Marv Pontkalleg

XLVI in Barzaz Breiz, a book of traditional Breton songs collected in Cornouaille, Brittany, in the 19th century by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué.

[1] "Marv Pontkalleg" is one of the classics of Breton music, and has been recorded many times by, among others, Gilles Servat, Tri Yann, Alan Stivell, Andrea Ar Gouilh and Jacques Pellen.

This gwerz tells the story of the Marquis de Pontcallec (1679–1720), beheaded on the Place du Bouffay [fr] in Nantes in 1720 as the leader of a Breton conspiracy against France.

However, its similarities with other Breton ballads on the same subject (29 were counted in 2008) together with the publication of La Villemarqué's notebooks have made it clear that large parts of the gwerz, at any rate, are authentic.

[2] The notes with which his edition is furnished interpret the Pontcallec conspiracy as a nationalist rising by the heroic nobility and peasantry intended to achieve Breton independence.