Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots: The Historical Importance of Brittany by Jennifer Ivy Walker

The Historical Importance of Brittany
By Jennifer Ivy Walker

La Bretagne (Brittany)-- the peninsula in northwestern France whose coastline borders the English Channel to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west-- is known for the many myths and legends of the Celtic people who once inhabited the region long before Julius Caesar and his Roman legions conquered Gaul in the first century BC.

Among the Celts of la Bretagne, men trained to become Druid priests or savage warriors (les guerriers), and women were often guérisseuses celtiques-- gifted healers whose natural remedies included herbs of the forest, healing crystals, and curative waters of Brittany’s sacred springs. There are many legends of mythical creatures in Brittany, including the famed fairies Morgane la Fée and the Lady of the Lake Viviane, in Arthurian tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande. My trilogy, The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven, is a fantasy retelling of the Celtic medieval legend of Tristan et Yseult, interwoven with Arthurian myth.

During the Second World War, Brittany was part of Hitler’s 2000 mile long Atlantic Wall, which extended from the southern coast of France all the way up the northern coast of Norway. Many Breton seaports were considered crucial in defending the German occupied territories against the anticipated Allied invasion. One of those key ports was the medieval walled city of Saint-Malo, on la Côte d’ Émeraude (the Emerald Coast), at the border between Brittany and Normandy. The Battle of Saint-Malo, which was fought between the fourth of August and the second of September 1944, is the culminating point of my novel, The Witch of the Breton Woods.

After the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allied Forces succeeded in retaking the Cotentin peninsula from the Germans, and moved west for the Battle of Brittany. The French Resistance was crucial in the Allies’ liberation of France. The Witch of the Breton Woods features a fictional band of Resistance members known as Les Loups (The Wolves), with a nod to the Celtic myths and Arthurian legends from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande.

The Witch of the Breton Woods
By Jennifer Ivy Walker

Publication Date: 10th July 2024

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Page Length: 163 Pages

Genre: Historical Romance

Traumatized by horrors witnessed during the Nazi invasion of France, a young woman retreats to the dense Breton woods where she becomes a member of the clandestine French Resistance. When she finds a critically injured American paratrooper whose plane was shot down, she shelters the wounded soldier in her secluded cottage, determined to heal him despite the enormous risk.

Ostracized by villagers who have labeled her a witch, she is betrayed by an informant who reports to the Butcher—the monstrous leader of the local paramilitary organization that collaborates with the Germans. As the enemy closes in, she must elude the Gestapo while helping the Resistance reunite the American with his regiment and join the Allied Forces in the Battle of Brittany.

Can true love triumph against all odds under the oppressive Third Reich?

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Jennifer Ivy Walker

Jennifer Ivy Walker has an MA in French literature and is a former high school teacher and professor of French at a state college in Florida. Her novels encompass a love for French language, literature, history, and culture, incorporating her lifelong study, summers abroad, and many trips to France.

The Witch of the Breton Woods is heart-pounding suspense set during WWII in Nazi-occupied France, where a young woman in the French Resistance shelters and heals a wounded American soldier, hiding him from the Gestapo and the monstrous Butcher who are relentlessly hunting him.

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