St Corentin

The list of Dramatis Personae in Gallicenae (London, 1988) by Poul and Karen Anderson tells us whether each character is:

fictional or legendary;
historical;
of doubtful or debatable historicity.

The central character, Gratillonius, is fictional and presented as the original of the legendary King Grallon or Gradlon.

Doubtful characters include Corentinus, now known as St Corentin, who in the novel becomes Christian minister to Ys. He is associated with a miracle of a fish which is an event in the novel and the attached image shows him holding a fish. Later, he performs the characteristically Christian miracle of walking on water.

Corentinus recognises the Three Gods of Ys as demons empowering their devotees and Pagans cannot deny that Christ is a powerful God. Thus, the world views are not dissimilar. Both recognise many supernatural beings but make different value judgements about them.

Another Christian friend of Gratillonius feels that Ausonius (see a previous post):

"...was a man of antiquity, born out of his time, who accepted Christ with the same impersonal politeness he would earlier have accorded Jupiter." (p. 142)

- a Pagan attitude. Corentinus sees himself as opposed to the Ysan Gods and, if they had still been active, the Olympians.