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Jean Pierre Le Mat, between living myths and a contemporary Breton perspective
BTwo Books to Understand Today’s Celtic Brittany.
rittany is often reduced, when seen from the outside, to a land of landscapes, picturesque traditions and ancient folklore. Yet beyond postcards and tourist imagery, it remains a deeply living country, shaped by modern cultural, political and existential questions.
This is precisely the Brittany explored in two singular books by Jean Pierre Le Mat, written in English and published by the Breton independent press BreizhKlem.
Through a collection of contemporary legends and a cultural guide that breaks away from convention, the author offers an original immersion into today’s Breton soul.
These books are not written only for foreign readers. They also speak to Bretons themselves, holding up a mirror that is at once critical, poetic and strikingly clear-eyed.
Non-Traditional Celtic Legends from Brittany – Tales for the 21st Century
Breton legends reinvented for our time
With Non-Traditional Celtic Legends from Brittany, Jean Pierre Le Mat follows a rare path: bringing Breton myths fully into the contemporary world, without nostalgia or frozen folklore.
The book takes the form of short, self-contained stories in which the great figures of Celtic imagination suddenly appear in the twenty-first century.
Arthur, Merlin, Morgane, the korriganed and the Ankou are no longer confined to medieval forests or ancient tales.
They find themselves confronting a world dominated by technology, economics, algorithms and mass communication.
The approach is often humorous, sometimes biting.
Arthur returns to Brittany and discovers a society without knights, but saturated with managers, procedures and corporate language.
The korriganed reinvent themselves as ecological entrepreneurs.
Merlin turns his attention to predictive models and artificial intelligence.
Yet behind the humour lies a serious question:
what becomes of the Celtic imagination in a world that claims to have an answer for everything?
Jean Pierre Le Mat does not judge.
He observes, diverts, stages.
His writing is sharp and fluid, playing with the codes of the folktale, philosophical fable and social satire.
At times one might think of Calvino or Neil Gaiman, but the anchoring remains unmistakably Breton.
This book puts forward a strong idea.
Legends are not relics of the past, but tools for understanding the present.
They allow resistance to cultural uniformity, preserve a space of inner freedom, and remind us that not everything can be reduced to numbers, metrics or norms.
The Brittany that emerges here is not idealised.
It is a mental country, a symbolic space where sea, stone and memory interact with the upheavals of the modern world.
Each story opens a reflection:
on the commodification of life,
on the loss of meaning,
on ecological crisis,
but also on the capacity of peoples to reinvent themselves without denying who they are.
In this sense, Non-Traditional Celtic Legends from Brittany can be read as a quiet literary manifesto.
A manifesto for a Brittany that embraces its Celtic heritage while speaking fully to the twenty-first century.
“In the Celtic countries which stretch the European coasts, from open sea and towards other worlds, anything is possible.”
This sentence captures the spirit of the book.
Brittany is not frozen in its past; it remains a land of possibility.
A Celtic-Oriented Guidebook to Brittany – Meeting the Celts nowadays
A cultural guide to experiencing Brittany from within
The second book, A Celtic-Oriented Guidebook to Brittany, adopts a very different yet complementary approach.
It is not a conventional travel guide, but a cultural and experiential guide, written by a Breton for those who wish to understand Brittany from the inside.
Here, there are no recommended itineraries or lists of must-see attractions.
Jean Pierre Le Mat invites the reader on an inner journey, towards a people, a way of inhabiting the world, and a Celtic culture that is still very much alive.
To discover Brittany, he explains, is not simply to admire landscapes.
It is to meet women and men who still dance at festoù-noz, who pass on the Breton language, who defend their environment and their cultural dignity on a daily basis.
“Discovering Brittany isn’t just about photographing landscapes or folk dancers… but about experiencing Breton folklore from the inside.”
The book offers a symbolic reading of places.
Moorlands become spaces of freedom.
Standing stones speak of deep time.
The sea embodies openness, travel and emancipation.
Jean Pierre Le Mat also stresses the deep links between Brittany and the other Celtic countries.
Brittany can only truly be understood in resonance with Scotland, Wales, Ireland or Cornwall.
These nations share not only history and sensitivity, but also similar contemporary challenges: language transmission, recognition, and cultural continuity.
Beneath its calm and accessible tone, the book carries a clear message.
Brittany is not merely an administrative region, but a cultural and spiritual European nation, with its own language, myths and worldview.
Far from being inward-looking, this identity is presented as a contribution to Europe’s richness.
To “think Celtic”, according to Le Mat, is to embrace diversity, prioritise human connection, and refuse cultural domination.
“In this European peninsula facing America, once borne by ancient prophecies, the hope for freedom is still alive.”
This sentence runs through the book like a guiding thread.
Jean Pierre Le Mat, a singular Breton voice
Jean Pierre Le Mat occupies a unique place in the Breton intellectual landscape.
A philosopher, storyteller, engineer and publisher, he writes in both French and English.
His work weaves together Celtic mythology, political reflection and close observation of the contemporary world.
He seeks neither nostalgia nor provocation.
His ambition is both simpler and more demanding: to restore meaning to Breton identity in a globalised world.
Taken together, these two books form a coherent whole.
One explores the imagination, the other lived reality.
Yet both assert the same truth: Brittany is still here, fully alive, and capable of speaking to the world.
Key information
Both books are available in English on Amazon, published by the Breton independent house BreizhKlem.
They are aimed at readers curious about contemporary Brittany — whether Breton, British, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Cornish, or simply drawn to living Celtic cultures.
Our articles published in English : sharing the voice of Brittany with the world
