THE SUPERNATURAL
IN
EARLY SPANISH
LITERATURE
STUDIED IN THE WORKS OF THE COURT
OF ALFONSO X, EL SABIO
By
FRANK CALLCOTT, Ph. D.
Department of Romance Languages
Columbia University
[Illustration]
INSTITUTO DE LAS ESPAÑAS
en los ESTADOS UNIDOS
NEW YORK
1923
Es propiedad.
Derechos reservados
para todos los países.
Copyright, 1923,
by the Instituto de las Españas.
_To
MY PARENTS_
PREFACE
It has been the aim of the author in the following study to collect,
classify, and analyze the various references made in the works of
Alfonso X, el Sabio, to the beliefs and superstitions, of the Spaniard
of that day, with reference to the supernatural. It is hoped that it
will be possible in this way to reach a better understanding of the
attitude of the Spanish people toward the supernatural in general and
thus to acquire a more complete appreciation of that early period of the
nation’s life.
No attempt has been made here to trace the origins of these early
Spanish traditions (many of which were common thruout Europe during the
Middle Ages), and the comparison of what has been found with the
supernatural in the early literature of other European countries has
been left for a later study.
The works of Alfonso el Sabio have been chosen because, to a large
extent, they represent not only their own period but all that had gone
before them, as recorded not only in Castillian but in Latin and to a
greater or less degree in Arabic and Hebrew also. Alfonso gathered to
his court a select group of scholars versed in these languages; and
under his direction they produced or collected a representative library
of works dealing with their respective subjects. It is the accessible
books of this collection that have furnished the material for the
present study.
The author wishes to express sincere thanks to Professor Federico de
Onís of Columbia University for sympathetic encouragement and valuable
suggestions thruout the entire period of study; to Professor Antonio G.
Solalinde, of the _Centro de Estudios Históricos_, Madrid, for helpful
suggestions and criticism of the manuscript as well as for the privilege
of consulting the proof-sheets of the _Antología de Alfonso X, el
Sabio_, which has recently issued from the press; to Professor Raymond
Weeks, of Columbia University, for his sympathetic interpretation of the
Middle Ages and for actually introducing the writer to the true spirit
of that period; to his wife, thru whose timely assistance solely it has
been possible to complete the study without undue delay; and especially
to Professor Henry Alfred Todd, of Columbia, for his painstaking aid and
expert criticism while this work was taking form and being put thru the
press.
_F. C._
_Columbia University_, January, 1923.
INTRODUCTORY
The human mind is always interested in those things that it can not
understand; as soon, however, as the problem has been solved it is no
longer an absorbing subject of attention. When a sleight-of-hand feat
has been explained we turn with renewed zest to something else and
revive our former interest only to mystify or amuse some friend. The
unsolved problem, on the other hand, will grip our undivided interest
for an indefinite length of time; our minds will revert continually to
the unelucidated trick of legerdemain until we learn how it was
accomplished. And so we might continue our illustrations thru the whole
range of human knowledge.
Furthermore, we are not content to limit our curiosity to the
comprehension of what others have understood before us, but push our way
in quest of the answer to the eternal and ever haunting _how?_ and
_why?_ We climb the mountains, we crouch beneath a shelter while the
storm beats, we gaze into space on a starlight night, and these
compelling queries become ever more insistent. This element of
inexhaustible curiosity is, and has been as far back as the existence of
society can be traced, present in all human nature; the leaders of
mankind have not been slow to utilize it for the attainment of their
own lofty or ignoble aims. The warrior has employed it to inspire his
soldiers; the priest to exalt his followers; the minstrel to entrance
his auditors.
In the introduction to her Columbia doctorial dissertation, _The
Supernatural in Modern English Fiction_,[1] Dr. Dorothy Scarborough has
discussed in a very engaging manner the inherent need of the
supernatural in fiction. In real life as well it plays a highly
important part. It is a demonstrated fact that when a man faces a
supreme crisis--when face to face with death--not only will he turn
instinctively to the supernatural powers in that moment but all that is
extraneous to his real self will disappear and the true man will stand
forth revealed. What is true of the individual in this respect applies
also to the race. It is in recognition of this universal truth that the
following study has been undertaken, in the hope that a careful
examination of the supernatural aspect of the beliefs and practices of
Spain as reflected in the literature of a given period will contribute
to a better understanding of the questions involved.
Naturally there is a wide difference between the method of thinking of
the average person in the Middle Ages and that of the average person of
to-day. In the 20th century every peculiar or remarkable phenomenon of
nature is subjected to the scrutiny of scientific study, while with the
medieval man it was accepted at its face value as being the
manifestation of unseen powers, of gods or of devils. It would seem
that consciously or otherwise they attempted to make everything appear
supernatural whether they could explain it or not. We of today demand
that the God of the universe should work thru well defined natural laws;
they, on the other hand, expected that “el milagro sea contra
natura”.[2] It is true nevertheless that the “call” of the supernatural
in one form or another has continued to exert a powerful influence even
down to our own time. Some of its forms of manifestation may have
changed, but the belief is almost everywhere present. Instead of
forecasting the future by Astrology many today seek aid in the _séance_;
miraculous cures are still being sought for as of old not only in many
cases abroad but also in communities nearer home--even in the city of
New York, during the Novena of St. Ann; while only recently it was
reported in the daily press that a young girl in a convent on the banks
of the Hudson showed the marks of the _stigmata_ so prominently
associated with the history of St. Francis of Assisi.
Before entering upon the study proper of the early Spanish period it
will be well to review rapidly some of the important facts in the
“supernatural” history of the Iberians since the time when the Goths
invaded Spain.[3]
When they came they brought with them their songs and legends, which
were peculiarly Germanic. The writer Jordanes, about the middle of the
6th century, states that stories of sunken cities, subterranean voices,
etc., were common in the region of the Vistula, the river which
separated Scythia from Germany.[4] But we find no trace of this in the
early Spanish literature owing to the fact that when the Goths conquered
the Iberians they did not blend readily with the people of the newly
acquired territory. Nor did they, as the Romans had done, encourage the
vanquished to continue their established customs and religion giving to
their own traditions an opportunity, thru friendly intercourse, to
become adopted by their new subjects. On the other hand, in their effort
to make assimilation still more impossible they forbade intermarriage.
The result of this was, to use the words of Amador de los Ríos, that
“La Iglesia, que durante el Imperio visigodo procuró desterrar del
pueblo católico las reprobadas prácticas del gentilismo,
limpiándole al propio tiempo de las torpes é inmundas aberraciones
á que le arrastraban los magos, encantadores, sortílegos y adivinos
que plagaban la nación española, vióse forzada á condenar una y
otra vez tamaños abusos, trasmitidos de edad en edad, con el
auxilio de los cantos populares.”[5]
It seems, however, that in this struggle the Church was not always
successful. Often the result was a compromise in which the pagan customs
were remodeled and made to conform to the requirements of the Church
instead of being completely abolished. For instance, according to J. A.
MacCulloch, the ancient Celtic warriors used to advance dancing and
singing to the fray;[6] and É. Philipon says:
“Lorsqu’ ils marchaient au combat, les guerriers ibères entonnaient à
pleine voix leur chants nationaux, leur _péans_, comme disaient les
Romains.”[7]
In the early Middle Ages this custom of the ancient inhabitants of Spain
still continued under the Christian domination; and into these war cries
and songs had slowly crept the names of the Christian Deity and of the
Christian saints.
This habit of consciously directing the minds of the soldiers to things
spiritual in such a moment may have been an important factor in the
development of the numerous legends of visions seen by soldiers during
battle.[8]
One would naturally expect to encounter a marked Arabic influence in the
early monuments of the language, considering the fact that the Moslems
with all their wealth of magic and other arts peculiar to the East,
entered Spain in the early years of the 8th century, but this is not the
case. When the Moslems entered Spain those who were able retreated
before them, but a large part of the population, unable to do this,
remained under Mohammedan rule. These _mozárabes_, as the conquered
Christians were called, struggled bravely to keep themselves and their
children free from the heresies of their conquerors and for some time
were successful, but by the 9th century the Mohammedans were rapidly
instilling their teachings into their captives.[9]
A reaction against this began under Abderrahman II. The Christians,
becoming obsessed with a desire to be martyrs, began rashly to expose
themselves everywhere. So serious did this movement become that in 852
Abderrahman constrained the bishops to call a council, presided over by
Recafredo, instructing them to condemn this zeal for martyrdom, which
they did, but only in a half-hearted manner. This movement was the last
serious attempt on the part of the _mozárabes_ to rebel against the
teachings of the Moors. From this time on they were rapidly merged into
the nation of the conquerors and it is a question whether any of them
remained true to the Catholic Church at the time Spain was reclaimed by
the Christians, all of which explains the lack of a very noticeable
Arabic influence in the early Castillian writings.
We have therefore (at the time the early Castillian literature began to
appear) a nation from which the clergy had attempted to remove
everything that could not be remodeled to conform to their
interpretation of Christian Scriptures--an endeavor in which they had
been signally successful. At this time, so far as the vernacular was
concerned, there had been little influence from the outside world
(since the time of the Gothic invasion) other than that which had been
imported from Rome. But this isolation was not to last long. When the
Christians reconquered the cities from the Moors they made a practice of
killing the men but of enslaving the women and children.[10] These women
as nurses naturally told the children in their care the stories of their
people. In addition to this, Paschal II, Pope from 1099-1118, issued a
bull declaring sacred the war in Spain against the Moors as well as that
in the Holy Land. This gradually brought into Spain Christian knights
from all Europe with their traditions. Likewise, in the earlier part of
the 12th century a school of clerical writers appeared in Spain who
sought to win the favor of the people thru making their versions of the
traditions of the Church more attractive by mixing freely sacred history
and profane. They sought inspiration in the Moorish and the Classic
traditions; they confused the legends of the past by transferring to
them the customs of their own day.[11] It was they who sought out the
mysterious legends of the East common among the Moors who lived in the
South, incorporating them into their sermons and poems and mingling them
with the Christian mythology. All this prepared the way for the great
efflorescence of the supernatural which began with Alfonso X and
continued in full sway until the 17th century.
CHAPTER I
ALFONSO EL SABIO AS KING AND SCHOLAR
Alfonso X is one of those unfortunate men who have been--sometimes
unconsciously but in many cases purposely--maligned in history. The
_Libro de las Querellas_, (a 17th century work until recently attributed
to Alfonso); the dictum of Mariana, “Dumque coelum considerat
observatque astra, terram amisit”; and the popular verse from the
romances “De tanto mirar al cielo se le cayó la corona” which inspired
Marquina’s poem on that theme, all express the exaggerated and perverted
idea which was generally prevalent concerning this monarch. Those who
knew his works of science, especially of astronomy, were amazed at the
wealth of knowledge displayed therein, and this, together with the fact
that his last years were taken up with rebellions on the part not only
of his vassals but even of his own sons, seem to have been enough to
create the impression just mentioned.
Recent criticism has also brought to light the fact that the almost
blasphemous quotation so long attributed to this king, “Si Dios me
hubiera consultado, habría hecho el mundo de otra manera,” is not his at
all, but rather was invented later in Catalonia by a certain king Pedro
IV, or perhaps by his chronicler Bernat Descoll. Some have attributed it
to Fernando IV.[12]
Altho these conceptions may contain some modicum of truth, they are only
a part of the truth. Alfonso took an active part in the politics of his
day and the surprising thing is that amid all the strife and trouble
that surrounded him he found any time at all to give to literary
production.
Alfonso was born on November 23, 1221, according to the findings of his
biographer, the Marqués de Mondéjar[13] (whose deductions have been
confirmed by documents discovered later) and was named for his
grandfather Alfonso IX of Leon and his great-grandfather Alfonso VIII of
Castile. Practically nothing is known of his early childhood except that
he was associated with certain of the nobility, viz., García Fernández
and Doña Mayor Arias of the province of Burgos. Of his early training
nothing is known. He was probably reared in Toledo, his father’s
capital, and as Sr. Solalinde suggests, much might be inferred from the
rules for the training of princes given in the _Siete Partidas_, a
collection of the laws of the time, provided the reader does not take
these too literally. At the age of sixteen he began his career as a
soldier under his father, Fernando III, el Santo, in the conquest of
Andalucía. He himself added to his father’s crown the kingdom of Murcia
and took an active part in the conquest of Sevilla in 1248. The next
year he married Doña Violante of Aragón, daughter of Jaime el
Conquistador, hoping in this way to effect an alliance between the two
kingdoms, but it seems as tho Fate had decreed that from the very first
his should be a life of disappointments and trouble. The frontier
warfare between these two nations continued, growing even more sharp
later when Alfonso aspired to the crown of Navarra. It was not until
much later that the friendship of Alfonso and Don Jaime became firmly
established.
Aside from his legal wife, whom he married by way of securing a
political asset--a mode of procedure not unknown even in later times--he
really loved a certain beautiful lady, Doña Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who
bore to him his daughter Doña Beatriz, later married by her father to
Alfonso III of Portugal. The sepulcher and also the body of Doña Mayor
in a remarkable state of preservation are still to be seen in Alcocer.
One of the hands still wears the glove with which it was clothed at the
time of the burial.
In May, 1252, Alfonso ascended the throne, after receiving his father’s
solemn charge: “Fijo, ricas fincas et tierra et de muchos buenos
vasallos más que rey que en la cristianidad sea; pugna en facer bien e
ser bueno, ca bien has con qué.”
Alfonso, the king, was undoubtedly an indefatigable worker and a man of
the highest intentions. He knew what ought to be done but apparently did
not have the power of will or the personality to insure the execution
of his purpose. When he ascended the throne the war with the Moors had
been reduced to operations of minor importance and they recognized the
Castillian monarch as their master. But here as elsewhere history
repeats itself. Each Christian king on the peninsula was dominated by
the desire to extend his territories; and, since there was no longer the
necessity of standing together against the common foe, a series of petty
quarrels soon arose followed by attempted conquests. As time went on,
not only Alfonso’s own nobles, but his brothers and even his own son
became involved against their king. It was precisely here that Alfonso
was unable to hold the reins of power in as firm a hand as his father
before him had done. It was because of internal troubles that he failed,
at the critical moment, to bring the wars in Italy to a decisive
conclusion, and to terminate successfully with the popes and others, the
diplomatic controversies in which the throne of the Holy Roman Empire
was at stake. To this throne he had been legally elected at the death of
William of Holland in 1256, when he received four of the seven votes. He
was opposed by Richard of Cornwall. The long contest which followed was
in reality a political battle with the popes, from Alexander IV to
Gregory X, in which Richard usually had the upper hand. At Richard’s
death Rudolph of Hapsburg under the pontifical protection was elected to
take his place, and it was only after nineteen years that Alfonso
finally succeeded, in 1275, in obtaining an audience with Gregory in
France. The unfortunate outcome of this interview was that Alfonso was
persuaded to give up all pretentions to the imperial crown and to forego
his custom of signing international papers with the title of “rey de
romanos.” In this manner ended Alfonso’s vain attempt at external
territorial expansion.
At home, in contests with his own nobles, he had been hardly more
successful. Indeed, with all the accumulated expenses of his
long-continued attempts to obtain the imperial crown it would have
required a man of almost superhuman force to keep his powerful vassals
under control and at the same time subject them to the excessive
taxation necessarily involved. This, as we have seen, Alfonso did not
possess. The Infante Don Enrique was the first to rebel. His outbreak
was followed by a more serious uprising of the nobles under the
ostensible leadership of the king’s brother, the Infante Don Felipe, but
was really fostered and maintained by Nuño de Lara, the boldest and most
favored noble of the court. To restore harmony the king surrendered many
of his own prescriptive rights, but even then the nobles were not
satisfied and Nuño de Lara, inspired by this recently acquired power,
objected to the royal decision to require no further payments of tribute
from the king of Portugal. Alfonso, in anger, demanded that Nuño
withdraw from the council; this he did but in open rebellion,
successfully drawing with him a large number of the nobles. Many of
these, apparently faithful to Alfonso, followed an intimation given them
by Nuño and outwardly supported their sovereign while privately plotting
with some of his powerful enemies, the king of Navarre and even the
emir of Granada.
In an endeavor to adjust matters Alfonso summoned a general convocation,
which the aggrieved nobles, in an attitude of open affront, attended
fully armed while their sovereign wore only civilian dress. At this
meeting the monarch ceded still further privileges; but, pursuing their
advantage, they finally came out in open rebellion and, gathering their
army, marched away from Castile to the kingdom of Granada, burning and
plundering as they went. Meanwhile Alfonso, by means of his eldest son
and heir, Fernando de la Cerda, still endeavored to negotiate with them.
In spite of all these internal troubles the crown of the Holy Roman
Empire still held the uppermost place in the mind of the monarch and it
was just at this juncture that he succeeded in arranging for his above
mentioned visit to France and left his oldest son, Fernando de la Cerda,
to govern in his stead. The latter altho only a boy of twenty years was
already showing great ability as his father’s representative, when
suddenly he died. Fate seemed determined that not one bright lingering
hope should be permitted to relieve Alfonso’s long, unhappy reign.
This unfortunate death was the cause of additional troubles. Don Sancho,
Alfonso’s second son, immediately took up the reins of government where
his brother had let them fall. War having been declared on the Moors, no
time was to be lost. Alfonso returned to find his son and heir dead, his
father-in-law, Don Jaime,--that valiant warrior who had now become his
devoted friend--just killed by the unbelievers, and his second son,
Sancho, self-established as heir-apparent. Altho this was contrary to
what the king himself had ordered in _Las Siete Partidas_,[14] he
confirmed Sancho as his successor, whereas the crown should have gone to
Fernando’s eldest son. This brought more trouble. Queen Violante left
him and sought refuge with her brother, Pedro III of Aragon, in order to
defend the rights of her grandsons. The wife of the deceased prince
hastened to her father, king of France, and war was about to be declared
between the two kingdoms, when Rome interfered. Violante returned to her
lord upon receiving his promise to cede the kingdom of Jaén to his
grandson; but this angered Don Sancho, who rebelled against his father.
Alfonso publicly disinherited his son, and incontinently set out to
crush him. The other Infantes who had previously supported their brother
now forsook him and came to the aid of their father. Sancho himself,
with a kind of religious respect for his royal father, avoided battle
and finally implored pardon. Such was the condition of affairs when,
after an exceedingly turbulent reign of thirty-two years, Alfonso X died
in Seville on the 4th of April, 1284.
During all these years Alfonso had cherished the fond hope of carrying
on an ever broadening war against the Moors and finally of extending it
into Africa and there dealing a death blow to the power of the
Crescent. This purpose of his, like a will-o’-the-wisp, fluttered
constantly just beyond his power of execution. He did succeed in
carrying out minor conquests, but the ruler of Granada was always quick
to take advantage of the civil strife in the kingdom to the north of him
to recover his lost territory. The final net result was that Alfonso
succeeded in adding to his crown the cities of Jerez de la Frontera,
Medina-Sidonia, Lebrija, Niebla, Cádiz, and a few other towns of little
importance.
From the foregoing it is easy to see that Alfonso was not a mere
theorizing star-gazer. It is surprising that a man with his hands so
full of terrestrial affairs could ever have found time to turn his eyes
heavenward or could ever find the leisure and the quiet necessary for
the careful editing of the lengthy works produced at his command.
In speaking of these works and discussing their chronological order Sr.
Ramón Menendez Pidal says:
“La actividad literaria de la corte de Alfonso X--que se había
iniciado con las _Tablas Alfonsíes y el Septenario_--había
producido ya las obras legales, coronadas por las _Partidas_; había
dado a luz la primera edición de las Cantigas y gran parte de los
_Libros Astronómicos_. Posteriormente a esa actividad desarrollada
en las materias astronómicas, jurídicas y poéticas, sólo a partir
del año 1270, debemos colocar el comienzo de la actividad histórica
antes no representada. Primero se trabaja en la _Crónica General_,
y, después, se interrumpe la obra para impulsar la _Grande
Estoria_; los redactores de esta, como luego indicaremos,
conocieron noticias referentes a la historia de España que la
_Crónica General_ no aprovechó. En fin, después de la iniciación
de las obras históricas se siguió trabajando en los _Libros
Astronómicos_ y en las _Cantigas_, y se empezaron las últimas obras
del reinado, como el _Lapidario_ y el _Ajedrez_.”[15]
Of the above I have been able to consult only those printed or
reproduced in facsimile, which are the following:
_Las Siete Partidas_, (the best edition of which is the large three
volume work published in 1807 by the Real Academia) is the result of
Alfonso’s successful attempt to complete the work begun by his father in
collecting, codifying and standardizing the various laws of the numerous
regions of the kingdom, and it has been used as the basis of Spanish
jurisprudence ever since. This work has proved of very great value
because of the ample comments (made, it seems, either by the compilers
or by Alfonso himself) on the laws contained and the customs referred
to.
_Las Cantigas_ is a collection of 422 lyric or narrative poems in the
Gallego-portugués dialect, many of which were probably written by the
monarch. Of these 353 are narrations of miracles attributed to the
Blessed Virgin. The edition used in this study is that of the Real
Academia, 1889, 2 Vols., 33 cm. edited with a critical introduction by
Leopoldo Augusto de Cueto, Marqués de Valmar. A third volume of this
work by J. Ribera treating of the music of _Las Cantigas_ has just
appeared.
_Los Libros del Saber de Astronomía_, contain a large number of drawings
of the heavens, various astronomical instruments, etc., as well as a
compendium of what was then known relating to this science. In the
introduction to the edition which consists of five 45 × 33 cm. volumes
by Manuel Rico y Sinobas, Madrid, 1868, the editor states that among the
compilers were 8 Christians and 6 Jews; while the works of more than 17
Arabs were consulted (p. XCII).
_La Primera Crónica General_ (edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal in Nueva
Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, vol. 5, 1906) is an account of the
history of Spain from the time of Moses to the death of Fernando III, el
Santo. This, says Sr. Pidal in his _Estudios Literarios_ (p. 208 ff.),
is the first chronicle written in Spain which considers the Spaniards as
a Roman instead of a Gothic people. Being guided by the results of his
research, the latest and most authoritative on the subject, I have
included in this study only the first part of the _Crónica_, i. e.,
chapters 1-566, as the remaining part is probably the work of Alfonso’s
successor.
_La General Estoria_ is still unedited. It is a work of five parts, each
of which is in size equal to the _Primera Crónica General_. It purports
to be a history of the world from the creation to the time of Alfonso
and is based primarily on the Bible, altho other authorities, both
sacred and profane, are freely drawn upon. For this study I have been
able to consult only those extracts that appear in the _Antología_ of
Sr. Antonio G. Solalinde.
_El Lapidario_ treats of 360 stones, dividing them into twelve groups
describes their appearance and the country or locality in which they are
found, bringing in in this way interesting comments on manners and
customs, scraps of folk-lore, etc., as well as discussing the medicinal
and supernatural properties of the various stones introduced. The
edition used was that of José T. Montaña, Antonio Selfa, and Hippólito
Rodrigáñez, Madrid, 1881.
_El Libro de Ajedrez._ A two volume photographic edition of this work
was brought out in Leipzig in 1913 by J. G. White under the title of _A
Spanish Treatise of Chess written by the order of King Alfonso, the
Sage, in 1283_. It is a careful discussion of the game and description
of the various moves. As well as chess, the games of dice and backgammon
are included.
In this study have been included only those works which may, without
reasonable doubt, be considered to be the productions of Alfonso el
Sabio or works in whose composition he took part in the manner indicated
below. Those which may have been more or less plausibly attributed to
him but whose authorship still remains in doubt, have been purposely
omitted. Of these latter the most important is _Calila y Dimna_, which
many still maintain was translated by the order of Alfonso.[16] But even
if this be correct the book is a purely allegorical one, entirely
foreign to the spirit and manner of Spain, and can in no way aid us in
understanding the superstitions and religious beliefs of the Spanish
nation.
While it is true that Alfonso did not with his own hands write out the
works included in our study, nevertheless the compilers themselves bear
witness to the fact that he did carefully edit them, scrutinizing the
contents, eliminating the non-essential and perfecting the language. In
the _General Estoria_ is found this significant statement:
“Assi como dixiemos nos muchas uezes: el rey face un libro, non por
quel el escriua con sus manos, mas porque compone las razones del,
e las enmienda et yegua e enderesça, e muestra la manera de cómo se
deuen fazer, e desi escriue las qui él manda, pero dezimos por esta
razon que el rey faze el libro”.[17]
Small wonder then that the king realized the value of quietude and
specified as one of the essentials for the making of good laws that
“Otrosi deben guardar que quando las fecieren no haya ni ruido nin
otra cosa que les estorbe, et que lo fagan con consejo de homes
entendidos et sabidores, et leales et sin codicia.”[18]