
Pierre-Jakez Hélias (1914–1995) was a Breton
stage actor
, journalist
, author
, poet
, and writer for radio
who worked in the French
and Breton
languages.
For many years he directed a weekly radio programme in the Breton language
and co-founded a summer festival at Quimper
which became the Festival de Cornouaille.
, Penn-ar-Bed
, Brittany. He had a modest upbringing, but this included a good education.
After a career in the French Resistance
during the Second World War, in 1946 Helias was appointed as director of a weekly programme in Breton on Radio Kimerc'h. Working with Pierre Trépos, he created hundreds of dialogues, many of them between two stock characters, Gwilhou Vihan and Jakez Kroc'hen. In 1948 he was the co-founder, with François Bégot and Jo Halleguen, of Les grandes Fêtes de Cornouaille, a major summer festival of Breton life.
The theatre was Helias's favourite genre, as he was convinced that the Breton reality was primarily a spoken one, so that it could best be captured by drama
, and much of his early work was in the form of plays and scripts for radio. His An Isild a-heul, or Yseulte seconde (1963), was a three-act tragedy based on the story of Tristan and Isolde
, but with a focus on Tristan's wife rather than his lover. While written in Breton, it was published in a dual text, with a French translation on the facing page, and was broadcast on the France Culture
radio station in 1965.
Helias's best-known and most often performed play is Mevel ar Gosker, or 'The Yardman of Kosker'. A mevel bras was the most important Breton farm worker, a man who might enjoy many privileges, but he was not of the landowning class and it was inconceivable in the old Brittany that he could aspire to marry into it. However, the mevel of the play, Jakez Mano, contrives by a complicated means to marry his master's daughter, God Konan. The fact that he can not only think of this but even achieve it is seen as proof that the old Brittany, in which marriages were decided by social status and by the ownership of land, is dying.
Helias's poetry includes two collections in Breton, Ar men du (1974, The Black Stone) and An tremen-buhez (1979, The Pastime). An important theme in his work is his devotion to the Breton language and its power. One of his lines translates as "Breton speaker that I am, my heritage lies on my tongue, it shall never be yours".
His best-selling work is his autobiographical Le cheval d'orgueil, or The Horse of Pride, adapted for cinema
by Claude Chabrol
in 1980, rooted in the Bigoudenn area south of Kemper
. This was also published in Breton as Marh ar lorh, after its success on screen had turned Helias into a national celebrity.
He also collected folk tales from his native Brittany
and published work on the Breton language and culture. He became a major figure in Breton literature during the last third of the 20th century.
Despite his importance in Brittany, Helias came under fire from the radicals promoting the revival of the Breton language. This was only partly due to his willingness to work primarily in French and his refusal to disapprove of the language. In his important and influential Le cheval d'orgueuil, Helias is accused of presenting a disappearing Breton world without obvious regret, and he even says in it that he enjoyed learning French. The book appeared first in French, and the English translation was available before that into Breton. The radicals condemned it as folklore
. One commentator has said of this "Brittany's two writers most famous in France as a whole, Per-Jakez Helias and Jean-Edern Hallier
, are regarded with some scorn by the Breton zealots."
Helias died on 13 August 1995. Encyclopædia Britannica
says of him "Per-Jakez Helias as poet, playwright, and radio script writer has been both prolific and popular."
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Pierre-Jakez Hélias (1914–1995) was a Breton
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...
stage actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and writer for radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
who worked in the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Breton
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...
languages.
For many years he directed a weekly radio programme in the 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...
and co-founded a summer festival at Quimper
Quimper
Quimper is a commune and capital of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Administration:Quimper is the prefecture of the Finistère department.-Geography:...
which became the Festival de Cornouaille.
Life and work
Helias was born in 1914 in PouldreuzigPouldreuzic
Pouldreuzic is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-References:** -External links:*...
, Penn-ar-Bed
Finistère
Finistère is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.-History:The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel...
, Brittany. He had a modest upbringing, but this included a good education.
After a career in the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
during the Second World War, in 1946 Helias was appointed as director of a weekly programme in Breton on Radio Kimerc'h. Working with Pierre Trépos, he created hundreds of dialogues, many of them between two stock characters, Gwilhou Vihan and Jakez Kroc'hen. In 1948 he was the co-founder, with François Bégot and Jo Halleguen, of Les grandes Fêtes de Cornouaille, a major summer festival of Breton life.
The theatre was Helias's favourite genre, as he was convinced that the Breton reality was primarily a spoken one, so that it could best be captured by drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and much of his early work was in the form of plays and scripts for radio. His An Isild a-heul, or Yseulte seconde (1963), was a three-act tragedy based on the story of Tristan and Isolde
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
, but with a focus on Tristan's wife rather than his lover. While written in Breton, it was published in a dual text, with a French translation on the facing page, and was broadcast on the France Culture
France Culture
France Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes , as well as literary readings, radio plays, and experimental productions...
radio station in 1965.
Helias's best-known and most often performed play is Mevel ar Gosker, or 'The Yardman of Kosker'. A mevel bras was the most important Breton farm worker, a man who might enjoy many privileges, but he was not of the landowning class and it was inconceivable in the old Brittany that he could aspire to marry into it. However, the mevel of the play, Jakez Mano, contrives by a complicated means to marry his master's daughter, God Konan. The fact that he can not only think of this but even achieve it is seen as proof that the old Brittany, in which marriages were decided by social status and by the ownership of land, is dying.
Helias's poetry includes two collections in Breton, Ar men du (1974, The Black Stone) and An tremen-buhez (1979, The Pastime). An important theme in his work is his devotion to the Breton language and its power. One of his lines translates as "Breton speaker that I am, my heritage lies on my tongue, it shall never be yours".
His best-selling work is his autobiographical Le cheval d'orgueil, or The Horse of Pride, adapted for cinema
The Horse of Pride
The Horse of Pride. is a 1980 film directed by Claude Chabrol. It's title in French is Le cheval d'orgueil. It is based on Le cheval d'orgueil, an autobiography by Pêr-Jakez Helias...
by Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
in 1980, rooted in the Bigoudenn area south of Kemper
Quimper
Quimper is a commune and capital of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Administration:Quimper is the prefecture of the Finistère department.-Geography:...
. This was also published in Breton as Marh ar lorh, after its success on screen had turned Helias into a national celebrity.
He also collected folk tales from his native Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and published work on the Breton language and culture. He became a major figure in Breton literature during the last third of the 20th century.
Despite his importance in Brittany, Helias came under fire from the radicals promoting the revival of the Breton language. This was only partly due to his willingness to work primarily in French and his refusal to disapprove of the language. In his important and influential Le cheval d'orgueuil, Helias is accused of presenting a disappearing Breton world without obvious regret, and he even says in it that he enjoyed learning French. The book appeared first in French, and the English translation was available before that into Breton. The radicals condemned it as folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. One commentator has said of this "Brittany's two writers most famous in France as a whole, Per-Jakez Helias and Jean-Edern Hallier
Jean-Edern Hallier
Jean-Edern Hallier was a French author.- Overview :Hallier was the son of World War I French General André Hallier. Jean-Edern was born in 1936 and lost an eye during the siege of Budapest, where his father was on diplomatic posting...
, are regarded with some scorn by the Breton zealots."
Helias died on 13 August 1995. Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
says of him "Per-Jakez Helias as poet, playwright, and radio script writer has been both prolific and popular."
Selected publications
- Biskoaz kemend-all (1947)
- Eun ano bras, darvoud en eun arvest (1953)
- War eun dachenn foball (1955)
- Danses de Bretagne (1955)
- Mojennou Breiz I (1957)
- Tan ha ludu (1957)
- Eun den maro ha ne goll ket e benn (1958)
- Mojennou Breiz II (1959)
- Mevel ar Gosker (play, 1959)
- Kanadenn Penn ar Bed (1959)
- Marvaillou ar votez-tan. Contes bretons du sabot à feu (1961)
- Comme on connaît ses saints (1961)
- An Izild a-heul; Yseult seconde (play, 1963)
- Maner Kuz. Manoir secret (1964)
- Divizou eun amzer gollet. Devis d'un temps perdu (1966)
- Contes bretons du pays bigouden (1967)
- Bretagne aux légendes : la mer (1967)
- Costumes de Bretagne (1969)
- Contes bretons de la Chantepleure (1971)
- Tradition bretonne : le savoir-vivre (1973)
- Légendes du Raz de Sein (1972)
- Ar men du; la pierre noire (poetry, 1974)
- Le cheval d'orgueuil, Mémoires d'un Breton du pays bigouden (autobiography, 1975)
- Tradition bretonne : logis et ménages (1975)
- Comment un Breton devint roi d'Angleterre (1976)
- Les autres et les miens: le trésor du Cheval d'orgueil (1977)
- Peziou-c'hoari Jakez Krohen (1977)
- Penaoz e teuas eur Breizad da veza roue Bro-Zaoz (1977)
- Le Grand valet, La Femme de paille, Le Tracteur - Théâtre I (1977)
- Lettres de Bretagne: langues, culture et civilisations bretonnes (1978)
- An tremen-buhez; le passe-vie (poetry, 1979)
- La sagesse de la terre (1980)
- Quimper en Cornouaille (1980)
- Au pays du Cheval d'orgueil (1980)
- Piou e-neus lazet an hini koz? (1981)
- L'esprit du rivage (1981)
- L'herbe d'or (novel, 1982)
- Images de Bretagne (1983)
- La colline des solitudes (novel, 1984)
- Les contes du vrai et du semblant (1984)
- Marh ar lorh: pennadou bet dibabet evid ar skoliou (Breton autobiography, 1986)
- Dictionnaire breton. Breton-français, français-breton (1986)
- Bugale Berlobi I - Brud an Dreued (1987)
- Lisbonne (1987)
- Bugale Berlobi II - Marvaillou da veva en ho sav (1988)
- Vent de soleil (1988)
- Midi à ma porte (1988)
- Amsked. Pobl an noz; Clair-obscur. Le peuple de la nuit (1990)
- Le quêteur de mémoire: quarante ans de recherche sur les mythes et la civilisation bretonne (1990)
- La nuit singulière (1990)
- D'un autre monde; A-berz eur bed all (poetry, 1991)
- Katrina Lenn-zu (1993)
- Le diable à quatre (novel, 1993)
- Le piéton de Quimper (1993)
- Ruz-Kov ar foeterez-vro: gand seiteg tresadenn war pri-poaz gand Dodik (1996)
- Ventre-à-Terre, l'aventurier
- Un pays à deux langues (2000)
Sources
- Pierre-Jakez Hélias, book #36, published by Skol Vreizh
- Per-Jakez Hélias. Niverenn ispisial, special edition #172, published by Brud Nevez, 1994
- Francis Favereau: Pierre-Jakez Hélias, Bigouden universel, published by Pluriel
- Thierry Glon: Pierre-Jakez Hélias et la Bretagne perdue, published by Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1998
- Pascal Rannou: Inventaire d'un héritage — Essai sur l'œuvre littéraire de Pierre-Jakez Hélias, published by An Here