Bretons *

The Bretons are a cultural grouping located in Brittany in northwest France, where the most outstanding megalithic monuments of Europe are situated. Today, the Bretons consider themselves a separate Celtic people, with a strong nationalist movement^(c).

It was in 1839 that the Rev. Algernon Herbert (1792-1855), Dean of Merton College, Oxford, was the first to use the term ‘megalithic’ in a paper describing the monuments of England and Brittany.

Since the middle of the 19^th century a number of commentators right up to the present have labelled the Bretons as Atlantean. These include R. Cedric Leonard^(a), who In support of this idea cites both Stephen Oppenheimer and Herodotus, although he does so some reservations. Hank Harrison wrote Finding Atlantis in which, he supported the idea of a megalithic Atlantis with its centre of power probably located in the Morbihan area of Brittany.

In the 19th century, Ignatius Donnelly quoted Eugene Bodichon as expressing a similar view^[021.389]. Bodichon’s opinion is simply based on the temperament and physical similarities between the Bretons and the Berbers of North Africa. Similarly, Gerry Forster refers to Bodichon’s opinion in his The Lost Continent Rediscovered^(b). I do not think that the case is proven, even if the legendary kingdom of Ys, reputedly off the Brittany coast, is brought into the debate.

^(a) See:  https://web.archive.org/web/20170113172907/https://www.atlantisquest.com/Bretons.html

^(b) Gerry Forster (archive.org) *

^(c) https://ansionnachfionn.com/2011/08/18/at-home-amongst-the-bretons/