Luzel Francois Marie

Francois-Marie Luzel, born on 6th June 1821 in Plouaret and died on 26th February 1895 in Quimper, also known under the Breton form of his name, Fañch an Uhel, was a Breton folklore specialist and also a Breton language poet. He collected a large body of songs, tales, legends and plays and published several books with these. One of his first publications was a collection of personal poems in 1865 'Bepred Breizad', in Breton with a French translation, where he pays tribute to Brittany, its people and its language.

In 1868 he began to publish the fruits of his collecting. He establishes the plan of his publications in the preface of the first volume: first the 'Gwerzioù' (songs or laments) , then the 'Soniou' in a bilingual edition with the French translation very close to the original text. After the first volume in 1868 he published the second volume of 'Gwerzioù' in 1874. Luzel then devoted his time to the publishing of 'Contes et Récits populaires des Bretons armoricains', in French translation only. The bilingual collection of 'Soniou' was only published in 1890, with the collaboration of Anatole Le Braz, who wrote the preface, the inventory and history of the collection of popular poems.