Brocéliande is a legendary forest situated around the village of Paimpont in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, about 17 miles west of Rennes and not too far from Saint-Malo. The forest’s ancient canopy consists largely of oak and beech trees, some of them impressively gnarled. Covering almost 35 square miles, it long has been associated with Arthurian legend and ancient schools of sorcery. Druids used to perform rites there (and maybe still do); the magician Merlin is rumored to have been buried there.
For centuries, Brocéliande has been a place where nature and supernature are said to mingle. English writer and poet Charles Williams noted that forests obscure the horizon—that distinct line where the earth and the heavens definably meet—and so ambiguity can dance in the shadows. Perhaps that’s why, in the imagination, enchanted forests are home to “unknown modes of being,” places of faerie, magic, and the black arts. It follows then that such places are believed to present immense possibilities as well as immense dangers. There are walking paths through Brocéliande. Maybe you’ll want to bring your hiking boots.
(Of course, if by chance you’re a fan of the long-running British TV crime show “Midsomer Murders,” you won’t want to go near a forest or copse; once you go in, you never come back out! That’s part of the “immense danger.”)