Claire Le Guillou
150
Trois-Rois. Dès lors, nous trouvâmes la voie sans peine. Elle était bien
reconnaissable à ses grosses rainures de pierres sur champ.
32
These first traces and their knowledge of archaeology offer them salvation, with the Roman road leading them to the Gallic ruins at Crevant, which are not initially visible. Sand thus leads us backward
through time, in order to take us to the quasi-mythical origins of
Berry. They arrive safe and sound in an “oasis de granit et de verdure,
un labyrinthe où tout était refuge et mystère”. Simone BernardGriffiths talks of a “lieu sacré”, and of the “insularité temporelle paradoxale en pleine Terreur”.
33
They then set up home in a quarrier’s cottage, which has in
fact been constructed around an ancient dolmen. Sand thus institutes
temporal continuity between the Celtic era and the late eighteenth century in which the novel takes place, by introducing the theme of recycling and the reformulation of language, for the site is thereafter
renamed “l’aire aux fées”. She reinforces the line of temporal continuity by presenting the Berrichon peasants once again as the last vestiges
of the Celtic people (p. 164), emphasizing the fact that the “aire aux
fées”, having been occupied by “les femmes sauvages (les druidesses),
avait servi d’ermitage à des saints et à des saintes” (p. 150). Sand also
makes nature participate in this temporal continuity, conferring the
status of archaeological relic upon the trees, “d’un âge incalculable”,
“[qui] peuvent présenter un spécimen de la Gaule primitive dans son
intégralité” (p. 165). In this place which is so totally steeped in archaeology, Sand describes the contentment of the peasant-girl Nanon
and the young aristocrat Emilien de Franqueville, thus delimiting a
space which is more than a mere utopia, but which may rather be understood as an uchronie, taking place outside of history as we know it.
However, as in the novel Jeanne, Sand makes a clear distinction between two types of Celtic monument. The “parelle” is a “mauvaise pierre”, “signe d’une frontière possible entre naturel et
surnaturel”, and the Druiderin a place of sentimental revelations. It is
at the Druiderin, a site which is barely visible and which is also much
___________________________
32 George Sand, Nanon (Meylan: Editions de l’Aurore, 1987), p. 140. Subsequent references to this edition are given after quotations in the text.
33 Simone Bernard-Griffths, “L’Espace dans Nanon: de la géographie à la
mythologie”, in George Sand et l’écriture (Montréal: Université de Montréal,
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, 1996), pp. 339-53.
150
Trois-Rois. Dès lors, nous trouvâmes la voie sans peine. Elle était bien
reconnaissable à ses grosses rainures de pierres sur champ.
32
These first traces and their knowledge of archaeology offer them salvation, with the Roman road leading them to the Gallic ruins at Crevant, which are not initially visible. Sand thus leads us backward
through time, in order to take us to the quasi-mythical origins of
Berry. They arrive safe and sound in an “oasis de granit et de verdure,
un labyrinthe où tout était refuge et mystère”. Simone BernardGriffiths talks of a “lieu sacré”, and of the “insularité temporelle paradoxale en pleine Terreur”.
33
They then set up home in a quarrier’s cottage, which has in
fact been constructed around an ancient dolmen. Sand thus institutes
temporal continuity between the Celtic era and the late eighteenth century in which the novel takes place, by introducing the theme of recycling and the reformulation of language, for the site is thereafter
renamed “l’aire aux fées”. She reinforces the line of temporal continuity by presenting the Berrichon peasants once again as the last vestiges
of the Celtic people (p. 164), emphasizing the fact that the “aire aux
fées”, having been occupied by “les femmes sauvages (les druidesses),
avait servi d’ermitage à des saints et à des saintes” (p. 150). Sand also
makes nature participate in this temporal continuity, conferring the
status of archaeological relic upon the trees, “d’un âge incalculable”,
“[qui] peuvent présenter un spécimen de la Gaule primitive dans son
intégralité” (p. 165). In this place which is so totally steeped in archaeology, Sand describes the contentment of the peasant-girl Nanon
and the young aristocrat Emilien de Franqueville, thus delimiting a
space which is more than a mere utopia, but which may rather be understood as an uchronie, taking place outside of history as we know it.
However, as in the novel Jeanne, Sand makes a clear distinction between two types of Celtic monument. The “parelle” is a “mauvaise pierre”, “signe d’une frontière possible entre naturel et
surnaturel”, and the Druiderin a place of sentimental revelations. It is
at the Druiderin, a site which is barely visible and which is also much
___________________________
32 George Sand, Nanon (Meylan: Editions de l’Aurore, 1987), p. 140. Subsequent references to this edition are given after quotations in the text.
33 Simone Bernard-Griffths, “L’Espace dans Nanon: de la géographie à la
mythologie”, in George Sand et l’écriture (Montréal: Université de Montréal,
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, 1996), pp. 339-53.