Marie-Morgane, daughter of the sea
After the fall of Ys, Dahut did not die. According to tradition she became Marie-Morgane, the mermaid of the bay of Douarnenez, and was heard singing by sailors into the nineteenth century. Here is the story of one of those sailors.
1 The song
Yvon Le Coz, sailor on the Marie-Jeanne of Douarnenez, was sailing on a calm night in June 1838. Off the Ile-Tristan he heard a song that came from no boat. He looked to starboard. On a low rock, three metres above the water, sat a woman with black hair down to her feet. She was singing, and the song was neither in Breton nor in French.
2 Yvon’s question
Yvon knew what they say: do not answer, do not approach, do not look in the eyes. He did otherwise. He said, without crying out, in Breton: «Are you Dahut?» The woman fell silent. She looked at Yvon. She nodded.
Yvon said: «Have you been forgiven?» She answered: «Not yet.» Yvon said: «What is needed for that?» She said: «That someone recognise me without fear. You have done it. It is the beginning.»
3 The return
Yvon came back to port. He told his wife. His wife said: «Tell no one else.» Yvon told no one for forty years. On his deathbed in 1879 he told his son. The son told his daughter, who told the folklorist Anatole Le Braz around 1900.
Marie-Morgane, in Yvon’s version, no longer sings to lure sailors. She sings to be recognised. The sailor who recognises her without fear may pass on. She does not attack him. She counts the forgivenesses. The legend does not say how many are needed.
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