François-Joseph-Claude Jaffrennou (15 March 1879 - 23 March 1956) was aBreton language writer and editor. He was aBreton nationalist and aneo-druid bard. He is also known asFrançois Taldir-Jaffrennou, since he also used the bardic nameTaldir ("Wall of Steel"). He was one of the pioneers of the Breton autonomist movement.
He was born inCarnoët, the son of a notary. His mother, Anna Ropars, was fromBolazec. He went on to study law.
In August 1898, in Morlaix theBreton Regionalist Union was founded byRégis de l'Estourbeillon under the chairmanship ofAnatole le Braz. Jaffrennou became secretary of the section dedicated to Breton language and literature. Between 1898 and 1899, he worked at Morlaix for the newspaperLa Resistance, publishing a page about Breton literature.
On 18 July 1899, Jaffrennou visited theEisteddfod in Cardiff with twenty one other Bretons. He was received at Gorsedd under the nameTaldir ab Hernin. At this time he translated the Welsh national anthemLand of my Fathers into Breton asBro Gozh ma Zadoù, which became the national anthem of Brittany. This hymn is now recognized and accepted by all political and cultural groups in Brittany. It was originally published in 1898 inLa Résistance.
In October 1899, he moved toRennes. There he met the editor ofL’Ouest-Éclair, then in its infancy, in which he went on to publish two columns in Breton. Some time later, he founded the Federation of Breton Students. He completed his military service in Guingamp with the Dispensés platoon.
In 1901, withJean Le Fustec, he created theGorsedd of Brittany on the model of the Welsh Gorsedd. Having finished his law degree, he worked with his father to further his legal studies. He became acquainted with the printer Alexandre Le Goaziou and with him createdAr Vro (The Nation) whose first issue appeared on 1 March 1904. They then decided to unite to create a printshop in Carhaix. It publishedAr vro and a bilingual newspaperAr Bobl (The People), which appeared up to 1914. In 1913, he earned his doctorate from theUniversity of Rennes for a thesis he wrote in Breton on the Breton language writerProsper Proux.
He fought for France during theFirst World War. When he returned to Carhaix, he sold his share of the press.
He continued to be active in the Breton Regionalist Federation, and participated in the journalLa Bretagne libertaire in 1923. In 1926 he createdAn Oaled, a quarterly newsletter promoting regionalism and bardism in French and Breton. He continued to publish this until his death in 1956. He also wrote numerous articles, plays and books, includingBuhez Sant Erwan,An Hirvoudou (1899),An Delen Dir (1900),Breiziz (1911).
Throughout the 1930s, he was in open conflict with the extremist wing of the Breton nationalists within theBreton National Party headed byOlier Mordrel andFrançois Debeauvais. The disputes were over the issue of the Breton flagGwenn-ha-Du,Breton orthography and, most importantly, the issue of political independence from theThird French Republic.
These topics were the subject of a long controversy and numerous articles published in his journalAn Oaled in which Jaffennou set himself against the BNP, which retaliated by attacking his regionalist ideology and his links to the French political elite.
At this period he also became Grand Druid of theGorsedd of Brittany, being appointed in 1933 and retaining the office until 1955.
Jaffrennou's views before the outbreak of war were anti-German and pro-British:
In 1939, he ceased publication ofAn Oaled. After theFall of France Mordrel and Debeauvais set up the pro-German nationalist journall'Heure Bretonne. On 29 September 1940,l'Heure Bretonne published an article under the title:Taldir veut écarteler la Bretagne (Taldir wants to dismember Brittany), which attacked plans to create the truncatedRegion of Brittany:
Taldir-Jaffrennou just submitted a report which is a real killer of Brittany. This report contains as its main feature the cutting of Brittany into three parts: The Ille-et-Vilaine is attached to the English Channel to form an economic region. The Loire-Inférieure is part of the Vendee for the same reason. The three departments, Finistere, Cotes-du-Nord and Morbihan, are intended to form a "cultural whole." Pierre Laval has found this "very intelligent". Well, we will not work with this; we will not let them fleece Brittany. Stop! Brittany is one nation with five departments. It is under this unit that its fate should be considered. We will publish in our next issue the protests of our committees and our readers of the Loire-Inférieure and the ille-et-Vilaine. Already, we take a stand against Taldir-Jaffrennou's monstrous project, which singularly corroborates all the evidence that we have from Vichy.
He signed an agreement with MarshalPhilippe Pétain in December 1940 and participated in the Breton Advisory Committee (1942), seeking to promote Breton political, economic and cultural rights in the difficult war years.
In 1941 on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of theBreton Nationalist Party, Mordrel and Debeauvais organised a heartfelt tribute toCamille Le Mercier d'Erm, who founded the party in 1911. At this point, Jaffrennou abandoned his previous moderate regionalist position, which he declared "obsolete and outdated", and now advocated complete independence for Brittany. Rejecting his earlier decision to cease publishing during the war, he now wrote forL'Heure Bretonne and completely broke with his past views.
On 7 August 1944, Jaffrennou was arrested by members of the French resistance on charges of having served the enemy and supported Pétain. He was also accused of wanting to make Brittany an independent country within a Nazi dominated Europe. He was acquitted and released. On 10 August 1944, he was arrested again. After a brief incarceration at the Chateau Lancien inCarhaix, he was taken to the St Charles prison inQuimper. In early June 1945, he was transferred to Mesgloaguen, another prison. He was charged with acts which might harm the national defense, association with the Germans and denunciation of patriots. He was put on trial before the Court of Justice.
After the Liberation, the French police found a list of denunciations that had been sent to the Germans. None were written by Jaffrennou. However, M. Baudet-Germain, a Vichy official, (Secretary General of the Prefecture Regional Rennes), said he had received a letter from Jaffrennou denouncing the Resistance leaderAdolphe Le Goaziou. Baudet-Germain affirmed he had copied the original before burning it. Requested to produce his copy of the original denunciation M. Baudet-Germain said he had destroyed his copies as well. There was no physical evidence against Jaffrennou. However the testimony was sufficient to convict Jaffrennou to 5 years imprisonment, confiscation of a quarter of his property and national indignity.
Le Goaziou, who had been made President of the Finistère Departmental Liberation Committee, said he has always maintained a good relationship with Jaffrennou, never doubted his sincerity, and shared his regionalist political beliefs, but he regretted that he had sullied his reputation by dealing with Vichy. He said that he had been arrested before the date of the alleged denunciation, a conclusion supported by the report of the inspectors dated 5 December 1943 and sent to the Commissioner of Police Nationale de Quimper.
It is also believed that the famous Austrian Jewish writerLeo Perutz, a member of the Gorsedd of Brittany, wrote two letters, one addressed to the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Rennes on 16 July 1945, (No. 430) the other to GeneralCharles de Gaulle, (No. 431) ofTel Aviv (Israel), on 1 October 1945, to defend Jaffrennou. As a result of international interventions in particular from Great Britain andIsrael, Jaffrennou was pardoned, initially in 1945 and then definitively in 1946 byGeorges Bidault, President of the Council of Ministers.
Released in 1946 he never returned to Brittany. In 1947 he resumed the leadership of the Gorsedd. He retired toLe Mans and then to Bergerac, where he died on 23 March 1956. He is buried inCarhaix.
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