Death Omens in a Breton Memorate

Abstract

intersigne narratives provide particularly useful material for the study of folk belief.2 As van Gennep points out,3 intersigne is a local Breton term for omen which first appears in the publications of folklorists working in Brittany during the late nineteenth century. The word intersigne literally means 'sign between.' These are signs which bridge two time dimensions, the present and the future, and two levels of reality, the natural and the supernatural. Intersignes are associated with a worldview in which there are no rigidly defined boundaries between these domains. In intersigne narratives, the supernatural expresses itself through the medium of natural phenomena: the actions of birds, dogs and horses, or noises heard in the night. Many people in rural Brittany are predisposed to recognize 'natural' signs in the surrounding environment, such as weather prognosticators. The observation that gulls are flying towards the coast, for example, is interpreted as a sign of good weather. Thus, it is not surprising that supernatural signs are also noted: a dog howling is a supernatural indicator of a forthcoming death. Intersignes differ from weather signs, however, in that they relate to more profound issues: death, grief and loss. A number of different types of event are emically recognized as intersignes. The most common of these is the call of the 'death bird' in the neighbourhood of a person who is about to die. This bird, known in Breton as Labous an Ankou, is sometimes, but not exclusively, identified as the owl. Other birds whose continued appearance around a house is considered an omen of death include crows and magpies. Additional types of intersigne include premonitory dreams and waking visions of funeral processions, seen well in advance of an actual death and funeral in the community. The classic intersigne, collected by Le Braz at the turn of the century and still observed today, is the sound of squeaking wheels along the roadway outside one's home. This is the Karrigell an Ankou or the wheelbarrow of the Ankou - death personified in Breton tradition - coming to carry away the soul of the dying.4 It should be noted that many of the phenomena recognized as intersignes are not restricted to Breton folklore. The howling dog and the call of the owl, for example, are standard omens in many folk traditions, as even a cursory glance of the Motif-Index of Folk Literature demonstrates. In the analysis of intersigne narratives the question arises of whether the signs observed are interpreted as intersignes before or after the fact of a death. In certain narratives,