Brittia

Brittia (), according to Procopius,De bellis 8.20 [The Gothic War 4.20], written from Constantinople in the 540s. was an island known to the inhabitants of the Low Countries under Frankish rule (viz. the North Sea coast of Austrasia), corresponding both to a real island used for burial and a mythological Isle of the Blessed, to which the souls of the dead are transported.

Procopius's Brittia lies no farther than 200 stadia (25 miles) from the mainland, opposite the mouth of the Rhine but between the islands of Brettania and legendary Thule, and three nations live in it, Angiloi, Phrissones and Brittones, that is, Angles, Frisians and Britons. Procopius mentions a wall in Brittia, which he distinguishes from Bretannia, however, and fertile lands. "It is perhaps only the apparently authentic combinations of names, Angles, Frisians and Britons, which demands hard attention to this interlude in serious Byzantine discussions of the Gothic wars," H. R. Loyn warns.Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 2nd ed. 1991:28. Procopius relates:

"A garbled account", observed LoynLoyn 1991:28. "possibly an echo of a report by a Frankish ambassador or an Angle in the ambassador's entourage".

Pursuing geographical accuracy beyond the capacity of Procopius himself, there have been suggestions as to at which point exactly these boats left the Gallic coast, Villemarqué placing it near Raz, Armorica, where there is a toponym "bay of souls".The geographical issues are discussed in P. N. Ure, Justinian and His Age, 1951:246-48; the legend, perfectly suited to the Romantic view of Celts, is narrated for a popular audience by Henri Martin, Histoire de France, depuis les temps les plus reculés 1833:vol. 1:72f.Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. John T. Koch. Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABC-CLIO. 2006. p. 51.

Jacob GrimmGrimm, Teutonic Mythology, ch. 26. reports that on the river Tréguier in Brittany, in the commune Plouguel, it is "said to be the custom to this day, to convey the dead to the churchyard in a boat, over a small arm of the sea called passage de l'enfer, instead of taking the shorter way by land".

Procopius's account is repeated by John TzetzesTo Lycophron 1204. in the 12th century; but long before that, Claudian at the beginning of the 5thIn Rufinum 1, 123-133. had heard of those Gallic shores as a trysting place of flitting ghosts.

And not far from that region are Britain, the land of the Senones, and the Rhine. Grimm compares this account to the airy wagon of the Bretons, and to bardic traditions which make out that souls, to reach the underworld, must sail over the pool of dread and of dead bones, across the vale of death, into the sea on whose shore stands open the mouth of hell's abyss.

The name may arise from the Breton name of Brittany, Breizh.

Brittia

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