Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery.

Brocéliande first appeared in literature in Wace's 1160 chronicle Roman de Rou that reported on the fanciful tales surrounding its location in Brittany.

[1] In chivalric romance lore, the forest sheltered Morgan's magical Vale of No Return, the faery fountain of Barenton, and the place of Merlin's retirement, imprisonment, or death.

[3] The later form of Brocéliande could be derived from bro (meaning country in Breton, Cornish and Welsh), but this variant does not appear until the 12th century, in the work of Chrétien de Troyes.

[5] Wace gives the name of the fountain of Barenton ("La fontaine de Berenton/sort d'une part lez le perron...") and describes how hunters scoop water from it and wet a stone in order to summon rain; he also mentions rumors of fairies and magic.

Its unusual weather alone is noted in a handful of texts: Giraldus Cambrensis's c. 1185 expeditionary account, Topographia Hibernica, Alexandre Neckham's c. 1195 work on nautical science, De naturis rerum, and William the Breton's c. 1215 poem, Philippide.

Young argues that Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier au lion is derived from earlier tales which have their origins in the post-Roman Brythonic kingdoms beyond Hadrian's Wall in Britain, and suggests that there is a strong case for equating Broceliande with the forest of Celython, also known as the Great Wood of Caledon.