Koadalan

Koadalan [Bret, koad, wood; alan, male Christian name; cf. W Coed-Alun, wood-Allen]. Title and hero of an episodic Breton folk-tale of magical transformation and denied immortality; the action is so complex that some modern commentators have titled it ‘The Saga of Koadalan’. Although collected from oral tradition in the 19th century, the narrative shows correlatives from medieval Welsh literature.

Knowing that his poor parents could not keep him, Yves Koadalan set out at 16 to seek his fortune. When a nobleman refuses to employ him because he admits he can read, Koadalan disguises himself by turning his coat inside out and applies again, this time claiming he cannot read. The noble takes the boy along and soon they are both ascending into the air, alighting near a beautiful castle, when Koadalan sees written on a leaf: ‘He who enters here will never leave’. Despite his apprehension, the boy sleeps in a feather bed and is provided a serviette that gives all the food and drink he asks. He is also given three instructions: (a) always to keep a hot fire under the pot; (b) to beat a thin mare with a holly stick; (c) never to open two doors in the castle. When Koadalan builds the fire under the pot, he is unconcerned at the apparent sighings and moanings of people in pain, but when he beats the mare, named Teressa, she begs his mercy. Koadalan spares her, and she rewards him by instructing him to go through the two forbidden doors where he would find three marvellous, red books that will allow him to become the greatest magician in the world. The boy follows her advice and is stunned by the secrets in the books. She also tells him to wash his hair in the courtyard spring, thus turning himself into a golden-haired prince. As Koadalan and Teressa are escaping from the castle, they are pursued by the mysterious noble man, now disguised as a black dog, who vows to retrieve the magical books and bites into the mare's flesh. Wounded and tired, Teressa asks Koadalan to kill her and open her belly. Reluctantly he does, thus bringing forth a beautiful princess, the daughter of the King of Naples. But lovely as Teresa now is, she says that there is someone even more beautiful, the Princess of Spain, whom Koadalan will marry. Meanwhile, she promises to aid him whenever he calls her name three times.

Koadalan then departs for Spain, dressed as a prince. Upon his arrival he receives a warm welcome, as the king thinks he is his nephew, son of the king of France, whose looks and manners Koadalan has taken. The king denies having a daughter, but Koadalan learns that she is being kept in a tower. Through his magic from the three red books, Koadalan learns how to enter the tower, where he gets the princess with child. The king is surprised that his protected daughter could be pregnant, but when he learns that Koadalan is the father he allows the marriage; he then dies and Koadalan succeeds him on the throne.

But Koadalan soon tires of ruling, so he, his wife, and their child take a magical journey on the back of an eagle, passing the castle of the great magician Foulkes (or Foukes). The older man had also desired the Princess of Spain and is jealous of Koadalan's having won her. Foulkes lures the three inside and, while they are sleeping, steals the three magical books and drops Koadalan down a deep well, where he lands in a forest. Recognizing the place where he had said good-bye to Teresa, Koadalan calls out three times to his faithful friend, who returns his three magical books and takes him and his family back to the poor country where he was born. No one in the town recognizes the handsome prince and his family, not even Koadalan's father and mother, now very old and still poor. The son builds his parents a magnificent castle, but they stay in their thatched cottage.

One day Koadalan urges his father to attend the fair at Lannion. When the father complains he has nothing to sell, Koadalan says he will find an excellent steer in his barn, but, no matter what price offered, he should never sell the rope holding it. The father asks an exorbitant price for the steer at the fair, which is met by three devils disguised as dealers. When the father refuses to sell the rope, the buyers ride the steer, which is transformed into a dog and finally into Koadalan himself, thus thwarting the devils. Again Koadalan asks his father to attend a fair, this time at Morlaix, to sell a horse but not the bridle.

Again the father asks an exorbitant price, which is met by three buyers. This time the father gets drunk after the sale and forgets to keep the bridle, and so the three devils are able to ride him. Koadalan seeks to escape them by becoming successively aneel, a dove, and a golden ring; to pursue him the three devils assume the form of three great fish, three sparrowhawks, and three musicians. Finding himself on the finger of a maidservant, Koadalan as a golden ring asks to be thrown into a fire. The three musician-devils follow him, being consumed in the flames.

Returning to his home, Koadalan finds that his father has died, and his wife and son soon follow him. Although he is alone, Koadalan can fulfil all his wishes by reading his three red books. But he cannot avoid death. When he sees that the end is near, he devises a plan which might save him. He asks to be chopped up like sausage-meat and to be placed in an earthenware pot and buried under hot manure. A nursing mother is asked to sprinkle her milk upon him twice a day for six months; if this ritual is followed rigorously he will be restored. The nursing mother comes each day, but three days before the time is up she falls asleep, and Koadalan cannot be restored.

Modern commentators assert that the mare Teresa is an equivalent of Rhiannon, and that Koadalan's escape from the three devils parallels the transformations of Ceridwen and Taliesin. F. M. Luzel, ‘Koadalan’, Revue Celtique, 1 (1870–1), 106–31; trans. Derek Bryce, Celtic Folk-Tales from Armorica (Llanerch, UK, 1985), 70–84. See also Jean Markale, La Tradition celtique en Bretagne armoricaine (Paris, 1984).