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Paper short abstract

Oral traditions in the Breton language (Western France) rarely mention extreme weather events. The references to the 'Great Winter of 1709' are an exception. This case invites us to analyse the unequal contribution of different folk genres to the study of climate narratives in the past.

Paper long abstract

Western Brittany – a region of Celtic culture and language in Western France – is known for its rich repertoire of oral traditions in the Breton language. Such folk narratives evoke a very large variety of themes related to everyday life. However, tales, legends or songs rarely mention climatic and weather events, excepted in the case of storms in the numerous folk narratives related to shipwrecks. Nevertheless, one unexpected event made such a lasting impression that it locally left a mark in oral memory: the ‘Great Winter of 1709’, an exceptionally cold winter that affected much of Europe and caused significant excess mortality. On a methodological level, a comparison of the different types of folk narratives collected in Brittany during ethnographic surveys since the nineteenth century invites us to analyse the unequal quality of the memory of such a traumatic event according to folk genres. Only ballads recorded from oral tradition until the end of the twentieth century preserve precise historical elements unquestionably related to the ‘Great Winter of 1709’. The climatic situation is not the main topic but it is essential to understand the tragic story related in the song, and it explains why several verses are dedicated to a climatic description. The different known versions of this folk narrative can be compared with other written documents related to the same context and confirming the link with 1709. They therefore form an original and little-known complementary source for further ethnohistorical studies on this extreme climatic episode.