Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec

Archdruid Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec 2007

Loïc Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec (November 11, 1929, Plouescat, Finistère – February 6, 2008) was a Breton writer and Grand Druid of Brittany.

Gwenc’hlan was born in Brittany. His father was Maurice Le Scouëzec, a painter. Gwenc’hlan spent most of his childhood in Madagascar, Paris, Landivisiau and Douarnenez, before doing his secondary studies in Saint-Vincent de Pont-Croix, Saint-Yves de Quimper and Saint-Grégoire de Tours, in 1942. There, he took part in the Breton Scouts movement Bleimor. He followed higher studies in history at La Sorbonne in Paris.

He did military service between 1951 and 1953 in the French Foreign Legion at Sidi-bel-Abbès and Daya in Algeria. He was recalled to the French Foreign Legion at the 5th Foreign Regiment of 1957–1958.

He was a teacher of French in Crete and Athens from 1953 until 1957. After his military service, he became a professor at the French Institute of Athens, once back in France in Saint-Didier-en-Velay and in Versailles.

As of 1960, he started to study medicine, and completed this with distinction in the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. He became a doctor at Quimper (from 1969 until 1985. He also initiated Skoazell Vreizh, the Breton emergency service, together with Xavier Grall and Yann Choucq in the 1970s. He was a participant of the "colloque Bretagne" and self-government, in 1973. He wrote the preface in Morvan Lebesque's book: "peut-on être breton ? Essai sur la démocratie française" (Can we be Breton? An essay about French democracy). in 1985, he founded the publishing business Beltan. He promoted the work of his father, the painter Maurice Le Scouëzec.

Neo-Druidism

He became Deputy Grand Druid within the"Poellgor" (executive committee of the Gorsedd) on April 1, 1979, and then he became the Grand Druid of Brittany, succeeding Per Loisel on November 1, 1980. The association Goursez Vreizh (Gorsedd of Brittany) also known as " Breudeuriezh Drouized, Barzhed hag Ovizion Breizh" in Breton or "Fraternité des druides, bardes et ovates de Bretagne" in French(Fraternity of the Druids, Bards and Ovates of Brittany), represents Neo-druidism most regularly.

Gwenc’hlan is the fifth Grand Druid of our time, according to the Gorsedd de Bretagne. In November 1993, he united a group of freemasons, forming "loge maçonnique de la pierre pour ensuite y instaurer le rite maçonnique forestier" (a freemason lodge of the stone, to preserve the masonic forest rites).

Bibliography

• L’Encyclopédie de la divination (edited by René Alleau). Tchou, 1963.
• Guide de la Bretagne mystérieuse (1966, re-released under the title Le Guide de la Bretagne). Tchou, 1966.
• La Bretagne (Brittany). Sun, 1967.
• Histoire du Mouvement breton, Que sais-je?. 1971
• Bretagne terre sacrée (Brittany: Sacred Land) 1977
• La Médecine en Gaule (Medicine in Gaule) Guipavas, Ed. Kelenn. 1976
• Brasparts: une paroisse des monts d’Arrée. Le Seuil, 1980.
• Le peintre Le Scouëzec, Brasparts, Alrea, 1984.
• Maurice Le Scouëzec, L’aventure de peindre, Brasparts, Beltan, 1993.
• Le peintre Le Scouëzec, mon père, Brasparts, Beltan, 1995.
• Le Scouëzec, 1881–1940: Montparnasse, la Bretagne, l'Afrique. Cénomane, 1998.
• Dictionnaire de la Tradition Bretonne, Paris, Editions du Félin, Philippe Lebaud, 1999.
• Guide des calvaires bretons, Spezet, Coop Breizh, 1999.
• Itinéraire spirituel en Bretagne, Paris, La Table Ronde, 2000.
• La tradition des druides, trois tomes, Beltan, 2001.
• Le grand druide était innocent. Editions Beltan. (François Taldir-Jaffrenou)
• Arthur, roi des bretons d'Armorique, Le Manoir du Tertre.

In collaboration with Jean-Robert Masson

• Pierres sacrées de Bretagne : calvaires et enclos paroissiaux (1982)
• Pierres sacrées de Bretagne: croix et sanctuaires (1983)
• Bretagne mégalithique (1987)
• Enez Eusa, Ouessant mystérieux (avec Maï-Sous Robert-Dantec). Quimper : Élisart Éditeur, 2001.
• Entretiens avec un druide nommé Gwenc'hlan (de Régis Blanchet aux Editions Du Prieuré) (1993).