Morvarc'h

Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué mentions a "sea horse" (morvarc'h) in the Barzaz Breiz (1840). This horse is a warrior symbol, as evidenced by the bard Gwenc'hlan in his prophecy likening it to the king:[5]

Gradlon on his horse, after an illustration of the story "Keris" by Émile Souvestre (1844).

Morvarc'h also figures in recent versions of the legend of the city of Ys, featuring King Gradlon, his wife Queen Malgven, their daughter Dahut and the evangelist Saint Guénolé, who is trying to persuade Gradlon to put an end to the pagan machinations of his daughter.

There is a possible mention of Morvar'ch, not named, in a poem which Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué presents as dating from the 13th century. Without having a specific name, the mount of King Grallon loses its master during an attempt to escape by swimming; the master drowns, and the horse runs wild:[8]

His destrier, when he escaped him from the perilous river, grieved greatly for his master's loss. He sought again the mighty forest, yet never was at rest by night or day. No peace might he find but ever pawed he with his hoofs upon the ground, and neighed so loudly that the noise went through all the country round about.
The Lay of Graelent, translated by Eugene Mason[9]

This poem, presented by La Villemarqué as a medieval lai by Marie de France, is better categorized as an Arthurian tale of courtly love.[8]

Contrary to popular belief, our detailed picture of Morvarc'h (here named "Morvark") comes mostly from a modern reworking of the legend, written by Charles Guyot in 1926, which is clearly influenced by the Romantics of 19th century. The legend is not fixed, and many hagiographized and folklorized versions circulate. According to the Celticists Françoise Le Roux and Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h this constitutes a "catastrophe for legend" and seriously complicates the search for elements deriving from Celtic sources.[10] Indeed, according to Thierry Jigourel, this horse is an invention of Charles Guyot.[11][Note 1]

In the version of Guyot's The Legend of the City of Ys published in 1926 by H. Piazza, this horse is "a supernatural mount worthy of a god, born of a siren and an undine, offered by the genii of the sea to King Harold, ageing husband of Malgven". However, only Queen Malgven can tame it.[12] It is described as black, crosses the ramparts without reins or bridle "as easily as the hedge of an orchard", and "flies over the frothy sea".[13] Malgven calls him the "horse of the night".[14]

During a war expedition, King Gradlon of Cornouaille is abandoned by his army, while he besieges a fortress built by the side of a fjord. Left alone and pacing the foot of the ramparts to find a way to enter, one evening he meets a woman who seems to wait for him. This is Malgven, the queen of the "North", who tells him that she has observed him since the beginning of the siege and that she loves him.[Note 2] She enables him to enter the citadel and leads him to the royal chamber where her husband sleeps. Gradlon kills him and seizes the treasure. To return to Cornouaille he mounts an enchanted horse, Morvark, who can run on the ocean, and rides him with Malgven. At the end of a day's ride, the lovers join the Breton fleet. A year elapses before they return to Brittany, then Malgven dies giving birth to a girl, Dahud. On the death of his mistress, Morvark emits a whinny "as mournful as a human sob" and begins to weep.[15]

After Malgven's death it is King Gradlon who rides him, while his daughter Dahut has a "flame-coloured hackney".[16] The horse reappears during the flooding of the city:[17] "Morvark, the gallant steed, swam tirelessly shoreward; through flooded crossroads, through streets in torrents, he galloped, lighter than air ".[18] Gradlon carries his daughter on Morvarc'h, but:

Barely does he stay on the horse, the latter bends as if three heavily armed men were riding it; then the ocean reaches it, embraces it, suddenly reaches as far as its hocks; and Gradlon feels his knees cold, his fingers grasping Morvark's mane. The noble animal strikes the sea with its powerful hooves; his chest boldly divides the swell, like the bow of a ship under the steady pull of the oars; it neighs with pride and rage, and raising its double burden, shakes its wet mane. Meanwhile the water licks its sweating flanks, penetrates into its smoking nostrils; it engulfs the riders to the waist.[19]

When Morvark is about to sink into the waves, Guénolé touches Dahut's shoulder with the tip of his staff and drops it into the water, allowing Morvark to rise to the surface.[20]

In a tale collected in the valley of the Aulne by Yann ar Floc'h in 1905,[21][22] Morvarc'h is also the name of the fabulous horse that belongs to another king, Marc'h de Poulmarc'h[23] (or Portzmarc'h, Plomarc'h), near Douarnenez. Passionate about hunting, the king fails to catch a doe on his fabulous horse. Only on the edge of the cliff, near where Ys was sunk, is he facing her. He aims his bow and shoots an arrow that magically turns around and kills his horse.[24] He rushes to the doe to finish it with his dagger, but she has disappeared and in her place is a beautiful girl. It is Dahud (Ahès), the daughter of Gradlon and Malgven. Before returning to the sea, she affixes horse's ears to Marc'h.[25] He tries to hide this, and in the process he kills all the barbers of the kingdom who discover his secret until there remains only one, whom he tells to say nothing, under pain of death. The barber cannot hold his peace any longer, and divulges to a handful of reeds that "King Marc'h has the ears of the horse Morvarc'h". The reeds are harvested and bagpipes are made from them, but in a burst of music the bagpipes reveal the king's secret, making the whole kingdom of Brittany aware.[26]

Yann Brékilien adds that this horse is "silver shoed", and runs so lightly "that his feet do not leave marks on the moor".[27]