Guénolé

Guénolé was a priest or monk who founded the monastery at Landevennec in Brittany. In one story, he was a knight. Sometimes he appeared as a friend of the Armorician king, Gradlon, but in one tale, he condemned Gradlon for his sin as well as Gradlon's daughter and the inhabitants of Ys.

Guénolé tried to warn Gradlon and the people of Ys that their extravagance and revelries would bring destruction on the wicked city from God. He acted like the ancient prophet Jeremiah, who tried to warn the Jews of not heeding his prophecy.

Most of his denunciations were against Gradlon's daughter Dahut, because she was the one who led her father's people to pagan belief and rituals, drunken revelries and debauchery. When Dahut released the floodgates of the dikes, her father tried to save her. The king and daughter would have both perished, because the king's horse Morvarc'h couldn't carry them both to safety. So when Guénolé urged the king to throw off his "demon passenger", Gradlon reluctantly pushed his own daughter into the water, where she is believed to have drowned. Dahut was however transformed into a mermaid, who lured sailors to wreck their ships on the rocks.

See the City of Ys in the Armorican Connections.