he sentinel, in a spirit of petty
spite.

When the unhappy warrior heard these words he never spoke more.

That night his mother arrived at the town where he had been
imprisoned. She asked of the people: "Why do the bells sound?"

"Alas! lady," said an ancient man, "a noble prisoner who lay in yonder
tower died this night."

With bent head the lady walked to the tower, her white hair falling
upon her folded arms. When she arrived at its foot she said to the
guard: "Open the door quickly; I have come to see my son."

And when the great door was opened she threw herself upon the corpse
of Bran and breathed her last.

* * * * *

On the battlefield of Kerlouan there is an oak which overshadows the
shore and which marks the place where the Norsemen fled before the
face of Even the Great. On this oak, whose leaves shine in the moon,
the birds gather each night, the birds of the sea and the land, both
of white and black feather. Among them is an old grey rook and a young
crow. The birds sing such a beautiful song that the great sea keeps
silence to hear it. All of them sing except the rook and the crow. Now
the crow says: "Sing, little birds, sing; sing, little birds of the
land, for when you die you will at least end your days in Brittany."

The crow is of course Bran in disguise, for the name Bran means 'crow'
in the Breton tongue, and the rook is possibly his mother. In the most
ancient Breton traditions the dead are represented as returning to
earth in the form of birds. A number of the incidents in this piece
are paralleled in the poem of _Sir Tristrem_, which also introduces a
messenger who disguises himself for the purpose of travelling more
safely in a foreign country, a ring of gold, which is used to show the
messenger's _bona-fides_, a perfidious gaoler, and the idea of the
black or white sail. The original poem of _Sir Tristrem_ was probably
composed about the twelfth or thirteenth century, and it would seem
that the above incidents at least have a Breton source behind them. A
mother, however, has been substituted for a lover, and the ancient
Breton dame takes the place of Ysonde. There is, indeed, little
difference between the passage which relates the arrival of the mother
in the Norsemen's country and that of Ysonde in Brittany when she
sails on her last voyage with the intention of succouring Tristrem.
Ysonde also asks the people of the place why the bells are ringing,
on