Patrice Marquand

Cultural connections between Brittany and Aquitaine in the Middle Ages (10th-13th centuries) : 'The Matter of

Britain' and the 'Chansons de Geste.'

Introduction

This paper is a summary, an overview of my thesis in progress which deals particularly with the spreading of the Matter of Britain to Aquitaine in the Middle Ages, and with the Breton characters, historical or not, mentioned in the 'chansons de geste' written in Occitan or linked with the Occitan area.

The Occitan troubadours were very familiar with the Matter of Britain, most probably before the poets of northern France2 . This leads us to suspect that this Matter spread directly from the Celtic countries to Aquitaine. Is this because in the 12 th century the British Isles, Brittany and Aquitaine were in the same political area, ruled over by the Plantagenet family whose part in the promotion of the Matter of Britain is well known 3 ? However, the links between the Armorican peninsula (called Brittany since the sixth century) and Aquitaine are very old. During the Metal Ages they were part of a larger contact network which archaeologists refer to as 'the Atlantic Complex' 4 . In this Complex, which extended from Ireland to the Iberian Peninsula, the Armorican peninsula sometimes played a pivotal role between the British Isles and the continent. Tin, salt, and then wine were the products of a seaborne trade along the Atlantic coasts in which the Armorican peninsula took part 5 . Did the cultural connections match the trading connections? Was Brittany a staging post between the North and the South; between the Celtic countries and the Occitan lands?

I -Brittany, between the British Isles and the Frankish world

The first difficulty we encounter when we study the culture of Brittany in the Middle Ages is the fact that there is no surviving vernacular literature and so, no irrefutable piece of evidence that this literature had ever really existed in written form. The first main text written in Breton language ( 'an Dialog etre Arzur roe d'an Bretounet ha Guinglaff') is from the middle of the 15 th century. It is a prophecy made by Guinglaff, an avatar of Merlin, to King Arthur6 . The first text in Old-French is Le roman d'Aquin ou la conqueste de la Bretaigne par le roy Charlemaigne, a 'chanson de geste' written at the end of the 12 th century in the vicinity of Dol7 . The Latin literature of Brittany, mainly composed of Saints' Lives, rarely mentions Arthurian heroes8 . Nevertheless, it uses mythical themes and poetic patterns whose origin and characteristics are Celtic and shared by the other Celtic literatures 9 .

Because of the absence of a surviving vernacular literature, Brittany seems really poor when compared to Wales and her Mabinogion, not to mention Ireland. Thus, scholars logically concluded that its contribution was rather insignificant in the spreading of the Matter of Britain on the continent. But that would be to disregard two essential points: first of all, the fundamentally oral character of medieval vernacular literature, Celtic or not, in its composition as well as its performance and transmission10 ; and then the persistence, until the 13 th century and beyond, of a linguistic and cultural community between Brittany, Wales and Cornwall.

I -1 : Brittany, Wales and Cornwall, a Brythonic community " Et ita Armorici et insulani Britones, eisdem legibus utentes et fraterna dilectione sese tractantes, tanquam populus unius regionis imperio multo tempore regebantur." This sentence, taken from the prologue to saint Goueznou's Life 11 , written in the 11 th or 12 th century 12 , shows that the days when the Bretons/Britons on opposite sides of the Channel formed only one people, governed by the same laws and the same power, had not faded from memory even five or six centuries after the emigration. The same consciousness of a common past is found in the Book of Llandaff, written about 1135-1150, which tells us that the Welsh prince, Guidnerth, guilty of murdering his brother, was sent to Dol in Brittany by his archbishop to do penitence, because "ipse Guidnerth et Brittones & archiepiscopus illius terre essent unius lingue et unius nationis quamuis diuiderentur spatio terrarum" 13 . This ethnic community was maintained during all those centuries by celebrating common historical or legendary ancestors, like Conomor, Ambroise Aurelien, Macsen Wledig or Conan Meriadec. This genealogical literature, well known in Wales, existed in Brittany too, usually in connection with saints' Lives (Winnoc, Gurthiern), but some genealogies, kept in the cartularies, deal with lay aristocracy 14 . One of them gives us the lineage of Arthuiu, Lord of Bain-de-Bretagne in the ninth century. Arthur's name is well attested by several other occurrences in the cartulary of Redon, and some of Arthur's warriors, among the interminable roll of them recited in Culhwch ac Olwen, gave their names to Breton noblemen, like Uualcmoel or Uualtmoe, a form older than the Welsh Gwalchmai, Mabon, Hedern filius Nud, Edern mab Nudd in Culhwch ac Olwen 15 .

On the other hand, there are in this tale several references to Breton characters such as Sberin mab Fflergant brenhin Llydaw, probably Brian Fitz-Count, Alan Fergant's natural son. Alan, duke of Brittany (1084-1113), is mentioned again in a Welsh Triad, as chief of one of the three Disloyal War-Bands of the Island of Britain 16 , and also in Bonedd y Saint 17 . The Mabinogion's hero, Bran, gave his name to a Breton lord who was King Salomon's count during the second half of the ninth century. Other Breton names derived from that hero, such as Branoc, Branmare, Branonus. And last but not least, Merlin is attested in the cartulary of Redon in the compound names, Merthinhoairn and Merthinhael. The place-name, Merthiniac, in Augan (Morbihan) also derive from this name. Merlin's avatar, Lailoken, appears as Lalocan in the middle of the ninth century 18 , and, according to saint Judicael's Life, his fellow, Taliesin sometimes stayed in Abbey of Saint-Gildas to study. People asked him to explain King Judhael's dream about his son-to-be, Judicael 19 .

There are other examples but the few names mentioned above are enough to prove that the trend in Brythonic heroes-names spread widely among Breton people during the Middle Ages, together with tales and legends about their heroes. But who told these tales in Brittany ? Well, we can suppose that, as in Wales, it was a class of professional bards attached to the aristocratic courts, whose function was to praise their lords and recount the feats of legendary ancestors. Although there remains nothing in writing of their works, we can discern their 13 The text of the Book of Llan Dâv reproduced from the Gwysaneg Manuscript. Edition by Gwenogoryn Evans and John Rhys. Aberysthwyth : National Library of Wales, 1893[1979], p. 181. 14 see Fleuriot, Léon, 1974. "Old Breton Genealogies and Early British Traditions. ", Bwletin y Bwrdd Gwybodau Celtaidd, 26, 1-6 ; Cassard, Jean-Christophe, 1989. " la tradition royale en Bretagne armoricaine.", Revue Historique, 569, janvier-mars, 15-47 ; Merdrignac, Bernard, 2004 16 Bromwich, Rachel, 2006. Trioedd Ynys Prydein. Cardiff : Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, p. 66, triad 30 and p. 277. 17 Llonyaw llawhir mab Alan fyrgan mab Emyr Llydaw. Bartrum, P.C., 1966. Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts. Cardiff : University of Wales Press, p. 63, § 58. 18 Cartulary of Redon. 19 See saint Judicael's Life, references above. activities through the Old-Breton vocabulary kept by the glosses which give us several words relating to the professions of bard, actor, musician and singer [START_REF] Loth | Vocabulaire vieux-breton[END_REF] .

Also, the saints' Lives testify that there were bards in Brittany. Thus, Saint Herve's father, Hoarvian, was bard in King Childebert's court [START_REF] Tanguy | Saint Hervé, vie et culte[END_REF] . Gurdisten, in Saint Gwenole's Life, describes King Gradlon's court thus : "Et tibiae cytharaeque, lyrae cum murmure, plectra, tympana per vestras plaudunt stridoribus aedes." 22 , perhaps taking that of King Salomon as an example. Still better, there were a few bards among the witnesses listed in the Breton cartularies. Norman citharedo was bard to Count Conan II (1040-1066). As his name indicates, he was probably of Norman origin, just like Normandus Pontellus joculator comitis, who was in count Hoel II's service together with the Breton Cadiou citharista [START_REF] Guillotel | Les actes des ducs de Bretagne (944-1148)[END_REF] . At the same time, the Red Lady from Brittany would have composed the 'Lai of the Beach' for William the Conqueror [START_REF] Cook | Strengleikar[END_REF] . We can suppose she had female colleagues because the name 'barza' ('bard woman') is attested from the beginning of the 12 th century. In the course of this same century we can also mention Riuallonus filius Ambard (Rivallon son of the bard) , Bernardus Mimus, and Radulfus poeta, prior in the church of Saint-Martin-de-Josselin 25 .

We do not know if the latter recited religious poems in Latin or Celtic legends in Breton but we are sure that these legends were known by the Breton monks; certainly by their relations with the bards because monks and bards alike attended the courts of the Breton dukes. Like the Irish filid or the Welsh monks, the Breton monks put down in writing a part of the Celtic traditions told by the bards. Alas, they included only a few of the stories in their Latin 'Lives' of the saints, while their insular colleagues saved most of their oral traditions in the vernacular.

About the linguistic situation in medieval Brittany, we know that several languages was always used here : "lingua britannica" spoken by the Breton immigrants ; Romance by the native people in the East; maybe relics of Gallic language; and Latin written by the monks. For this study we will deal only with the relations between Breton and Romance languages. For centuries, Breton and Romance coexisted together, in a "mixed area" -a territory defined, on the one hand, by the furthest boundary reached by the Breton language to the east (called Loth's line ) and, on the other hand, by the more settled linguistic boundary after the Breton language retreated between the 10 th and 13 th centuries. To the east of the Loth's line, in the counties of Rennes and Nantes, and in the territories conquered under Kings Erispoe and Salomon, the Breton language was never spoken. In the mixed area, the Breton aristocrats spoke their language, but ordinary people carried on speaking Romance [START_REF] Loth | Les langues romane et bretonne en Armorique[END_REF] .

The two peoples merged quite slowly and the Bretons needed a long time before being accepted by the inhabitants of the counties of the East who were more orientated towards Anjou and Normandy. Until the 11 th century, the relations between the two communities were delicate. For instance, the author of the chronicle of Nantes expressed his hatred for the Bretons calling them diabolici viri 27 . The situation improved under the reigns of the dukes of the house of Cornouaille: Hoël II and Alan Fergant, although the court in Nantes was still composed of two separate parts, one speaking Breton, the other speaking Romance28 . Moreover this fact explains why Hoel II had two bards : one Breton and the other Norman.

Brittany was unified by his son, Alan Fergant. Married at first to the Duke of Normandy's daughter, then to that of the Count of Anjou, he divided his time between Cornouaille, Redon, Rennes, and, above all, at the end of his reign, Nantes. He was the last Duke of Brittany to speak Breton, and he opened up Romance influences to his country. His vassals followed his example and chose their wives from among the Frankish nobility of Anjou, Normandy and Maine, before adopting their language and their customs. In the northeast of Brittany, between Saint-Brieuc, Fougères and the forest of Broceliande, as early as the middle of the 11 th century, Breton nobility begun to gallicize, due to its very close relations with their Norman neighbours . This change of language can be seen in the place-names (kêr translated into ville) and in personal names. The Breton lords gave German and Latin names to their children, and the Breton names started to be distorted or translated into Romance in the cartularies 29 .

So, we can suppose that these Breton lords were bilingual within a few generations, before abandoning the Breton language altogether. The song of Girart de Roussillon, written around 1150, speaks about Merianz, "uns romanz Bret", that is, a Breton who speaks French30 . We can also suppose that Breton lords employed bilingual or even trilingual bards, like Renart, who plays a Breton juggler who can speak English and has learned French in Paris31 .

I -2 : Brittany and the Frankish world

As soon as they emigrated to Armorique, the Britons/Bretons came in contact with the Frankish world, and, particularly from the Carolingian times, religious and political relationships between the two became stronger and stronger. Henceforth, the Breton kings were to extend their power towards the East, and conquered the counties of Rennes and Nantes, the country of Retz, a part of Anjou and of the future Normandy. This advance was halted by Viking attacks; the Breton monks having to flee from the invaders to find refuge in the Frankish monasteries in the North, and in the region of Paris, Orleans, Fleury-sur-Loire, and as far as Poitou and Berry. Some of them never returned to Brittany. This exodus can be compared with the spreading of the Breton neumes, as the manuscripts which bear this musical notation are found mainly in the places where the Breton monks stayed. Following these troubled times, the religious life in Brittany was restored with the help of the great Ligerian abbeys like Marmoutier, Fleury, Saint-Florent de Saumur, Angers. This strengthened even more the political ties between Brittany and its nearest neighbours32 .

Bretons and Normans

After the Vikings' ravages, the beginning of the 11 th century is marked by a double alliance between the ducal houses of Brittany and Normandy. Thus, the political relationship between the two countries turned into a family affair, with quarrels and reconciliations. The vassals of the two suzerains married together too, and soon, from Avranches to Dol, people didn't really know who was Norman and who was Breton. Such close connections certainly gave birth to literary exchanges. We have seen above that two Norman bards worked in Brittany and that the Red Lady composed a 'lai' for William the Conqueror. Another 'lais', sung by Breton bards, related to Normandy : the 'Lai of the Two Lovers' 33 and 'Richard the Old' 34 . According to Dudon de Saint-Quentin, Breton bards went to Normandy and sang the praises of Richard I 35 . Anyway, as early as the middle of the 11 th century, the name of Arthur had spread to Normandy. We find it in Fougères ('Artur de Mansionili'), in the second half of the 11 th century 36 ; in Caen about 1056-1070 37 ; and to the north of Avranches before 1095 38 . Thus, the Norman people knew of Arthur before they conquered England.

A lot of Bretons came to England with William the Conqueror's army. But before 1066, some of them had already settled and been warmly welcomed there since the times of King Alfred the Great and his son Athelstan. This tradition of welcome even became a law under Edward the Confessor's reign 39 . During and after the conquest, the Breton lords continued to settle in England and it would be too long to draw up the list of them in this paper. They were particularly numerous in the North-east (honour of Richmond), the South-west (Devon and Cornwall) and along the Welsh borders, like the Paderon's family of Monmouth. Most of them came from the North-east of Brittany , that is the more normanized part of this country. The political relations between Henry I Beauclerc and Alan Fergant were very strong. Alan came to Henry's aid when the latter was fighting against his brother Robert Courteheuse for the throne of England. Alan Fergant's natural son, Brian Fitz-Count, was fostered at Henry Beauclerc's court. His foster brother was Henry's son, Robert of Gloucester, to whom Geoffrey of Monmouth dedicated his Historia Regum Britanniae. One of Henry's mistresses was Alix Boterel, the lord of Lamballe's daughter. Alix gave a daughter to Henry, Mathilde, who married Alan Fergant's heir, Conan III 40 .

33 " Un lai en firent li Bretun, des Dous Amanz reçut le nun ", Marie de France. Lais. Traduits, présentés et annotés par Laurence Harf-Lancner, texte édité par Karl Warnke, Paris : Lettres gothiques, 1990, Les Dous Amanz, v. 5-6. 34 Cook,Tveitane,op. cit. ,[252][253][254][255][256][257] Mentioned by André Chédeville, Noël-Yves Tonnerre, 1987-1994. La Bretagne féodale. 11 ème -13 ème siècle. Rennes : Edilarge, Ouest-France, 134-135. 36 Gallais, Pierre, 1967. "Bleheri, la cour de Poitiers et la diffusion des récits arthuriens sur le continent.", Actes du 7ème congrès national de la littérature comparée, Poitiers, 1965, Paris : Didier, 47-79 (61, A4). 37 In 1087, in the course of William the Conqueror's funeral at Caen, Ascelin, son of Arthur, claimed that William grave's place was owned before by his father Arthur and had been stolen from him by William to found the Trinity's church of Caen. See Orderic Vital. Histoire de Normandie. Normans and Bretons had close connections during the remainder of the 11 th and 12 th centuries. They participated together in the first crusade under Robert Courteheuse's command, with Alan Fergant, Duke of Brittany. A few years before, Breton lords from Dol, Dinan and Loheac had followed Robert Guiscard and his brothers to southern Italy and Sicily 41 . Bretons and Normans took and spread Arthurian legends to Italy, as proved by the trend in Arthurian names, the sculpture on the cathedral of Modena 42 , the mosaic of Otrante and the tale about King Arthur living under the volcano of Etna 43 . In Spain, Norman warriors became involved in the Reconquista, such as Roger de Tosny in the county of Barcelona or Rotrou du Perche who conquered the city of Tudele and became lord of it. It seems that Breton people were less numerous in Spain than in England or in Italy. But we know that Garsire de Retz, a great lord from the country of Nantes, went to Spain at the end of the 11 th century to fight against the Saracens 44 . Furthermore, the anonymous chronicle of Sahagun mentions Breton people among the foreigners settled in this town at 1085 45 . Sahagun is a main stop on the camino frances, the way from France to Compostella through Spain.

Brittany and Aquitaine

Owing to the advance of the Reconquista from the middle of the 11 th century, the pilgrims could safely go to Compostella. Afterwards there were more and more of them, coming from all over Europe. "Quatuor viae sunt, quae ad Sanctum Jacobum tendentes, in unum, ad Pontem Reginae, in horis Hispaniae coadunantur", said the author of the Pilgrim's Guide 46 . One of the four pilgrim routes to Compostella, the Via Turonensis links Tours to the Pyrenees through Poitou, Saintonge and Gascony. It was taken by the Breton pilgrims as early as the beginning of the 11 th century. In 1037 a hospital was built for them in the suburbs of Nantes (Saint-James of Pirmil Hospital), a place where pilgrims from all Brittany came together. It was built by the Poitevin abbey of Saint-Jouin-de-Marne which owned several priories in Brittany and who had kept saint Judicaël's relics since the exodus of the Breton monks in the ninth century. At the end of the 11 th century, the pilgrimage to Compostella was as significant for the Bretons as Rome or Jerusalem 47 .

(MSHAB), 58, 73-97 ; Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., 1992. " The Bretons and Normans of England, 1066-1154 : the family, the fief and the feudal monarchy. ", Nottingham Medieval Studies, 36, 42-78 ; 1996 To go to Compostella, Breton people could choose many ways; by land, sea, or a mixture of both. According to the Arab geographer Al-Idrîsî [START_REF] Idrîsî | La première géographie de l'Occident[END_REF] , they could embark from the coasts of Brittany, or from Beauvoir and Talmont, which were boarding ports for Compostella. These two ports maintained a regular trade with Brittany, in particular with the abbeys of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys and Redon [START_REF]Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Talmond. Edition de Louis de La Boutetière[END_REF] .

The Atlantic Ocean, from the Channel to the Iberian shores, must have been traversed for a long time by the Breton sailors, whether insular or continental, according to the name given to the Gulf of Gascony from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The Roman geographer, Iberian by birth, Pomponius Mela, in the first century after J.C., located the Isle of Sein on the 'Sea of Britain' ("in Britannico mari"), which stretched to the Pyrenees [START_REF] Mela | Texte établi, traduit et annoté par Alain Silberman[END_REF] . Following him, the geographer of the Lower Empire, Vibius Sequester, wrote : "Liger Galliae, dividens Aquitanos et Celtas, in Oceanum britannicum evolvitur" [START_REF] Sequester | De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, paludibus, montibus, gentibus per litteras libellus[END_REF] . Other evidence from the 6 th to the 12 th century, also describe the 'Sea of Britain' as a part of the Atlantic Ocean from the head of Finistère to the head of Galicia [START_REF] Cassard | Les bretons et la mer au Moyen-Âge[END_REF] . The Beatus of Saint-Sever, written down in the half part of the 11 th century at the abbey of Saint-Sever, Gascony, includes a map of the world which represents the Isle of Britain as like a big sausage stretched from the mouth of the Rhine to the mouth of the Garonne and separated from the continent by the Oceanus Britannicus [START_REF] De | Commentaires sur l'Apocalypse et le Livre de Daniel[END_REF] . In 1154, Al-Idrîsî wrote that Al-Andalus was bounded to the north by the English sea, and that the church of Saint-James of Compostella was located on a cape of the English sea [START_REF][END_REF] . A few years earlier, the author of the Pilgrim's Guide pointed out that, from the top of Cize's Pass, in the Pyrenees, "potest videri mare Brittanicum et occidentale, et hora etiam trium regionum, scilicet Castellae et Aragoni et Galliae" 55 .

By whichever way they went to Compostella, by land or by sea, the Breton pilgrims had to stop off at Saintonge where two of their saints was buried: Emilion was born in the vicinity of Vannes and he lay near to the vineyard that today bears his name [START_REF] Merdrignac | Un enfant de Vannes : St Emilion. Les relations entre la Bretagne et l'Aquitaine durant le haut Moyen-Age[END_REF] . Malo, the patron saint of Alet, was buried at Saintes, the city of which Eutrope had been the first bishop. The worship of Eutrope was linked up with the pilgrimage to Compostella by the pope Calixte II. After he died, Malo was soon worshipped through pilgrimages between Saintes and Alet [START_REF] Duc | Vie de saint Malo, évêque d'Alet[END_REF] .

Maybe that kind of pilgrimage made easier the implantation and the growth of the worship of Eutrope in Brittany 58 .

Malo and Emilion were not the only Breton saints honoured in Aquitaine. In the face of the Norman invasions, the exodus of the Breton monks gave rise to the spreading of the worship of Breton saints in the countries where these monks had sheltered. Thus, Gildas was worshipped at Deols, near Châteauroux, where the monks of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys and Locminé had settled and founded an abbey in the ninth century [START_REF] Kerboul-Vilhon | Gildas le Sage, vies et oeuvres[END_REF] . Turiau was honoured at Clermont 60 , Meen at Treignac 61 and Menulphus, an Irish saint who was maybe bishop of Quimper, was honoured near Moulins in Auvergne [START_REF] Debary | La Vita Menulphi[END_REF] . A litany written down at Saint-Martial de Limoges in the course of the 11 th century includes many Breton saints [START_REF] Tanguy | De l'origine des anciennes litanies bretonnes des 10 ème et 11 ème siècles[END_REF] . On the other hand, Eutrope was not alone; other saints from Aquitaine were worshipped in Brittany. We note, too, Philibert, Maixent, Radégonde, Hilaire and Gilles [START_REF] Duhem | Les églises de France[END_REF] . Probably influenced by this religious relationship, the Romanesque art of Brittany includes features from Poitou and Saintonge, which were spread, some of them at least, along the various routes to Compostella [START_REF] Grand | L'art roman en Bretagne[END_REF] .

II -The Matter of Britain in Aquitaine

The political relationships between Brittany and Aquitaine does not seem to have been as significant as the religious ones. No marriage between the two ducal families; but, all the same, there were strong and close connections between Brittany's lordships and the marches of Poitou -between the lords of Retz and Thouars, for example [START_REF] Tonnerre | Naissance de la Bretagne. Géographie historique et structures sociales de la Bretagne méridionale[END_REF] . More to the East, the region of Mauges , lying between Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, was contested territory between those three principalities and a melting pot where the cultures of these three lands merged. It is in this region that the first mention of Arthurian heroes' names appear in the cartularies of the second half of the 11 th century 67 : Gauvain de Chemillé, related to Pétronille, abbess of Fontevraud 68 ; Gauvain de Montjean, vassal of the lords of Beaupréau whose ancestor was a Breton of Rennes 69 ; Iseldis, attested before 1093 near Beaupréau, bears a name which form is very close to the Cornish name Eselt, that is Iseult, and we can suppose that Iseldis was the Latin form of the Breton name of Iseult [START_REF] Padel | The Cornish Background of the Tristan Stories[END_REF] . Except the lords of Beaupréau, some other inhabitants of the Mauges had Breton origins, as indicated by their nickname Brito. More to the South, in Bas-Poitou, we find the same phenomenon, that is, a Breton settlement seems to be the cause of the spreading of Arthurian names. This trend appears at the same time in Saintonge, near to the sea coasts [START_REF] Marchegay | Les cartulaires du Bas-Poitou. Département de la Vendée. Les Roches[END_REF] .

At the end of the 11 th century, the trend in Arthurian names -mainly Arthur and Gauvain -spread across Anjou, Poitou, Charente and Saintonge, probably coming from Brittany with Breton settlers and with Breton pilgrims to Compostella. We can divide references to Arthurian heroes into two parts : in Bas-Poitou, the Arthurian names spread from the Nantes area through Anjou, the marches of Poitou and the Mauges ; in Saintonge, it seems that they spread across the Atlantic -the 'Sea of Britain' as it was called in this time -from the southern coast as far as the Saintes area, and were popular among the local nobility. Thus, there was a man named Gauvain among the lords of Tonnay-Charente, who were in contact with troubadours such as Jaufre Rudel and Rigaut de Barbezieux [START_REF] Lejeune | Analyse textuelle et histoire littéraire : Rigaud de Barbezieux[END_REF] .

Much rarer are the references to Arthurian or Breton names to the south of the linguistic boundary and they are generally later. Yet there was an Artus Chatardus in Limoges as early as the end of the 11 th century [START_REF] Leroux | Documents historiques bas-latins, provençaux et français concernant principalement la Marche et le Limousin. Limoges[END_REF] . Artusius and Helias Artus appear in Périgord at 1116 and 1120 74 , then, in Toulouse we find Vidianus Artus at 1145 and 1148-49, and Bertrandus Artus at 1151 and 1153 [START_REF] Gérard | Cartulaire de Saint-Sernin de Toulouse[END_REF] . A few years later, Gauvain is mentioned under the forms Galvan in Limousin (Beyssac near Uzerche, 1186-87) [START_REF] Barrière | Le cartulaire de l'abbaye cistercienne d'Obazine, 12 ème -13 ème siècle[END_REF] and Gualvanno (1173) at Maguelone near Montpellier [START_REF] Rouquette | Cartulaire de Maguelone[END_REF] . At the end of the 12 th century, Iseutz de Meymont is attested in Ardèche [START_REF] Lemaitre | Cartulaire de la Chartreuse de Bonnefoy[END_REF] , and Merlinus appears in the cartulary of Saint-Gilles-de-Provence [START_REF] Blévec | Cartulaire du Prieuré de Saint-Gilles de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, 1129-1210[END_REF] . It would seem that the spreading of Arthurian names to the Occitan part of Aquitaine was the work of the troubadours themselves, but the references to Arthur in Limoges, Périgord and also Toulouse 80 are earlier than the first allusions which appear in Occitan poetry, so we cannot draw any firm conclusions on this matter for the moment 81 .

II -1 : The troubadours and the Matter of Britain

The first troubadours who mentioned Arthurian heroes in their poems were Marcabru (Arthur in 1137) [START_REF]Puois lo Peitavis m'es faillitz, serai mai cum Artur perdutz[END_REF] and Cercamon (Tristan, about 1135-1145) [START_REF] Jeanroy | Les poésies de Cercamon. Paris : Champion ; Lejeune, Rita[END_REF] , two Gascon troubadours who attended the court of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine: Guillaume the Troubadour's son and Eleanor's father. Later, around 1150, Bernart de Ventadorn referred to Tristan and Iseult in several of his works [START_REF] Cluzel | Les plus anciens troubadours et la légende amoureuse de Tristan et d'Iseut[END_REF] . At the same time, the troubadour from Saintonge, Rigaut de Barbezieux, was the first to speak about Perceval and the Grail 85 , a few decades before Chrétien de Troyes. About 1169, Raimbaut d'Orange composed a poem woven with allusions to the Tristan legend [START_REF] Pirot | Recherches sur les connaissances littéraires des troubadours occitans et catalans du 12 ème et 13 ème siècles[END_REF] , while Arnaut-Guilhem de Marsan, between 1170 and 1180, in his Ensenhamen del Cavaier , referred to Tristan, Yvain and Arthur 87 .

But it is in Catalonia that probably the most important Occitan poem about the Matter of Britain was written, around 1150 : the Ensenhamen Cabra Joglar by Guerau de Cabrera. This is an inventory of all the literary works a Catalan juggler should know and which Guerau knew to perfection since he cited the main heroes of the three matters defined by Jehan Bodel, namely the Matter of Britain, the Matter of Roma and the Matter of France, that is the 'Chanson de Geste.' Concerning the Matter of Britain, Guerau knew of Arthur, King Marc (Marcon), Erec, Tristan, Iseult, Gauvain and, furthermore, he reproached his juggler Cabra for : « non sabz fenir, al mieu albir, a tempradura de breton » [START_REF]La forme de l'Ensenhamen au jongleur du troubadour Guiraut de Cabrera[END_REF] .

In view of this wide knowledge, it is no wonder that Catalan literature produced the first Arthurian novel from the South of the Loire: Jaufre was probably written down around 1180 for the king of Aragon Alphonse II (1162 -1196), patron of the troubadours and poet himself. If the exchanges with Chrétien de Troyes works are obvious, in particular with Yvain and Le Chevalier de la Charette, some episodes of Jaufre -for instance, the beginning and final scenes, where the enchanter, maybe Merlin, turns into a horned animal, then into a big bird and plays tricks on Arthur -are independent of Chrétien's novels and seem to be older. The Catalan author had clearly used other sources, maybe from Brittany or from Britain [START_REF] Brunel | Jaufré, roman arthurien du 13 ème siècle en vers provençaux[END_REF] .

There is no doubt that Ignaure is from Brittany. He is the unfortunate hero of a 'lai' composed at the beginning of the 13 th century, probably by Renaut de Beaujeu, on the theme of the "eaten heart" [START_REF] Lai | Ignaure ou le Lai du Prisonnier[END_REF] . Since the 12 th century, Ignaure and his adventures were well known by the Occitan troubadours. Arnaut-Guilhem de Marsan told a version of Ignaure's story in his Ensenhamen del Cavaier and Ignaure's name, under the form Linhaura, was used as senhal to refer principally to Raimbaut d'Orange [START_REF] Lejeune | Le personnage d'Ignaure dans la poésie des troubadours[END_REF] . Chrétien de Troyes mentioned Ignaure in Le Chevalier de la Charette, but he had probably borrowed him from the troubadours [START_REF]Ignaures li coveitiez, li amoureus et li pleisanz[END_REF] . Much has been written, but inconclusively, about the meaning of Ignaure's name. It seems however that we can explain it by the Old-Breton root Iun-, "desire", which has given Ign-, like in Plouigneau, Old-Breton Plou-Iunau [START_REF] Fleuriot | [END_REF] . The derived noun Iunet means "desired" and it's exactly the sense of the epithet given to the hero both by Chrétien de Troyes: "Ignaures li coveitiez", and by Arnaut-Guilhem de Marsan : " de Linaura sapchatz, com el fon cobeitatz ". It would be then the translation into Old-French and Occitan from a Old-Breton name IunUuoret, which would have given Ignaure, and his tale would have been passed on directly to Occitan troubadours by Armorican Bretons.

II -2 : Breri or not Breri ?

The troubadours had known the Arthurian heroes before the 'trouveres' of the North, even before the Historia Regum Britanniae had been translated into Old-French by Wace in 1155. The first references are from the years 1135-1150 and we note also that the legend of Tristan and Iseult had been very popular in Aquitaine. These facts have been evident for a long time: the Welsh storyteller Breri went to the court of Poitiers, Breri being a Welshman who went into the new Norman power's service. He was King Henry I's translator at Carmarthen [START_REF] Rowlands | The making of the March : aspects of the Norman settlement in Dyfed[END_REF] and, according to Giraud of Cambria, he was also a magnificent fabulator. Thomas of England cited him as the main source for his Tristan's novel.

His name appeared in several Arthurian novels, under varied forms and the Pseudo-Wauchier of Denain indicated in his Continuation Perceval, written around 1200, that Bleheris (that is Breri) would have stayed at the court of a count of Poitiers and could have told him the story. Given the dates of Breri's life (circa 1070/1080-1130/1140), the count of Poitiers in question can only to be Guillaume IX the Troubadour (1086-1127) or his son Guillaume X (1127-1137) 95 . Pierre Gallais even regarded him as the source of the trend in Arthurian names in Poitou and Saintonge [START_REF]Quelqu'un est venu en Poitou à la fin du 11 ème siècle et il y a conté les aventures de Gauvain et de Tristan. Quatre romanciers français nous donnent son nom, Breri, Bleheri[END_REF] .

If such is the case, then it raises a big chronological problem : this trend was spread from the end of the 11 th century , if not earlier, while Breri was only a young boy of about ten years old. At this time he could not already be the famous storyteller described by Giraud of Cambria (Giraldus Cambrensis) and Thomas of England. Furthermore, we would expect a Welshman to tell the stories of his national heroes, Gereint or Peredur, and yet Erec and Perceval (Persavaus in Occitan) are the ones who were known to the troubadours. Indeed, the name Erec derives clearly from Waroc, king of Vannes in the 6 th century 97 . We have seen above that Armorican Bretons settled in Poitou and Saintonge as early as the middle of the 11 th century or took the pilgrim routes to Compostella. It was along these ways and along the coasts of Saintonge that the trend in Arthurian names was spread by the Continental Bretons. Breri may have stayed in Poitiers but certainly not before the beginning of the 12 th century.

On the other hand, Occitan troubadours may have frequented the court of England at this time too. Thus, according to the author of the Roman de Joufrois, contemporaneous with the Pseudo-Wauchier and whose testimony is as valid as his, Marcabru could have stayed at the court of Henry Beauclerc 98 . We know, too, that Guillaume the Troubadour's fame had crossed the Channel before 1125 since William of Malmesbury wrote a few lines about him in his Gesta Regum Anglorum [START_REF] William | Gesta Regum Anglorum. The History of the English Kings[END_REF] . In any case, Breri or not Breri, if he ever went to Poitou, he was neither the first nor the only one to recount the Arthurian legends there.

III -Breton people and Occitan epic

To speak about the 'Occitan epic' is, in a way, to engage again in a polemic over a hundred years old about the birth of the 'Chansons de Geste'. The controversy arose after Claude Fauriel's works, in the middle of the 19 th century. According to him, the Carolingian epic in Occitan was more important and, above all, older than the Old-French epic. His theory prompted harsh criticism or, at best, some constructive remarks from eminent Romanists such as Gaston Paris, Paul Meyer and Léon Gautier. Since then, it seems to have been generally accepted, and difficult to dispute, that the few epic texts in Occitan -about ten, which survive in later manuscripts for the most part -are only translations from Old-French 'Chansons de Geste' 100 . This was Joseph Bédier's position in the barely two pages he wrote about the Occitan epic, out of the four volumes of his Légendes épiques 101 . In spite of Rita Lejeune's work 102 and, more recently, Gérard Gouiran and that of Robert Lafont's 103 , the opinion of most French scholars did not vary a great deal, namely, there is no evidence for an Occitan epic either independent of, or older than, the Old-French 'Chansons de Geste' 104 .

Therefore, without getting involved in this dispute for the moment, we have chosen, as basis of our corpus, the epic texts written in Occitan, however old the manuscripts which contain them might be (for instance, Ronsasvals and Roland à Saragosse, known by a 14 th century old manuscript), as well as the Old-French 'Chansons de Geste' in which the action is closely connected with the Occitan area (for instance the cycle of Guillaume d'Orange). We can add to this corpus the Historia Karoli magni et Rotholandi by the Pseudo-Turpin; a Latin text that linked the Carolingian epic with the pilgrimage to Compostella, and gave birth to adaptations in Occitan language, such as the Occitan version of the Gesta Karoli Magni ad Carcassonam et Narbonam or the Chronicle from Saintonge 105 .

We can add too the Song of Roland; because the historical Roland commanded the March of Brittany, and the Chanson d'Aiquin relates how his father was Tiori of Vannes 106 , and because this poem of the crusade, of the holy war against the Saracens, seems to us to be closely linked, in its composition as in its reception, with the people who fought against the Muslims in Spain, Sicily and the Holy Land at the turn of the 11 th and 12 th centuries. That is to say, warriors from Normandy and Aquitaine 107 ; because many arguments, without presenting irrefutable proofs, lead us to think that this song was composed among a Norman or Anglo-Norman circle.

On the whole, for about a century, it seems that there was a strong and continuous link between: the first poem, born in a milieu deeply engaged in the struggle against the Saracens; its older written evidence, that is the Anglo-Norman manuscript of Oxford; and its first translation in Old-German, the Ruolandes liet, made for Henry the Lion around 1172, from a manuscript which came from the court of his father-in-law, Henry II Plantagenet 108 . The hypothesis that a manuscript of this 'chanson' was written at the abbey of Saint-Denis seems to be superfluous, especially as this theory, defended by Hans-Erich Keller among other scholars 109 , rejects the Oxford manuscript beyond 1150, in opposition to most of the palaeographers and philologists who date this manuscript on the second quarter of the 12 th century (1125-1150) 110 .

Furthermore, the Anglo-Norman literature in the vernacular is earlier and more prolific than the Continental one. It blossomed under the reign of Henry Beauclerc, supported by an old and continuous tradition of historiography 111 . We also know the capacity of the Scandinavians to adopt a new culture 112 . After they had borrowed some features from Celtic legends 113 , it would not be any surprise if they adopted the Carolingian epic as they adopted the French language in a short space of time. Later, this same Norman people, after conquering Ireland at the end of the 12 th century, became "Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores", more Irish than Irish people themselves. Thus, after they settled in Normandy we can suppose they became more French than French people themselves 114 .

Our second criterion of choice is, of course, the reference to Breton people or Brittany in the 'Chansons de Geste' described above. If we refer to André Moisan's index 115 , we can note that practically every song cites one or more Breton heroes, like Arastagnus, Enissanz, Gihomarz, Guinguenez, Jaguz, Merianz, Oedun, Rispeu,...etc. The most cited is Salomon, king of Brittany in the ninth century, who appears in about thirty songs at least. He is everywhere and nowhere, according to Joseph Bédier who devoted a chapter of his 'Légendes épiques' to the Breton king 116 . Salomon and Hoël, characters of the 'Chansons de Geste,' have their place, too, in the Arthurian legends -at least in Geoffrey of Monmouth's work. Perhaps Salomon played more than a walk-on part, as Bédier said. Other characters are not presented as Breton but they are from Brittany too, like Corsolt or Mabon. Apart from the few pages Bédier wrote about Salomon, the role played by Breton people in the Chansons de geste has been reviewed in some articles 117 but there is no general study on this subject.

In the scope of this thesis we can only deal with the Breton characters mentioned in the Occitan epic, as well as with the spreading of epic heroes names in Brittany, such as Roland, Olivier or Vivien 118 . When the names Roland and Olivier have been given to two brothers, sometimes two cousins in the same family, it is a good indication that legends or poems about Roland and Olivier had been spread a few years before, as we have seen below about the trend in Arthurian names in Aquitaine 119 . The first cousins, Roland and Olivier of Dinan, are always cited as examples for Brittany. Not so well known are Roland of Liré and his brother Olivier, small lords from the Nantes area, attested since the years 1125-1130. Liré is today a commune of Maine-et-Loire, close to Ancenis and the boundary of Loire-Atlantique, in North-West Mauges, but up until the French Revolution it was dependent on the see of Nantes. A priory was founded here towards 1075 by Archambaud and his son Budic, a typical Breton name. Roland and Olivier were Budic's heirs 120 . We note that Liré is near Beaupréau and Chemillé, where we have met Gauvain and Iseult. More to the West, near Nantes, the chapel of Loroux-Bottereau was formerly dedicated to saint Gilles. Its frescoes describe Charlemagne's sin, to which the song of Roland also alludes 121 .

Conclusion

Our work is still in progress so we cannot draw any definitive conclusions for the moment as we have not sufficient enough sound evidence. We can nevertheless propose several points for consideration. Firstly, there had existed for a long time direct links between Brittany and Aquitaine, the strength of which ebbed and waned. Between the 10 th and 13th centuries, these connections concerned religion (the worship of the saints, pilgrimage to Compostella), trade (coastal trade especially), politics (lordship of the March) and art (Romanesque architecture). They concerned literature, too, as indicated by the trend in Arthurian names in Aquitaine, prior to Geoffrey of Monmouth's work and to the first novels in Old-French, and by the spreading of the 'lai' of Ignaure, which probably came directly from Armorican Bretons to the troubadours. These connections were also indirect, via the Mauges, a real cultural melting-pot, where, in the same period, Arthurian and epic names appeared; evidence that the dividing line between the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France was somewhat thin and porous. Then, via the Normans, " l'essentiel du dynamisme guerrier et politique de la France, de la chrétienté, au 11 ème siècle, paraît le fait de ces nouveaux venus, de ces Barbares récemment francisés 122 ." We could add that they can take the credit for the greater part of the literary dynamism of the 11 th and 12 th centuries. Their privileged relationships with their Breton neighbours had allowed the latter to disseminate their own Celtic culture throughout the continent, from Normandy to Sicily and, in return, to become integrated into the culture of the continent, by taking part alongside the Normans in the conquest of England, the South of Italy, Sicily, and, to a lesser degree, in the Spanish Reconquista.

Finally, it seems to us that the integration of the Bretons into the continental culture is linked with the accession of the family of Cornouaille to the ducal power. Before that, as early as the beginning of the 11 th century, Benoit, Count of Cornouaille, chose to give to his son the glorious name of Alan, and then to marry him to Judith of Nantes, a descendant of Alan Barbetorte, who, according to the Chronicle of Nantes, was victorious against the Normans 123 . This testifies to the political will to establish the growing power of his lineage on the memory of his ancestor's exploits and to be linked with the prestigious times of the Breton kings, Nominoé, Erispoé, Salomon and Alan the Great124 .

The princes of Cornouaille were cultured. Alan Canhiart had had a religious and lay education and his son Hoël, count of Nantes, then first Duke of Brittany from the house of Cornouaille, supported two bards in his service. Some literary works, known only by their Old-French version, such as the lais of Tydorel and Graalent, seem to have been born in this political and cultural milieu125 . Thus, we can better understand why Salomon, Hoël, Rispeu and others became literary characters beyond their native land. As for Hoël's heir, Alan Fergant, he succeeded in unifying the duchy: last Duke of Brittany to speak Breton; cited in the Welsh literature; married to a Norman princess and then to an Anjevin one, he took part in the first crusade and was a loyal ally to King Henry Beauclerc. He represented Brittany well in his time, attached to her Celtic roots, yet outward-looking.

  . "Généalogies et secrets de famille.", in Corona Monastica. Mélanges offerts au père Marc Simon. Rennes : PUR, 265-276. 15 Cartulaire de l'abbaye Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé. Edition et notes par Léon Maître et Paul de Berthou, Rennes : Plihon & Hommay, 1902-1914, 2 ème éd. ; Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon. Edition, prolégomènes et notes par Aurélien de Courson, Paris : Imprimerie impériale, 1863.

  Traduction de Louis-François du Bois et FrançoisGuizot. Paris : Brière, 1825-27, VII, p. 218. Arthur, Ascelin's father, appeared in records between 1056 and 1070 when he sold lands to Lanfranc. SeeGallais, op. cit.,[START_REF] Gady | Anciennes dévotions à Treignac[END_REF] A5. 38 The lord Artus of Champeaux visited the hermit William Firmat in the forest of Passais. See Raison, Chanoine Louis, René Niderst, 1948. " Le mouvement érémitique dans l'Ouest, fin 11 ème siècle, début 12 ème siècle. ", ABPO, 55, 1-46 (31). 39 " Brytones vero armorici, cum venerint in regno isto, suspici debent et in regno protegi sicut probi cives. De corpore regni hujus exierunt quondam, de sanguine Brytonum regni hujus. " Mentioned byJoseph Loth, 1883[1980]. L'émigration bretonne du 5 ème au 7 ème siècle de notre ère. Rennes : Baraise, réed. Paris, Genève : Champion, Slatkine, 174, note 2.

40 About Breton people in England, see Jones, Michael, 1981. " Notes sur quelques familles bretonnes en Angleterre après la conquête normande.", Mémoires de la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Bretagne

  . " Le rôle des Bretons dans la colonisation normande de l'Angleterre(1042-1135).", MSHAB, 74, 181-215 ; 1999. Domesday People : A prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066-1166. I, Domesday Book. Woodbridge : Boydell Press, 30-66. 41 Ménager, Léon-Robert, 1981. " Pesanteur et étiologie de la colonisation normande de l'Italie. ", in Hommes et institutions de l'Italie Normande. Londres : Variorum Reprints ; Martin, Jean-Marie, 1994. Italies normandes. Paris : Hachette ; Jones, Michael, 1994. " Les Bretons et les croisades.", MSHAB, 71, 367-380 ; Cassard, Jean-Christophe, 2007. L'Orient des Bretons au Moyen-Âge. Morlaix : Skol Vreizh, 66-108. 42 Lejeune, Rita, Jacques Stiennon, 1963. "La légende arthurienne dans la sculpture de la cathédrale de Modène.", CCM, 6, 1963, 281-296. 43 This tale was collected by Gervaise of Tilbury at the end of the 12 th century. Gervais de Tilbury. Le livre des merveilles : divertissement pour un empereur (troisième partie) . Traduction française et introduction par Annie Duchesne. Paris : Les BellesLettres, 1992, 151-152. 44 Morice, Pierre-Hyacinthe, Dom, 1742-46. Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne. Paris : Osmont, I, 477-480.45 Cronicas anonimas de Sahagun. Edition critique d' Antonio Ubieto Arteta. Saragosse :Anubar, 1987, § 15, 19-21. 46 Aimeri Picaud. Le Guide du pèlerin de Saint-Jacques de Compostelle. Traduction Michel Record, éditeur scientifique : Fidel Fita. Bordeaux, Toulouse : éd. Sud-Ouest, Association de coopération interrégionale Les Chemins deCompostelle, 2006, 24-25. 47 Fardet, Jean, 1966. "Etudes et documents sur les chemins et les pélerins de St-Jacques : le pélerinage de Saint-Jacques et l'Armorique. ", Compostelle, n° 22-23, 8-11 ; 1981. "Les Maisons-Dieu sur les chemins de Saint-

I am grateful to Gareth Westacott for reading and correcting this paper.

Lejeune, Rita, 1969. " The Troubadours. ", in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. Oxford : Clarendon Press,

393-399 ; 1979. "La légende arthurienne et les troubadours. ", in Littérature et société occitane au Moyen-Âge. Liège : Marche Romane, 225-236. 3 Lejeune, Rita, 1954. "Le rôle littéraire d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine.", Cultura Neolatina, 14, 5-57 ; 1958. « Le rôle littéraire de la famille d'Aliénor.», Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale (CCM), 1, 319-337 ; Chauou, Amaury, 2001. L'idéologie Plantagenêt. Royauté arthurienne et monarchie politique dans l'espace Plantagenêt (12 ème -13 ème siècles). Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes (PUR). 4 Chevillot, Christian, André Coffyn (eds.), 1991. L'Âge du Bronze atlantique : ses faciès, de l'Ecosse à l'Andalousie et leurs relations avec le Bronze continental et la Méditerranée : actes du 1er Colloque du Parc archéologique de Beynac. Beynac-et-Cazenac : Publication de l'Association des musées du Sarladais ; Oliveira Jorge, Susana (ed.), 1998. Existe uma idade do bronze Atlântico ? . Lisboa : Instituto Português de Arqueologia. 5 see Quilliec, Bénédicte, 2007. L'épée atlantique : échanges et prestige au Bronze final. Paris : Société préhistorique française ; Mairecolas, Mélanie, 2008. L'étain en Gaule et en Europe occidentale pendant la Protohistoire et l'Antiquité . Thèse de doctorat en sciences de l'Antiquité, Toulouse : Université Le Mirail ; Buron, Gildas, 1999. Bretagne des marais salants. Tome I : 2000 ans d'histoire. Morlaix : Skol Vreizh ; Daire, Marie-Yvane, 2003. Le sel des Gaulois. Paris : Errance ; Galliou, Patrick, 2005. L'Armorique romaine. Brest : Armeline.

Edition and notes by Herve ar Bihan, 1997. "An dialog etre Arzur roe d'an Bretounet ha Guinglaff. ", Hor Yezh, 212, Kerzu, 31-70.

First published by Joüon des Longrais, 1880 : Le roman d'Aquin ou la conqueste de la Bretaigne par le roy Charlemaigne, chanson de geste du 12 ème siècle. Nantes : Société des bibliophiles bretons et de l'histoire de Bretagne. See too : Aiquin ou la conquête de la Bretagne par le roi Charlemagne. Edition de Francis Jacques. Aix-en-Provence, Paris : CUERMA, Champion.

King Arthur appears in saint Efflam's Life. Edited by Arthur de La Borderie, 1891-92. "Saint Efflam, texte inédit de la vie de ce saint avec notes et commentaire historique.", Annales de Bretagne, 7, 279-312. About saint Goueznou's Life, see below.

Merdrignac, Bernard, 1985-86. Recherches sur l'hagiographie armoricaine du 7 ème au 15 ème siècle. Alet : dossiers du CeRAA, II, 148-160 ; for some examples see saint Melar's Life, edition and study by André-Yves Bourgès, 1997. Le dossier hagiographique de saint Melar, prince et martyr en Bretagne armoricaine. Landévennec : Britannia Monastica ; for saint Judicael's Life see Le Baud, Pierre, 1907-1922. Cronicques et ystoires des Bretons. Rennes : Société des Bibliophiles Bretons, 2 nd edition, II, 153-156 ; Fleuriot, Léon, 1971. "La gorchan de Judicaël. La littérature bretonne dans ses rapports avec l'Histoire.", in Documents de l'Histoire deBretagne, Toulouse : Privat, 156-159 ;[START_REF] Padel | The Cornish Background of the Tristan Stories[END_REF]. "Sur quatre textes bretons en latin, le liber vetustissimus de Geoffroy de Monmouth et le séjour de Taliesin en Bretagne. ", EtudesCeltiques, 18,[197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213]

see Zumthor, Paul, 1987. La lettre et la voix. Paris : Seuil.

Edition by Arthur de La Borderie, 1882. "L'Historia Britannica avant Geoffroy de Monmouth et la vie inédite de saint Goueznou. ", Bulletin de la Société Archéologique du Finistère (BSAF), 9, 225-246 and LeDuc, Gwenaël, Claude Sterckx, 1971. "Les fragments inédits de la vie de saint Goeznou. », Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de l'Ouest (ABPO),78, 277-285.

The manuscript bears the date of 1019, but crossed out. Because this text deals with Conan Meriadec and the Arthurian legend, it became a lot of attention from Breton scholars and the date has been discussed at length since about thirty years. A controversy rose up between, on one side, Professors Fleuriot and Le Duc defending the date of 1019, and, on the other side, Professors Guillotel and Bourgès defending a later date, at the end of the 12 th century, thus after Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia.

Guillotel, 1973, V, p. 305, act 97 ; Cassard, Jean-Christophe, 1996. " Nantes de la découverte des Bretons à l'intégration de la Bretagne (5 ème -début 13 ème siècle). ", in Nantes et la Bretagne, Jean Guiffan (ed.), Morlaix : Skol Vreizh, 39-52.

For some examples seeLoth, 1907, op. cit., 386ss ; Tanguy, Bernard, 1973. Recherches autour de la limite des noms gallo-romains en -ac en Haute Bretagne. Thèse 3 ème cycle, Université de Bretagne Ouest, 2 vol. ; 1981. " Toponymie et peuplement en Bretagne. Le recul de la frontière linguistique du 5 ème au 16 ème siècle.", in Archéologie-Toponymie, colloque duMans, mai 1980, Paris : multigraphie, 130-175 ; Fleuriot, Léon, 1999. Les origines de la Bretagne. Paris : Payot,89-94.

La Chanson de Girart de Roussillon. Traduction, présentation et notes de Micheline de Combarieu du Grès et Gérard Gouiran. Paris : Librairie générale française,1993, v. 7101, p. 534-535.

Le Roman de Renart. Edité par Mario Roques, Paris : Champion, C.F.M.A., 1951, branche I, v. 2407-2420.

On this period seeSmith, Julia, 1992. Province and empire : Brittany and the Carolingians. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press ;Chédeville, André, Hubert Guillotel, 1984. La Bretagne des saints et des rois. 5 ème -10 ème siècle. Rennes : Edilarge, Ouest-France.

Quaghebeur, Joëlle, 2001. La Cornouaille du 9 ème au 12 ème siècle. Mémoire, pouvoir, noblesse. Rennes, Quimper : PUR, Société archéologique du Finistère.

O'hara Tobin, Mary Prudence, 1976. Les lais anonymes des 12 ème et 13 ème siècles : édition critique de quelques lais bretons. Genève : Droz. This two lais refer to dynastic legends concerning King Gradlon and the counts Alan and Conan, probably Alan Fergant and his son Conan III.


Olivier David

Burkhard Maess

Korinna Eckstein

Prof. Dr Angela D Friederici
email: angelafr@cbs.mpg.de

Dynamic Causal Modeling of Subcortical Connectivity of Language Abbreviated title: DCM of a language network

Keywords: Dynamic causal modeling, Magnetoencephalography, language processing, syntax, prosody, deep source

Subcortical-cortical interactions in the language network were investigated using dynamic causal modeling of MEG data recorded during auditory comprehension. Participants heard sentences which were either correct or contained violations. Sentences containing violations had syntactic or prosodic violations or both. We show that a hidden source, modeling magnetically silent deep nuclei, is required to explain the data best. This is in line with recent brain imaging studies and intracranial recordings suggesting an involvement of subcortical structures in language processing. Here, the processing of syntactic and prosodic violations elicited a global increase in the amplitude of evoked responses, both at the cortical and subcortical levels. As estimated by Bayesian model averaging, this was accompanied by various changes in cortical-cortical and subcortical-cortical connectivity. The most consistent findings in relation to violations were a decrease of reentrant inputs to Heschl's gyrus and of intercallosal lateral connections. These results suggest that in conditions where one hemisphere detects a violation, possibly via fast thalamo-cortical (HG) loops, the intercollosal connectivity is reduced to allow independent processing of syntax (left hemisphere) and of prosody (right hemisphere). This study is the first demonstration in cognitive neuroscience that subcortical-cortical loops can be empirically investigated using noninvasive electrophysiological recordings.

Introduction

The neural basis of language comprehension, taken to comprise Broca's area in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and Wernicke's area in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), has been modeled mostly without considering deeper, subcortical structures [START_REF] Friederici | Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing[END_REF][START_REF] Hickok | Opinion -The cortical organization of speech processing[END_REF]). An exception is the study by [START_REF] Ullman | Contributions of memory circuits to language: the declarative/procedural model[END_REF], which considers the involvement of the basal ganglia (BG). From patient studies [START_REF] Raymer | Lexical-semantic deficits in two patients with dominant thalamic infarction[END_REF][START_REF] Metz-Lutz | Language functional neuro-imaging changes following focal left thalamic infarction[END_REF] and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies [START_REF] Fiebach | Neural correlates of syntactic ambiguity in sentence comprehension for low and high span readers[END_REF][START_REF] Mestres-Misse | Functional neuroanatomy of meaning acquisition from context[END_REF], it is clear that subcortical structures such as the BG and the thalamus also play a crucial role in language processing. The BG and the thalamus interact with cortical regions through many loops, including prefrontal, premotor, parietal and temporal cortices [START_REF] Crosson | Models of subcortical functions in language: Current status[END_REF]. While the role of the caudate as part of the BG is seen in language control [START_REF] Crinion | Language control in the bilingual brain[END_REF], intracranial recordings have identified the thalamus as being engaged in the detection of syntactic and semantic violations in spoken sentences [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF]. This suggests that an adequate model of language comprehension should consider subcortical contributions.

In electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), it is impossible to reconstruct the allocation, orientation and -without taking into account interactions between brain regions -activity of a source that has no direct impact on the scalp sensors (i.e., most deep brain structures). Here, we profit from the latest advances in modeling of MEG evoked responses using neural mass models to estimate the activity, topology and effective connectivity of cortico-subcortical loops during auditory speech comprehension.

Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for MEG evoked responses [START_REF] Kiebel | Dynamic causal modelling of evoked responses in EEG/MEG with lead field parameterization[END_REF] uses interacting neuronal populations to reproduce the activity of brain regions. Neuronal current densities are projected into the MEG channel space using a source and a head model. This combined model is then inverted to reconstruct brain dynamics with biological constraints explaining the measurement. Most importantly here, we investigate the feasibility of the DCM method to estimate hidden source activity. First, using simulations, we show that DCM distinguishes correctly between situations where no hidden source was present and situations where a hidden source relayed relevant information between cortical regions. DCM can thus be used to detect the presence of hidden sources. Second, we study actual MEG evoked responses during language processing with DCMs which either include an assumed hidden source, or not. The hidden source is assumed to correspond to the thalamus and the respective thalamocortical loops based on data from intracranical recordings with similar language material [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF]. Using model comparison, we demonstrate from the MEG data that a deep source is a crucial part within the language network, probably as a moderator between the other cortical regions.

Materials & Methods

Stimuli

The study involved four crucial experimental conditions crossing the factors syntax and prosody: (1) CC, prosody correct and syntax correct, (2) CS, prosody correct and syntax incorrect, (3) PC, prosody incorrect and syntax correct, (4) PS, prosody incorrect and syntax incorrect. Each condition contained 48 sentences. Each sentence consisted of a proper name (e.g., Maria) and the verb weiß [knows] comprising the matrix clause. Then, a subordinate clause was attached that was always introduced by the complementizer dass [that] and followed by the subject (e.g., der Rentner [the pensioner]) of the subordinate clause. The penultimate constituent of the subordinate clause was always a prepositional phrase (PP) consisting of a preposition (e.g., im [in-the]) and the critical word (e.g., Alter [seniority]), followed by the verb of the subordinate clause (e.g., kränkelt [ails]) at clause-final position.

German words which are ambiguous regarding word category until their ending (either verbal suffix or nominal suffix) served as critical words. A nominal suffix (suffix -r) was highly expected due to the preceding preposition (im [in-the]) (requiring a noun) and a frequencybased bias of the critical word-stems towards the usage as a noun. Nevertheless, given that there was an equal probability of occurrence for both suffix types in the present experiment, a final successful determination of word category could not be achieved until the suffix of the critical word was encountered. Therefore, at the suffix, the critical word was disambiguated towards being a noun (e.g., marked by the suffix -r), making a syntactically correct continuation of the PP (syntax correct), or towards being an inflected verb (e.g., suffix -rt), which would lead to a word category violation (syntax incorrect) because a preposition must be followed by a noun.

To avoid possible strategic effects resulting from the fact that the occurrence of the critical stem with verb suffix always coincided with a syntactical error in the two experimental conditions, we included two syntactically congruent filler conditions in which the critical word stem occurred together with a verb-suffix in the correct context (e.g., Filler 1: Maria weiß, dass der Rentner im Rollstuhl altert. [Maria knows that the pensioner in the wheelchair grows-old], Filler 2: Maria weiß, dass der Rentner altert. [Maria knows that the pensioner grows-old]). All critical words were disyllabic, carrying the default (trochaic) stress pattern.

Both filler conditions were naturally recorded. In order to create the sentences for the four experimental conditions, we recorded the required words in different source sentences (for details see Eckstein & Friederici;2006). The same splicing procedure was used to create the correct and incorrect sentences to avoid a general effect of the splicing itself. The first part of the sentence (e.g., Maria weiß, dass der Rentner im [Maria knows that the pensioner in-the]) preceding the critical region as well as the sentence-final verb (e.g., kränkelt. [ails.]) was identical for all four experimental conditions. The number of splicing points and their positions were also identical between the four experimental conditions.

For the acoustical characterization of the stimuli, we decided to examine fundamental frequency and word durations for each sentence and condition; see [START_REF] Eckstein | It's early: Event-related potential evidence for initial interaction of syntax and prosody in speech comprehension[END_REF] for details. Descriptively, the f0-contour for critical words in the prosodically correct conditions marked for sentence continuation (CC and CS) showed a rise-fall pattern (see online Supplementary Materials Figure S1). Prosodic violations (PC and PS) showed the reverse fall-rise pattern.

Participants

We tested eleven participants (mean age 26 years; range from 20 to 31 years of age; four women) after they had given informed consent. All were right-handed and reported no neurological, hearing or language impairments. Participants were paid 7 Euro/hr. Participants listened to the sentences had to judge the grammaticality of each them. Answers were given by button presses 1500ms after the end of the sentences. Button answer assignments were randomly varied by presenting two pictures with equal probability each. One had a smiley at the right hand side and subjects had to press the right button to mark a correct sentence -the other picture had the smiley at the left hand side.

MEG data recording

Measurements were conducted using a Vectorview MEG device (Elekta-Neuromag Oy, Helsinki, Finland). Data were first cleaned of interference and transformed into a fixed head position via MaxMove-Software © Elekta-Neuromag. Trial-based epochs exceeding 80 µV (EOG), 4 pT (MEG) or 200 fT/cm amplitude variation within the epoch from -200 ms to 800 ms were excluded from further analysis. Subsequently, data were band-pass filtered from 0.8 to 5 Hz. Averages time-locked to the onset of the critical word's suffix were computed for each subject and the four conditions.

DCM specification

Elaborating on the work of [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF], we studied language processing DCMs which either include or do not include a deep source possibly representing the thalamus and the respective cortico-subcortical loops (Figure 1). The cortical areas considered are Heschl's gyrus (HG, primary auditory cortex), the mid-to-anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the opercular structure in the IFG because they were identified using a cortically distributed source reconstruction [START_REF] Maess | Investigating language processing of syntax and prosody via dynamic causal modelling (DCM) on MEG data[END_REF] (see online Supplementary Materials Figure S2).

As a control of DCM model complexity that may facilitate data fitting when a hidden source is used, we also investigated the consequence on model evidence of using, instead of the deep source, an additional cortical source that was not primarily identified using source reconstruction. We used the anterior cingulate cortex (CG) for that purpose. The cortical interconnections were based on the following findings: (i) A large number of sentence comprehension studies specified the inferior portion of pars opercularis/frontal operculum (FOP) and STG bilaterally to be involved in the processing of syntactic violations [START_REF] Friederici | Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing[END_REF]; (ii) Structural and effective connectivity data have demonstrated that HG connects to the lateral planum polare and the STG as well as to the planum temporale and the posterior STG [START_REF] Upadhyay | Effective and structural connectivity in the human auditory cortex[END_REF] and the STG connects to the FOP [START_REF] Friederici | The brain differentiates human and non-human grammars: Functional localization and structural connectivity[END_REF]. The respective areas (HG, STG, FOP) of the left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) are connected via the corpus callosum [START_REF] Huang | DTI tractography based parcellation of white matter: Application to the mid-sagittal morphology of corpus callosum[END_REF], which was shown to be responsible for the functional interplay of the two hemispheres during auditory sentence comprehension [START_REF] Friederici | Role of the corpus callosum in speech comprehension: Interfacing syntax and prosody[END_REF].

DCM analyses focused on slow evoked components, occurring between 0 and 500 ms peristimulus time, which compose the ELAN waveform as suggested by data from [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF]. Six regions were modeled using an equivalent current dipole (ECD) a priori positioned using MNI coordinates: Heschl's gyrus [-/+ 48;-9;7]; anterior superior temporal gyrus [-/+ 35;0;3]; frontal operculum [-/+ 54;16;-4]. The hidden source was simply modeled using an ECD, positioned at [0;0;0] so that it did not project to the scalp assuming a spherical head model. Alternatively, as a control of DCM overfitting, the hidden source was replaced by CG [0;36;28]. Regions were interconnected with forward, backward and lateral connections as described in [START_REF] David | Modelling event-related responses in the brain[END_REF][START_REF] David | Dynamic causal modeling of evoked responses in EEG and MEG[END_REF].

Other DCM parameters were: eight modes for data selection, one discrete cosine transform (DCT) component to remove slow drift, Hanning windowing to remove the effect of very late responses, a downsampling of 2 to speed up computations, no constraint of symmetry on the orientation of ECD, no modulation of intrinsic connections. DCM parameters were fitted on the four conditions at once (CC, CS, PC, PS). Differences between conditions were obtained by allowing all extrinsic connections to be modulated. Extrinsic connections were modified between the different models but respected some basic features (Figure 2): (i) all models were LH-RH symmetric and the auditory stimulus input, whose estimated parameters model first relays within inferior colliculus and medial geniculate nuclei (MGN) [START_REF] Hackett | Information flow in the auditory cortical network[END_REF], was entered on HG, which was at the bottom of the cortical hierarchy; (ii) STG and FOP were second and third in the cortical hierarchy, respectively, as embodied using forward and backward connections; (iii) HG, STG and FOP were laterally connected assuming callosal communication between corresponding regions in the two hemispheres; (iv) the deep source, which embodies reentrant cortical-subcortical loops that take place after the first flow of information passing through the MGN and HG, was arbitrarily assumed between HG and STG in the hierarchy.

Please insert Figure 1 about here.

Model evidence at the group level and at the family level was estimated using random effect analysis of the negative free energy obtained for every subject and model [START_REF] Stephan | Bayesian model selection for group studies[END_REF][START_REF] Penny | Comparing families of dynamic causal models[END_REF]. Family level inference removes uncertainty about aspects of model structure other than the characteristic of interest. We used five families (Figure 1): models without the deep source (No deep), models with the deep source differentiated according to the lateral connections (HG, STG, FOP), models with the anterior cingulate cortex (CG).

Extrinsic connectivity parameters of the winning families were estimated at the group level using Bayesian model averaging (BMA) [START_REF] Penny | Comparing families of dynamic causal models[END_REF].

DCM simulations

Monte-Carlo simulations were performed with scalp data to demonstrate the possibility of detecting the presence of a hidden source involved in the brain network having generated those data. The head position (306 channels, Elekta Neuromag system) of a subject taken at random was used for simulations. The first step consisted of generating scalp data. Two sources were positioned randomly in the brain and the associated forward model was computed using a spherical head model. One example of the sources together with their corresponding time courses is displayed in Fig. 2A. Cortical sources are labeled as A (blue) and B (red) and an additional hidden relay source as H (green).

Please insert Figure 2 about here.

Their dynamics were created using the neural model of DCM assuming forward and backward connections between subsequent sources following two configurations: (i) a simple model only composed of the two measurable sources; (ii) an augmented model containing a hidden (deep) source between the two measurable sources located at random. For each model, scalp data were obtained by integrating the differential equations of the corresponding neuronal models, with parameter values chosen randomly (using the prior mean value plus a random component of maximal value equal to 50% of the prior variance). Fifty realizations were considered for the Monte-Carlo simulations.

In the second step, synthetic scalp data (generated with and without a hidden source) were adjusted under two assumptions: using a DCM composed of the two measurable sources (A & B), or using a DCM which contained the additional hidden source (H). Each model was the true model for only one set of scalp data. For each condition, fixed effect model posterior probability [START_REF] Stephan | Bayesian model selection for group studies[END_REF] was computed to assess the possibility of DCM inference to accurately detect the presence or absence of the hidden source.

Results

DCM simulations

As an additional observation, we found that models including the deep source are recovering the temporal time series almost perfectly. Note that even the time course of the hidden source was correctly estimated when appropriately assumed. On the contrary, the cortical time courses were rather poorly recovered when the hidden source is wrongly assumed to be absent. Additionally, the value of the negative free energy, an approximation of the log evidence of each model, was higher for the true model, the one with the hidden source.

Model posterior evidence computed on randomly generated data (Monte-Carlo-Simulations)

shows clearly that, in principle, it is possible to correctly detect the presence or the absence of the hidden source (Figure 2B).

DCM modeling of language data

The competing DCMs differed in the topology of subcortical-cortical loops and in their direct interhemispheric connections (Figure 1). Comparing model exceedance probability of all 22 models and of all 5 families tested, we found clear evidence of the presence of a hidden source whatever the cortical connectivity (Figures 3A and3B). Indeed, exceedance probability summed over the three families with the deep source (HG, STG, FOP) was over 0.95. Models 1 to 6 and corresponding family "No deep" only reached very low values of exceedance probability. As an empirical demonstration of the actual presence of a deep source, the evidence of family CG including an anterior cingulate source was well below the evidence of the other families having the deep source (HG, STG, FOP) -see Figure 3B. The profile of exceedance probability between HG, STG and FOP families may indicate that transcallosal connectivity at a higher level in the cortical hierarchy is more appropriate to explain the data. However, the three best models, which represented 86% of exceedance probability, belonged to each of those three families (Model 10: HG, Model 11: STG, Model 15: FOP) -see Figure 3C. This suggested that it was not possible to distinguish between HG, STG and FOP. Therefore those families were considered as winning families and were included in Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) of connectivity parameters.

Please insert Figure 3 about here.

Mean brain evoked responses were computed by averaging over subjects and winning families (Figure 4A). They showed increased amplitude in response to violations, from 100 ms peri-stimulus time on, in almost all conditions and locations. Specifically, syntactic violations appeared to have more impact than prosodic violations on subcortical activity. The link between amplitude (Figure 4A) and connectivity (Figure 4B) modulations was however difficult to assess because of heterogeneous connectivity over conditions. The most consistent finding in relation to violations was a decrease of cortical (no violation: 1.41 ; violation: 1.13) and subcortical (no violation: 2.35 ; violation: 1.14) reentrant connectivity to Heschl's gyrus.

Intercallosal lateral connections were also modulated and showed a global decrease of connectivity whenever a violation was detected (no violation: 0.71; violation: 0.36). The difference of conditional modulation of connectivity between the correct and the other three experimental conditions is displayed in (Figure 4C).

Please insert Figure 4 about here.

Discussion

This study is important for two reasons. First, from a methodological point of view, we have shown that hidden neural activity (i.e., activity that is not recordable using non-invasive methods) can be recovered using parameter estimation of biophysical models of brain networks (Dynamic Causal Modeling) [START_REF] David | Modelling event-related responses in the brain[END_REF][START_REF] David | Dynamic causal modeling of evoked responses in EEG and MEG[END_REF]. Second, the present data allow us to make specific inferences on subcortical-cortical connectivity during auditory language processing. The ability to record deep brain structures in EEG or MEG has been a matter of debate, and several studies have suggested that thalamic activity would actually be recordable in MEG or EEG [START_REF] Attal | Modeling and detecting deep brain activity with MEG & EEG[END_REF][START_REF] Gross | The neural basis of intermittent motor control in humans[END_REF][START_REF] Tesche | Non-invasive imaging of neuronal population dynamics in human thalamus[END_REF]. When comparing intracerebral and scalp data, it is nonetheless clear that scalp recordings do not capture the activity of deep structures well [START_REF] Dalal | Simultaneous MEG and intracranial EEG recordings during attentive reading[END_REF][START_REF] Ray | Localizing value of scalp EEG spikes: a simultaneous scalp and intracranial study[END_REF]. Here, we made the radical assumption that deep structures (e.g., thalamus) were not recorded (i.e., their activity did not project to the scalp), and we proposed to indirectly estimate depth activity by the means of biophysical modeling of neuronal connections.

Dynamic Causal Modeling allows the estimation of neuronal parameters (connectivity and time constants) from EEG or MEG evoked responses [START_REF] David | Dynamic causal modeling of evoked responses in EEG and MEG[END_REF]. Using a Bayesian framework, it is possible to make inferences on estimated parameters, and most importantly, to compare different models on the basis of their evidence, which combines the goodness of fit to the data of model dynamics and model complexity. The simple idea we have tested to investigate the presumed influence of deep nuclei was to compare models with or without a hidden (i.e., deep) source. Because a model with a deep source is more complex than a model without, given the same number of cortical sources, it is selected as a better model only if it does allow the better reproduction of recorded scalp data through the modulation of brain dynamics by the means of subcortical/cortical connections. Using a simulation (see Figures 2A-C), we demonstrated the face validity and potential value of this new method of modeling the sources of MEG or EEG data. This approach is in fact radically new and opens avenues for the noninvasive study of thalamocortical loops under physiological and pathological conditions. We applied it to investigate the possible role of the thalamus and basal ganglia during the processing of syntactic and prosodic violations in auditory sentence comprehension.

Overall, our MEG DCM results suggest the involvement of a deep source in language processing. Though DCM does not provide here a definitive answer, this deep source very likely represents the thalamus, as intracranial recordings in a study using partly similar material indicated increased thalamic responses to syntactic violations in an earlier time window [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF]. Here, the particular modulations in connection strength suggest different networks react as a function of syntactic and prosodic information. Syntactic information, which is known to be processed in the left hemisphere [START_REF] Friederici | Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing[END_REF][START_REF] Hagoort | On Broca, brain, and binding: a new framework[END_REF][START_REF] Hickok | Opinion -The cortical organization of speech processing[END_REF], indeed leads to increased responses in left STG and FOP, but also in right FOP and in the deep source. Prosodic information is known to be processed in the right hemisphere [START_REF] Meyer | Brain activity varies with modulation of dynamic pitch variance in sentence melody[END_REF]. Not surprisingly, we observed that prosodic violations involved right-sided modulation of cortical activity but also elicited an increase of subcortical activity, weaker than the one evoked by syntactic violations. In terms of connectivity patterns, contextual modulations are complex. A consistent feature is a decrease of cortical and subcortical reentrant inputs to Heschl's gyrus whenever violation is detected. Given that the syntactic violations investigated in the present study are reflected in the EEG and MEG experiments as an early effect whose dipolar activity is located in the superior temporal gyrus anterior to HG [START_REF] Friederici | Localization of early syntactic processes in frontal and temporal cortical areas: A magnetoencephalographic study[END_REF]Knoesche et al., 1999) or in close vicinity to the HG [START_REF] Herrmann | Localization of the syntactic mismatch negativity in the temporal cortex: an MEG study[END_REF], the reentrant loop between HG and the deep source suggests that the information from the secondary auditory cortex is referred to the deep nuclei for further processing which affects high and low level cortical processing. This is backed up by cortical and intracranial recording data indicating the cortical effect precedes the respective effect in the thalamus [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF].

In addition we observed a global decreased of transcallosal connections in relation to violations, particularly at the level of HG and FOP. The decrease for the interhemispheric connection between the FOP, HG and STG sources is in line with the assumption that during normal auditory language processing, both hemispheres work in parallel, with the left hemisphere being primarily responsible for syntactic and lexical-semantic processes and the right hemisphere for prosodic processes. In conditions where one hemisphere detects a violation, possibly via fast thalamo-cortical (HG) loops, the intercollosal connectivity is reduced to allow independent processing of syntax and of prosody.

To sum up, these results can be interpreted using the theory of predictive coding [START_REF] David | Modelling event-related responses in the brain[END_REF]. During learning of language, both brain hemispheres acquire prior representations of syntactic and prosodic information. In the presence of syntactic of prosodic violations, after early auditory stimulus processing in HG, thalamus and STG/FOP send back error signals by the means of increased connectivity on HG and decreased transcallosal connectivity. These error signals have two main purposes: (i) allow to process the sentence as a whole using prior representations of language that allow to reconstruct its initial meaning if mismatch is limited, probably here by dissociating processes related to prosody and syntax; (ii) start learning new prior representations of language using synaptic plasticity in the case of violations become common rules.

Overall, our MEG DCM results are highly suggestive of where increased thalamic responses to language violations were measured using intracranial recordings [START_REF] Wahl | The role of the human thalamus in syntactic language processing[END_REF]. DCM was thus successful in demonstrating that the thalamus is a crucial part within the language

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: Schematic overview of the twenty-two models tested distributed into 5 families (rows). The first family includes the six cortical regions but no deep source. Other model families are characterized by the interhemispheric connections between either the Heschl's gyrus HG or the superior temporal regions STG or the opercular regions FOP. Last family CG is used as a control. It is an STG family assuming an anterior cingulate region instead of the deep source. The left part of each display represents the left and the right part the right hemisphere of the brain.

  Figure 2: A) Generative model for simulations to investigate the influence of the hidden source (H) and two measurable sources (A and B). Locations of A and B were varied randomly.B) Results of Monte Carlo simulations testing two model families: with and without a deep (hidden) source (H). Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that independent of the location and the distance between the visible sources, the model posterior probability provides stable information whether or not inclusion of a hidden source constitutes in a better model.

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: Bayesian model selection based on exceedance probabilities for different scenarios.

Figure 4 :

 4 Figure 4: Averaged time courses and connectivities of winning model families.

network, probably as a moderator between the other cortical regions. Our study opens new avenues for studying the role of subcortical structures in human cognition.


Thai Lik
email: likthai@doctors.org.uk

Robert Alexander Lim

Blum

Peng Chee

Abdul Cheng

Hanifudin

Lik Thai Lim

Thai

Chee Peng Cheng

Peng

Robert Blum

Abdul Hanifudin

Lim

Bilateral anterior uveitis secondary to erlotinib

Keywords: erlotinib, anterior uveitis, red eyes, side effects

We would like to report the first case of bilateral severe anterior uveitis secondary to erlotinib. Erlotinib is an EGFR inhibitor which can contain the cancer cells. [1} It is licensed for use in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in the UK, as a secondary treatment, for those patients who fail to respond to chemotherapy. [2] Case history

A 63-year-old lady presented to eye casualty with a five-day history of bilateral red watery (non-discharging) eyes, accompanied by photophobia, reduced vision and a dull ache in both eyes. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was Snellen acuity of 6/24 in the right eye and 6/12 in the left. She was diagnosed with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) about nine months previously and had not responded to standard chemotherapy. Other than the NSCLC, there was no significant past medical history. She was commenced on erlotinib (150mg OD PO) about six weeks prior to her presentation to the eye clinic. Her other medications were loperamide and oxytetracycline. During the fifth week of erlotinib treatment, she developed dull, aching, red, watery eyes with reduced vision. At the same time she also developed diarrhoea, frontal headache, nausea and mouth irritation.

Ocular examination revealed bilateral severe anterior uveitis with almost complete posterior synechiae (Figure 1). The anterior chamber examination revealed fine keratic precipitates, cells (3+), and flare (2+). There was no hypopyon. Fundus examination was unremarkable. There was no clinical evidence of ocular metastases. She was treated appropriately with regular topical ocular steroid (prednisolone acetate 1%) and mydrilate (atropine 1%). Subsequently the posterior synechiae and the anterior uveitis resolved after two weeks.

In view of the history, it is very likely that the bilateral anterior uveitis was secondary to the erlotinib. However, this side effect has not been reported in the medical literature. This is therefore the first reported case of bilateral anterior uveitis secondary to erlotinib. This episode was reported to the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency of the UK (MHRA) (Yellow form).

Discussion

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is known to be involved in the growth and proliferation of various forms of cancer cells, including non-small cell lung carcinoma. One method of containing the cancer cells is to inhibit their growth and spread. Erlotinib is an EGFR inhibitor aimed at containing the proliferation and dissemination of various cancer cells, including non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). [START_REF] Raymond | Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase as a target for anticancer therapy[END_REF] In the UK, erlotinib is used as a second line medication for NSCLC in patients unresponsive to standard chemotherapy. [2] Erlotinib can be an effective treatment to contain NSCLC but the side effects of this drug can also be debilitating. Common ocular side effects of erlotinib include conjunctivitis, keratoconjunctivitis sicca and keratitis. Other common systemic side effects include mouth irritation, nausea, headaches, rash, diarrhoea, itching, dry skin, indigestion, altered skin sensation and depression. [START_REF] Pérez-Soler | Selected Highlights[END_REF][START_REF] Thomas | Determinants of Tumor Response and Survival With Erlotinib in Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer[END_REF] The less common ocular side effects include eyelash changes and ulceration and corneal perforation (1 in 10 000). [START_REF] Pérez-Soler | Selected Highlights[END_REF][START_REF] Thomas | Determinants of Tumor Response and Survival With Erlotinib in Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer[END_REF] An extensive literature search found no reports of bilateral anterior uveitis as a side effect of erlotinib. It is clear from the history that all of the ocular and systemic symptoms occurred simultaneously during the fifth week of erlotinib therapy. It can therefore be inferred that the anterior uveitis was a complication of erlotinib therapy.

In conclusion, the treating physician must bear in mind the possibility of anterior uveitis as a potential side effect of erlotinib therapy. A prompt referral to the ophthalmology department for management is necessary for any patient who develops symptoms of uveitis while on erlotinib.

Page 1 of 4 European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

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Title: Bilateral anterior uveitis secondary to erlotinib.

This article received no funding.