manly
sport stood him in good stead when he came to employ it against the
enemies of his country, the hated Northmen. Rallying the Bretons who
lurked in the forests or hid in the mountain fastnesses, he led them
against the enemy, whom he surprised near Dol in the middle of the
night, making a great carnage among them. After this battle the
Scandinavian invaders were finally expelled from the Breton land and
Alain was crowned King or Arch-chief in 937.

A free translation of this ballad might run as follows:

Lurks the Fox within the wood,
His teeth and claws are red with blood.

Within his leafy, dark retreat
He chews the cud of vengeance sweet.

Oh, trenchant his avenging sword!
It falls not on the rock or sward,

But on the mail of Saxon foe:
Swift as the lightning falls the blow.

I've seen the Bretons wield the flail,
Scattering the bearded chaff like hail:

But iron is the flail they wield
Against the churlish Saxon's shield.

I heard the call of victory
From Michael's Mount to Elorn fly,

And Alain's glory flies as fast
From Gildas' church to every coast.

Ah, may his splendour never die,
May it live on eternally!

But woe that I may nevermore
Declaim this lay on Armor's shore,

For the base Saxon hand has torn
My tongue from out my mouth forlorn.

But if my lips no longer frame
The glories of our Alain's name,

My heart shall ever sing his praise,
Who won the fight and wears the bays![4]

The Saxons of this lay are, of course, the Norsemen, who, speaking a
Teutonic tongue, would seem to the Celtic-speaking Bretons to be
allied to the Teuton Franks.

_Bretons and Normans_

During the latter half of the tenth and most of the eleventh century
the Counts of Rennes gained an almost complete ascendancy in Brittany,
which began to be broken up into counties and seigneuries in the
French manner. In 992 Geoffrey, son of Conan, Count of Rennes, adopted
the title of Duke of Brittany. He married a Norman lady of noble
family, by whom he had two sons, Alain and Eudo, the younger of whom
demanded a share of the duchy as his inheritance. His brother made
over to him the counties of Penthievre and Treguier, part of the old
kingdom of Domnonia in the north. It was a fatal transference, for he
and his line became remorseless enemies of the ducal house, with whom
they carried on a series of disastrous conflicts for centuries. Conan
II, son of Alai