Here is the story of Princess Dahut, King Grallon and the city of Is
Princess Dahut, King Grallon and the city of Is
In ancient times there was a powerful king in Cornwall who was called Grallon. He was a man as fond of good as any son of Adam and who welcomed all people of renown to his court, whether noble or commoner. Unfortunately, his daughter was a princess of disorderly conduct who, to escape his surveillance, had gone to live in Keris, a few leagues from Quimper.
One day when King Grallon was hunting with his retinue in a forest at the foot of Ménéhom, they got lost and all arrived at the hermitage of the solitary Corentin. Grallon had heard of this holy man, and he rejoiced to have been led to his abode; but his servants, who were dying of hunger, looked sadly at the poor little cell of the saint, saying to each other that they ought to have a supper of prayers.
Corentin, enlightened by God, divined their thoughts. He asked the king if he would not accept a collation, and, as Grallon replied that he had eaten nothing since the cockcrow, the saint called the cupbearer and the cook to prepare a good meal after a siege. long abstinence.
He led them both to the fountain placed near his hermitage, filled with water the golden pitcher which the first carried, cut off a piece of the little fish which was swimming in the spring to give it to the second, and recommended to both to set the table for the king and his retinue. But the cupbearer and the cook laughed, and asked him if they took court people for beggars, to dare to offer them his fish bones and his frog wine. Corentin told them not to worry about anything, and that God would provide for everything.
They decided, therefore, to do what he had ordered, and, to their great surprise, the forecasts of the saint came true; for, on one side, the water that had been drawn from the golden pitcher was changed into a wine as sweet as honey and as hot as fire, while, on the other, the little piece of fish multiplied in such a way as to satiate twice as many guests as the king had in his suite.
Grallon was informed of this miracle by his two servants, who showed him, with added wonder, the little fish from which Corentin had cut a part, swimming in the fountain, as healthy and whole as if the saint's knife had never touched it. . At this sight, the King of Cornwall was seized with admiration, and he said to the hermit:
- Man of God! this is not your place; for your master and mine have forbidden to keep the light under a bushel. You are going to leave this hermitage to come to Quimper where I am appointing you bishop; my palace will be your home, and the whole city will be yours. As for your disciples, I will build a monastery for them at Landevenec, and you will appoint the abbot yourself.
The king kept his promise, abandoned his capital to the new bishop and went to live in the city of Is.
This stood on the very spot where you see the Bay of Douarnenez today. It was so large and so beautiful, that to praise the capital of the galots, the men of ancient times found nothing better than to call it Par-is, that is to say the equal of Is. It was built lower than the sea and defended by dykes whose doors were opened at certain times to let the waves in and out.
Princess Dahut, daughter of Grallon, always wore the silver keys of these doors suspended around her neck, which caused the people to call her Princess Alc'huez, or more briefly Ahez. As she was a great magician, she had embellished the city with works that cannot be asked of the hands of men. All the korrigans from Cornouaille and Vannes had come, on his orders, to build the dykes and forge the gates, which were of iron; they had covered the palace with a metal similar to gold (for the korrigans are skilful counterfeiters) and surrounded the gardens with balustrades which shone like polished steel
. They were the ones who looked after the stables of Dahut, paved with black, red or white marble, according to the color of the horses, and who maintained the harbor where the sea dragons were fed; for Dahut had subjugated the monsters of the sea by his art and had given one to each inhabitant of Keris, who used it as a courier to fetch rare goods beyond the waves or to reach the vessels enemies. Also all these bourgeois were so opulent that they measured the grain with silver goblets.
But wealth had made them vicious and harsh: beggars were driven from the city like wild beasts; they only wanted to have gay people everywhere, in good health and dressed in cloth or silk. Christ himself, if he had come in linen, would have been repulsed. The only church there was in the town was so neglected that the beadle had lost the key; nettles grew on the threshold, and swallows nested against the joints of the front door. The inhabitants passed the days and the nights in the inns, the dance halls, the shows, only occupied with losing their soul.
Dahut set the example. It was, day and night, a party in his palace. One saw arriving, from the most distant countries, gentlemen and even princes attracted by the fame of this court. Grallon received them with friendship, and Dahut even better, because, if they were young people of good appearance, she gave them a magic mask with which they could, in the evening, join her secretly in a tower built on the edge of the locks. .
They stayed there with her until the hour when the terns began to pass before the windows of the tower; then the princess very quickly said goodbye to them, and, so that they could leave without being seen, as they had arrived, she gave them the enchanted mask but this time it tightened itself and strangled them!...
A black man then took the dead body, placed it across on his horse, like a sack of grinds, and went to throw it at the bottom of a precipice, between Huelgoat and Poullaouen. This is indeed the truth, because even today, during the dark nights, one hears at the bottom of the ravine, the complaints of their souls. May Christians think of them in their prayers!
Corentin, informed of everything that was happening at Keris, had several times warned Grallon that God's patience was at an end; but the king had lost his power and lived alone in one of the wings of the palace, abandoned by everyone, like a grandfather who gave his inheritance to his children; so Dahut ignored the threats of the saint.
Now, one evening when there was a party at her house, someone came to announce to her a powerful prince, who had come from the ends of the earth to see her. He was a tall man, all dressed in red and so bearded that you could barely see his two eyes, which shone like stars. de Cornouaille could not have invented the like; then he began to speak with such spirit that everyone was amazed.
But what struck Dahut's friends above all was to see how much more skilful the foreigner was than they were in evil. He knew, not only all that human malice has invented since creation, in all the lands inhabited by speaking beings, but all that it will invent until the moment when the dead rise from their graves to be judged! Ahèz and the people of his court recognized that they had found their master, and all resolved to give lessons from the bearded prince.
To begin with, he offered them a new action which was none other than the pass danced in hell by the seven deadly sins. For this, he brought in a ringer whom he had brought with him. He was a little dwarf dressed in a goatskin, and carrying a biniou under his arm, the blowtorch of which served him as a penbaz.
No sooner had it begun to ring than Dahut and his people were seized with a sort of frenzy and began to spin like whirlwinds of the sea. The stranger took advantage of this to take the silver keys of the locks and to escape from the party.
Meanwhile Grallon was alone in his secluded palace; he was standing in a large dark room, and he was sitting on the hearth, near an extinguished fire. He felt sadness sink in his heart, when suddenly the door opened on both sides, and Saint Corentin appeared on the threshold with a circle of fire around his forehead, the bishop's crosier in his hand and walking in a cloud of perfume.
“Rise, great king,” he said to Grallon; take what precious remains to you here and flee, for God has delivered this accursed city to the devil.
Grallon, frightened, immediately got up, called some old servants, and, after taking his treasure, he mounted his black horse and went after the saint who glided through the air like a feather.
As they passed the dike, he heard a great roaring of the waves and saw the bearded stranger, who had resumed his demon form, busy opening all the locks with the silver keys taken from Dahut. The sea was already descending on the cascading city, and you could see the waves raising their white heads above the roofs, as if they were mounting an assault. The dragoons, chained in the port, roared with terror; for animals also feel death coming.
Grallon wanted to utter a cry of warning; but Corentin told him to flee, and he galloped off towards the shore. His horse thus crossed the streets, the squares, the crossroads, pursued by the waves and always with his hind feet in the wave. He was passing Dahut's palace when the latter appeared on the steps, her hair disheveled like a widow, and rushed after her father. The horse suddenly stopped, gave way, and the water rose up to the king's knees.
"To me, Saint Corentin!" he cried in horror.
– Shake off the sin that you carry behind you, answered the saint, and, by the help of God, you will be saved.
But Grallon, who despite everything was a father, did not know what to do. Then Corentin touched the shoulder of the princess with his bishop's crozier, who slid into the sea and disappeared into the bottom of the abyss, since called the abyss of Ahez.
The horse, thus freed from its burden, rushed forward and reached the rock of Garrec, where the mark of one of its irons can still be seen. The king first fell on his knees to thank heaven, then turned to Keris, in order to judge the danger he had miraculously escaped; but he searched in vain for the former queen of the seas.
Where there were, a few. moments before, a port, palaces, so much wealth and thousands of men, one could only see a deep bay which reflected the stars; while on the horizon, standing on the last debris of the submerged dykes, the red man showed the silver keys with a gesture of triumph.
Several forests of oaks have had time to be born and to die since the day when this example occurred; but fathers have told it to children from age to age down to our time. Before the great revolution, the clergy of the riverside parishes embarked, every year, in fishing boats, and went to say mass over the drowned town.
Since then, this custom has been lost with many others; but when the sea is calm, you can still see the remains of the great city at the bottom of the bay, and the surrounding dunes are full of ruins which prove its wealth.
