Brocéliande Forest

The Forêt de Paimpont in eastern Brittany is widely identified with the Brocéliande of Arthurian legend, first attested in the 12th-century verse of Wace. It is here that Chrétien de Troyes and later writers placed Merlin's tomb, the Fountain of Barenton (whose waters, poured on a stone, summon storms), and the valley where Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake.

Whether the identification is historical or romantic invention, the forest today bears sites named for these legends: the Tomb of Merlin, the Val Sans Retour ('Valley of No Return', where Morgan le Fay imprisoned faithless knights), and Viviane's Pool. The forest is one of the last remnants of the great primeval forest that once covered most of Brittany, and its standing stones and megalithic monuments long predating the Arthurian cycle suggest a sacred landscape that the later legends simply absorbed.