1183 poem dedicated to Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany – the duke to whom Brocéliande belonged. Its unusual weather alone is noted in a handful of texts: Giraldus Cambrensis's c. 1185 expeditionary account, Topographia Hibernica, Alexandre Neckham's c. 1195 work on nautical science, De naturis rerum, and William the Breton's c. 1215 poem, Philippide. Arthurian legend In the 1170s, Chrétien de Troyes mentions the forest of Brocéliande in his Arthurian romance, Le Chevalier au lion. While in Brocéliande, Yvain pours water from a spring into a stone, causing a violent storm to erupt. This in turn summons the knight Esclados le Ros who defends the forest. In the late 12th or early 13th century, Robert de Boron first associates the figure of Merlin with Brocéliande in his poem Merlin. It is also featured in several episodes of the prose adaptations and continuations of the poem, the Vulgate Cycle (Lancelot-Grail), notably in the stories of Merlin and Viviane. Later, Morgan le Fay traps many unfaithful knights in her Vale of No Return within Brocéliande until they are freed by Lancelot. In Jaufré, the Arthurian romance of unknown authorship composed in Catalonia, the forest of Brocéliande is near King Arthur's palace and the site of a mill where Arthur battles a strange bull-like animal, really a shapeshifting mage knight. The dating of Jaufré is debated and may have been written as early as 1183 or as late as 1225–1228. Later, Brocéliande also appears in context of Arthurian knights in Huon de Méry's allegorical poem Tournoiement Antecrist as well as in other texts such as Claris et Laris, where it is the site of Morgan's fairy castle, and Brun de la Montagne. Localisations Early source works provide unclear or conflicting information on the exact location of Brocéliande; different hypotheses exist to place Brocéliande on the map. According to Wace, Brocéliande is in Brittany. Since the 15th century (Jean Cabaret d'Orville), Brocéliande has been linked by some to the forest of Lorge near Quintin in Brittany. Since around 1400 (Ponthus et Sidoine, where the forest is named Berthelien) and commonly in modern times, Brocéliande is considered to be Paimpont forest in Brittany. Some scholars think that Brocéliande is a mythological place and has never existed. Jean Markale notes that while the forest itself is legendary, it is part of the "remainder of the immense forest that covered the entire center of Brittany until the