Research Catalog

Title

Medieval Spanish epic : mythic roots and ritual language / Thomas Montgomery.

Author

Montgomery, Thomas, 1925-

Publication

University Park, Pa. : Penn. State Univ. Press, ©1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 176 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• This book finds origins of key parts of nearly all the medieval Spanish epics in an ancient myth. The myth of the initiation of the young warrior, shown by Georges Dumezil to be fundamental to the belief systems of widely distributed Indo-European peoples, was variously adapted to shape the action of texts including the Siete Infantes de Lara, the Mocedades de Rodrigo, and the Poema de Mio Cid, in which it accounts for the peculiar behavior of the Infantes de Carrion. The memory of the same mythic tradition also affords motivation for the central conflict of the Chanson de Roland.
• In Spain, the earlier epics upheld the values of the heroic age, values necessary for the survival of the warring clan, and were a principal source of the clan members' knowledge of their world and their sense of identity. The oral presentation of this archetypal lore required a special language capable of re-creating the ritualized behavior of the epic characters and maintaining the ceremonial tone of the performance. The second part of the book studies ways in which the poetic language met that task and evoked a feeling of group unity that absorbed the audience and still works its spell upon today's readers.

Series Statement

Penn State studies in Romance literatures

Uniform Title

Penn State studies in Romance literatures

Subject

• Cid, approximately 1043-1099 > Romances > History and criticism
• Cid, approximately 1043-1099
• Cantar de mío Cid
• To 1500
• Epic poetry, Spanish > History and criticism
• Spanish poetry > To 1500 > History and criticism
• Epic poetry, European > History and criticism
• Folklore > Europe
• Epic poetry, European
• Epic poetry, Spanish
• Folklore
• Romances
• Spanish poetry
• Altspanisch
• Epik
• Epos
• Spaans
• Epische poëzie
• Europe
• Spanisch

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [165]-172) and index.

Contents

I. Myth. Preliminaries. Orientation. Cuchulainn and Tristan. Cuchulainn, Tristan, and the Seven Infantes de Lara. At the Margins: Nibelungenlied and Horatius. Las Mocedades de Rodrigo. El Poema del Cid. Mainet. Other Manifestations. La Chanson de Roland. Listing of Narrative Elements. Recapitulation: The Road to Corpes -- II. Poetics. El Poema del Cid: Looking Inward and Outward. Introducing Direct Discourse. Places. Hortatory and Other Directive Modes. Ceremonial Tableaux. Nonparticipants. Ritual as Opposed to Drama; Abstraction. Formalized Language: Assonance and Personal Names. Formalized Language: Metonymy and Parataxis. Formalized Language: Use of Tenses. Metonymy, the Linguistic Artifact, Consensus, Sense of Place.

ISBN

• 0271017384
• 9780271017389

LCCN

97013077

OCLC

• ocm36672099
• 36672099
• SCSB-9148219

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library