In a Brittany fairytale, few cities are as fabled as the coastal settlement of Ys, famous as much for its beauty and picturesque setting as for the terrifying fate that befell it. Several versions of the legend have survived the centuries, but the story goes essentially like this: in order to prevent the towering waves of the Bay of Douarnenez from assaulting Ys at high tide, the Breton King Gradlon orders the construction of a massive dike, with a gate built into the fortification, to be opened only at low tide. Only one key to this gate exists, and the king possesses it. The waters are kept out, yet not all is well with the city. Under Gradlon’s reign, Ys also became known as a place of perverse pleasure, with the king’s daughter, the lurid seductress Dahut, at the center of it all. One night, the Devil arrives in disguise and tricks Dahut into stealing the key and unlocking the gate—right in the midst of a raging midnight tempest. At once, the waves come crashing through the fortifications of the city, inundating its streets and submerging it beneath the sea. Only the cathedral, symbol of the decent and devout people of Ys, enjoys an eternal repose, as it is said to rise up out of the watery depths on clear days at sunrise, the ringing bells and booming organ audible across the expanse of the bay, before sinking slowly back into the sea by night.
