Breton lai

A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short (typically 600–1000 lines), rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs. The word "lay" or “lai” is thought to be derived from the Old High German and/or Old Middle German leich, which means play, melody, or song, or as suggested by Jack Zipes in The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, the Irish word laid (song).<ref "Z62>Zipes, 62</ref>

Zipes writes that Arthurian legends may have been brought from Wales, Cornwall and Ireland to Brittany; on the continent the songs were performed in various places by harpists, minstrels, storytellers. Zipes reports the earliest recorded lay is Robert Biker's Lai du Cor, dating to the mid- to late-12th century.

The earliest of the Breton lais to survive is probably The Lais of Marie de France, thought to have been composed in the 1170s by Marie de France, a French poet writing in England at Henry II's court between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. From descriptions in Marie's lais, and in several anonymous Old French lais of the 13th century, we know of earlier lais of Celtic origin, perhaps more lyrical in style, sung by Breton minstrels. It is believed that these Breton lyrical lais, none of which has survived, were introduced by a summary narrative setting the scene for a song, and that these summaries became the basis for the narrative lais.

Lai

A lai (or lay lyrique, "lyric lay", to distinguish it from a lai breton) is a lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance. Lais were mainly composed in France and Germany, during the 13th and 14th centuries. The English term lay is a 13th-century loan from Old French lai. The origin of the French term itself is unclear; perhaps it is itself a loan from German Leich (reflected in archaic or dialectal English lake, "sport, play").The terms note, nota and notula (as used by Johannes de Grocheio) appear to be have been synonyms for lai.

The poetic form of the lai usually has several stanzas, none of which have the same form. As a result, the accompanying music consists of sections which do not repeat. This distinguishes the lai from other common types of musically important verse of the period (for example, the rondeau and the ballade). Towards the end of its development in the 14th century, some lais repeat stanzas, but usually only in the longer examples. There is one very late example of a lai, written to mourn the defeat of the French at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), (Lay de la guerre, by Pierre de Nesson) but no music for it survives.

Lai (state)

Lai (simplified Chinese: 莱; traditional Chinese: 萊; pinyin: Lái), also known as Laiyi (萊夷), was an ancient Dongyi state located in what is now eastern Shandong Province, recorded in the Book of Xia. Tang Shanchun (唐善纯) believes lai means "mountain" in the old Yue language, while the Yue Jue Shu (越絕書) says lai means "wilderness".

History

Lai was a traditional enemy of the State of Qi to its west. As soon as Jiang Ziya, the first ruler of Qi, was enfeoffed at Qi, the state of Lai attacked its capital at Yingqiu. In 567 BC, Lai attacked Qi but was decisively defeated by Duke Ling of Qi, and its last ruler Furou, Duke Gong of Lai, was killed. Lai was a large state, and Qi more than doubled in size after annexing Lai. The people were moved to Laiwu, where Mencius later called them the Qídōng yěrén (齊東野人), the "peasants of eastern Qi".

Rulers of Lai

References

Lenzerheide

Lenzerheide (Romansh: Lai) is a mountain resort in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It lies at the foot of the Parpaner Rothorn. The village belongs to the municipality Vaz/Obervaz in the district of Albula, sub-district Alvaschein.

The village lies in a broadened section of the valley between the cantonal capital Chur to the north and Tiefencastel, beyond which are the Julier Pass and St Moritz. The high valley forms a pass of no official name, often referred to as Lenzerheide Pass, with a culmination point located 5 km north of the village.

Lenzerheide is popular as skiing resort and for its lake (Heidsee), which is frozen in winter. The Lenzerheide Bergbahnen AG offers access to the skiing areas of Stätzerhorn, Danis, Scalottas, and Rothorn. There are slopes approved for all FIS Alpine Ski World Cup races for women and men.

A two day hike connects Lenzerheide with two more resorts in Graubünden in different Valleys, which are Arosa (to be reached in one day) and Davos (a two days hike).

Breton

Breton usually refers to:

Breton may also refer to:

Breton (company)

Breton S.p.A. is an Italian privately held company established in 1963. The company produces machines and plants for engineered stone and metalworking. Machines and plants by Breton can be used in diverse sectors such as die-making, aerospace, automotive, racing cars, energy, gears, general mechanics, stone processing and kitchen top manufacturing.

History

Breton was established in 1963 in Castello di Godego, Italy, by Marcello Toncelli, who started developing new technologies and manufacturing industrial plants for producing engineered stone. Marcello Toncelli invented the Bretonstone technology, also known as vibrocompression under vacuum, a patented technology which is used today by most engineered stone manufacturers. Around the mid 1990s the company decided to enter also into the machine tool market, manufacturing machining centres for the mechanical industry.

In 2003 Marcello Toncelli, Breton's founder, died, and the control of the company passed to his sons Luca and Dario Toncelli, who since then have been running the company together with the founder's long-time partner, Roberto Chiavacci, Vice President of the Board of Directors.

Breton language

Breton /ˈbrɛtən/ (Brezhoneg IPA: [bʁe.ˈzõː.nɛk] or IPA: [bre.hõ.ˈnɛk] (in Morbihan)) is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany (Breton: Breizh; French: Bretagne), France.

Breton is a Brythonic language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages; it is thus an Insular Celtic language and not closely related to the Gaulish language, which had been spoken in pre-Roman Gaul. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages. Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly-related Brittonic languages.

The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a langue d'oïl. It is a Romance language, thus ultimately descended from Latin, (unlike the similarly-named ancient Celtic language Gaulish) and consequently very close to French, although not mutually intelligible.

Having declined from more than 1 million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33 percent between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.