Spanish Epic and Hispanic Ballad: The Medieval Origins of the Corrido Author(s): Samuel G.

Armistead Source: Western Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 1/2 (Winter - Spring, 2005), pp. 93-108 Published by: Western States Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25474723 . Accessed: 03/03/2014 16:13
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Spanish Epic and Hispanic

Samuel G. Armistead

Ballad

TheMedieval Origins of the Corrido1

We had

are here

to honor Americo

Paredes. We

of Don Americo's

many the privilege of meeting him. But, from my personal perspective, I would like to mention first of all his Texas-Mexican Cancionero (1976), captures
border and lower its cultural ambiance. For me, as a romancista,

contributions

heard yesterday and today to our fields of interest. I never

which

superbly the highly distinctive traditional poetry of the

complex

this splendid book has been of great use in identifying some of those various Pan-Hispanic ballad narratives which were taken over into the

half-century studying the Medieval

narrative ballad tradition?the

corrido tradition and were dynamically and poetically recreated by cor rido singers. From the perspective of a person who has spent the last Spanish epic and the Pan-Hispanic
path Romancero?Americo Paredes's find

ing book
important demonstrated, poem terpreted to another, book dent

about
for

the corrido of Gregorio

reasons. In elegant is this in the most tradition and

Cortes

(1958)
book, terms,

is even more
Paredes a narrative and rein how

several

pioneering eloquent recreated, passed

Americo

in the oral by

continually as of it is

reshaped, from one

traditional in a dynamic

singers process

on

generation Paredes's of transcen and for all

poetic it will

creativity. continue of

Americo to be the

is a milestone; importance studies

it was, for our of

it is, and

correct

understanding

corrido

subsequent

corrido

poetry.

at the work of another great explorer of traditional Paul as Benichou also should be honored Hispanic poetry: one of the studies of the Hispanic tradi founding fathers of modern tional ballad. Mi maestro, Paul Benichou has been, without doubt, the most important role model and mentor of my own ballad Hispanic research. Paul Benichou, in his late 80s, died at home in Paris, in May 2001, leaving us all deeply saddened and bereaved by his departure. In 1944, 1954, and 1963-64, Benichou published a series of brilliant, highly ballad tradition, as original articles concerning the modern Hispanic
Western Folklore & Spring2005):93-108. Copyright 64:18c2 (Winter ? 2006, Western StatesFolkloreSociety

Let us look for a moment

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94

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD

an

landmarks. What is, I believe, not so positive a factor ground-breaking is that neither of these great scholars was aware of what the other one was doing. Don Americo did not know of Benichou's early work, nor did Benichou know about Gregorio Cortes. Corridos and romances both are bal lads and both are still alive today in the Hispanic oral tradition. There
as we the shall see presently, many features upon the that they share in common. brilliant and circumstances attendant creation?the

The publication of Americo Paredes's book on Gregorio Cortes (1958) and Paul Benichou's Creadon poetica (1968) represent two very positive,

in ongoing process of poetic creativity. These articles culminated in 1968, of a path-breaking book, Creadon poetica en el the publication, romancero tradicional, a book that established the groundwork for future research on Hispanic ballads in oral tradition.2

are, Yet

mutually
Paredes's

independent
Gregorio Cortes

creation?of
and Paul

these two crucial books, Americo

Benichou's Creadon poetica, bespeak,

as much
whose

from one
eventual

side as from another, a disciplinary

both corrido studies and

insularity from
romance stud

disappearance

ies would
knowing

greatly benefit. Corrido scholars could

more about romance studies and

certainly benefit from

could benefit

romanceristas

incalculably from learning more

creative ways, ballad replicates tradition, the whose conditions

about corridos,a still living and still very

contemporary under which traditional romances were life, in many at created,

their very origins, in the 14th and 15th centuries, and continued
re-created and corrido on up into out the contemporary to one another?Se tradition. dan In many And ways, reach la mano.

to be
romance

scholarship

about

these two genres would

gain from doing

likewise. We

need

to

build bridges. That the corrido is a uniquely creative manifestation of Mexican

important, highly distinctive, highly culture is indubitably and Chicano correct. Much very useful scholarship has been devoted to this aspect of corrido studies. The corrido is certainly also a ballad, a ballad with par

ticular, distinctive characteristics, some rather different from those of most other ballads, but it is a ballad all the same. Like the romance, this is a good deal with epico-lyric poetry. The corridos perspective also shares has aptly expressed it: "The world view of the epic. As John McDowell the corrido is decidedly
the connections tradicional?are the of corrido the can be

heroic"
the

(McDowell
corridos and as a and

1981:53).3
Pan-Hispanic On

I also believe

that

between

balladry?the many different mani I

Romancero levels, festation

genetic seen

undeniable. distinctive, this,

highly and

latter-day

Pan-Hispanic

romance

precisely,

constitutes,

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Spanish Epic and Hispanic

Ballad

95

the incalculably important contribution that corridosand corrido scholarship can make to the study of the Pan-Hispanic and international ballad traditions.4 believe, If we are going to look at the corridos medieval origins, we will, I believe, need to go all the way back tomedieval epic poetry and its own distant?and The genetic relationship ultimately unknowable?origins.
between the Pan-Hispanic romance and medieval Spanish epic poetry was

first suggested by Don Ramon Menendez Pidal, the great expert on the medieval epic and the founder of modern Spanish philology, along the lines of rigorous late 19th-century Central European norms.5 Menendez Pidal's theory of a genetic relationship between epic and ballad has been amply confirmed by my own research on Hispanic balladry and that of a number of other scholars. Just now, Diego Catalan has published a (2000) that further confirms and 1000-page monograph to what has been previously There can accomplished.6
doubt so concerning as this to be genetic irrefutable relationship. and even The more become abundant

monumental, greatly adds

now be no has evidence

reasonable

evidence will be brought forward in forthcoming volumes of our Folk Literature of theSephardic Jews? We have now gone from theory to estab lished fact: A substantial number of Hispanic ballads?some printed
in 16th-century but only broadsides now recovered and cancioneros, from others, oral clearly of medieval be origin the modern tradition?can

shown to be genetically
Spanish epic poems known

related,
to have

through direct oral

been sung on the

tradition, to Old
Iberian Peninsula

during theMiddle Ages. During his work on the Spanish epic, the ballad tradition, and Old Pidal identified an important cultural Spanish dialectology, Menendez as el estado latente (the latent state): A he which described phenomenon,
word, an oral-literary genre, or some other cultural feature

much

alive in popular oral tradition, but its existence may go largely or even totally unnoticed by the dominant literate culture (Menendez Pidal 1950; 1963) .8 How detailed, we may ask, is our knowledge of how serfs and peasants really lived and spoke in theMiddle Ages, as opposed to kings, nobles, landholders, and the these latter clergy? Obviously and their value us with the lion's share of our groups systems provide documentation and, obviously too, that documentation will be in Latin and not in the colloquial languages. In this regard, the great French historian, Jacques Le Goff, envisions a new type of medieval scholarship thatwill eventually have tomove beyond the obvious limitations of Latin

may

be

very

documentation:

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96

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD

Le

medieviste,de renoncera la liturgiede Vepiphanie erudite et de perdre son latin (LeGoff 1977:21 ).9 Of how everyday people actually spoke, of what their amusements were, and especially of the actual texts of their songs, the songs they sang

Moyen

Age

est encore

affaire

de clercs. Le

temps

ne

semble pas

venu,

pour

le

or listened to,we still know precious little.10Such things were scorned by the dominant culture and, at best, theywill be documented sporadically and, ifat all, often only indirectly and at relatively late dates. Such a situ to our fragmentary knowledge of the origins

ation is directly applicable of medieval epic poetry. I will mention

just a few of the earliest bits and pieces of evidence for the existence of oral epic poetry in Western Europe: The Old High German Hildebrandslied comes to us in a MS fragment that can be dated around The

mythical and part courtly Nibelungenlied was crafted from earlier epic narratives around the year 1200 (Andersson 1987). The first, even indi rect indication of epic poetry inMedieval French, the Hague Fragment, can be dated
the various

810, but obviously much more ancient traditions are involved.11 first full-length Middle High German epic ismuch later: The vast

paleographically
text, ancient much more

between
dates from traditions

980 and
around

1030.12 The
1100.13 Again, these

Song of
obvi

Roland, ously,

first extensive

lie behind

narratives.

firstevidence of epic poetry in Spain involves a Latin summary, the Nota Emilianense, based on an Old Spanish version of an Old French The

we have clear and

Roland very, very different from our earliest Song ofRoland, but a Song of known French Roland poem, the Oxford Roland, which, as we just saw, dates from circa 1100. In the Nota Emilianense, dating from before 1076, a Spanish indisputable evidence of the existence of a version of which antedates, by at least version of the Old French poem, a quarter of a century, the first Old French redaction that has come down Sp. Cantor deMio Cid, the earliest known full length Spanish epic poem, probably existed, in approximately its pres ent form, around 1150, though our only known MS may not have been copied until around 1200.15 All these poems bear witness to an extensive
antedates And all of by many these years epic involves the very at hand. in common: narratives ethnic or share reli estado we latente which have first

to us.14 The Old

multi-secular documentation three crucial

features

Each

poem

gious conflict; each also involves armed confrontation

frontier beginnings, (today we would or a border)', say less distant and each narrative, a more historical nucleus,

along a disputed
too, has, at its of historical

a core

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Spanish Epic and Hispanic fact, that, over the over centuries, have

Ballad

97

years,

usually

may

acquired

dense

overlay of legendary elaborations, but which, all the same, can still yield its basic historical outline to informed philological analysis. In all of this,we seem to be getting curiously close to important, crucial characteristics of Gregorio Cortes and other early corridos. One
the role as

of themost important functions of themedieval

of the medieval for recording and and the modern recreating Hispanic events

epic?ultimately
romance?is of the immediate its

ancestor

a vehicle

past. The great Spanish national

de Zamora, the Infantes

epics?the

Cantar deMio Cid, the Cerco

and continued to recreate

de Lara?recreated

events in Castilian
function of the epic

history.16 This
was carried

is noticiero poetry and

into the Romancero,

this essential
where events

over

and even later Spanish and Portuguese history were per in oral tradition, in romances historicosand in romancesfronterizos, petuated the latter concerned with the last stages of the Christian reconquest of from medieval
Muslim of Spain. Some of the romances concern famous events romance of national of La muerte or del even prin international importance?the

cipe don Juan, for example?but

by relatively minor, local events,

most historical
events whose

romances were
significance

inspired
tran

scends
specific

the restricted limits of a small geographic

moment out in time.17 of the epic, In this attests respect, then, to a concern

hardly

region and a very

romance local historico, history in not

the with

its evolution

unlike,
One where oral

ifnot identical to that of many

of the most important areas they have experienced tradition, their most is as

corridos.
corridos dynamic poetry, have ongoing corridos flourished existence, de la frontera. and in

where

and

in written

border

Americo (1958),
the

Paredes, in his pathbreaking, tells us of "corridos of border

development of modern

brilliant study of Jose Mosqueda conflict" (1975:55; 1973)?and

narco-corridos continues to stress

current

the essential role of the border, lafrontera. In this, the corrido highlights the essential role of borders and border conflicts as an ideal seed-bed for epic and epico-lyric adventures recreated in narrative verse. Epic examples of such conflicts are legion; conflicts between Goths and Huns

in the 4th-century Balkans; the role of the Rhine as along the Danube a border in Germanic and Old French epics; the ubiquitous Christian Muslim conflict in Spain and later in the Holy Land inOld French and Old Spanish epics; Medieval Russian clashes between Christians and Turkic Kumans; the Greek-Arab borderlands in Byzantine and Arabic
heroic narratives; the conflicts between Muslim Bosnians and Catholic

Croats

on

the eponymous

South

Slavic Krayina,

in the Muslim

epics

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98

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD

fronterizos or of more
Modern rido also Greek emerges oral as

in early 20th-century Parry and Albert Lord by Milman Bosnia.18 And borders are just as important in ballads as in epics: We need only think of Anglo-Scottish border ballads and Spanish romances recent conflicts between
So, in its link fronterismo?to to a very old, a modern

collected

Greeks
coin

and Turks
a word, the

in
cor and

balladry.19

a multi-secular

multi-cultural

tradition.

Let us

look for a moment

dramatic

at the historical
of the

Romancero. The genre started when

favorite, from most peak-points context their original narrative

development
came came to be

of the the
as

individual episodes, particularly

epics, eventually separated sung and to be

autonomous Once
by

poems in their own right. Early on, the epic fragments led to the creation of a new poetic genre: the epico-lyric Hispanic ballad.20 established,
narrative

this poetic form was to be nurtured and supplemented

and lyric materials. The Romancero would thus gradu

diverse

ally acquire
in romance

itshallmark
form, variegated

flexibility, its capacity to absorb and naturalize,

material drawn from very diverse sources.

The primitive Hispanic lyricand continental European ballad narratives both must also have contributed to the formation of theHispanic ballad
and, labic once recognized came as to be an used autonomous as a convenient oral-literary metrical form, form, the octosyl to romance in which

narrate events from the immediate past, inwhich to retell episodes from medieval adventure romances, from Arthurian legends, from Biblical
and Classical human infidelity, narratives, adventures, tragic love, and also both to tell original admirable endurance, and stories not and about the most fidel diverse ity and so admirable: bloody

heroic

vengeance.

In their thematic flexibility and

to their traditions, The own distinctive and metrics, corridos already romances

their capacity
poetic material again seem times

to recreate, according
taken to be and over from other similar. to the strikingly right up

once

romances,

starting

in medieval

20th century, gradually

octosyllabic assonant

absorbed
various

into their dominant

narratives, some

monorhymed
in hexasyllabic

pattern,

romancillo form and in coplas pareadas, narratives that probably had origi nally reached Spain from beyond the Pyrenees: Don Bueso y su hermana, El condeAlemdny la reina, El veneno de Moriana, among others.21 Similarly,
we may observe and ultimately that the corrido, as the dominant has adapted peninsular form in Mexico, of Such Central romances, romances America, which the U.S. go back Southwest, to medieval a number sources.

have been

thoroughly adapted labic assonant quatrains, which

to the usual change

corrido pattern of octosyl their rhyme every 32 syllables:

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Spanish Epic and Hispanic

Ballad

99

We might mention
Frances, La vuelta

here such "corridized"

del marido (e) (known

romances as Delgadina, Bernal

recien casada in Mexico and

as La

the Southwest),
called have La Martina).22 absorbed,

and La Blancanina
In other a well cases, known

(which, in Mexico,
corridos process that originated of creative

is now usually
in Mexico contamination,

verses that originally formed part of romances. Such is the case with the famous corridoof El hijo desobediente,which, like many romances in Spain and in Spanish America, has taken over crucial verses from El testamento
del enamorado:

through

deste mat, / que no me entierren en sagrado. Me entierren en camp verde, / donde me trille el ganado, "23 un con un letrero que desgraciado. diga: / "Aqui murio Si me muero But cern the with poetic border representation conflicts of historical (fronterismo), poetic events (noticierismo), and con

creativity,

thematic

flexibility are characteristic of many different epic and ballad traditions. That they exist in both corridosand in romances does not, in and of itself, a necessarily prove that there is direct, genetic connection between the two ballad genres. It iswhen we begin to look at the small pieces and parts of the corridos, the poetic building blocks of which
structed: their their formulistic assonant diction, prosody, their recurrent begin octosyllabic that we

the corridosare con

motifs, more and con even

narrative to find

vincing evidence of the unbroken

tion in corridos and in romances.24 corridos, in historical we already romance. introduces particularly, tively 15thlate, or innumerable of even course, though 16th-century

continuity of theHispanic
For example, paralleled ballads, formula y siete is exactly in Spanish

ballad

tradi
which

the date-formula,

romances, them one rela late lunes

(noticiero) find the

most in at de julio,

of least

early

"A veinte

/ un

en fuerte dia"
Compare

(Muerte del duque de Gandia: Duran

the following corrido examples, among

1945:no.

1251).
others

innumerable

that could be cited:

El Mil En El ano sesenta y siete . . . quince de julio / del veintitres novecientos catorce, / mes dejunio mil novecientos dieciseis

. . .

Ano

. . . quince, / Jueves Santo, de septiembre, / como a las tres de la tarde . . . . . . de mil ochocientos / ochenta y dos al contado en la manana 1964:nos. 9, 25, 27, 81, 110)

(Mendoza

Another that began

names. So

introductory formula shared by the corridoand late romances their traditional life in printed form, is the invocation of holy
in two late romances we read:

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100

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD . . . y tierra

En

el nombre de Dios

Padre

/ Criador

de Cielo

(Cepeda 1984:11, 176)

En

(Duran 1945:no. 357) The

En En En En

el nombre defesus,

/ que

todo el mundo

haformado

. . .

formula is even more

el nombre de Dios, el nombre el nombre de Dios, el nombre de Dios,

frequently used
. . .

in the corridos:

/ con carino verdadero

sea de Dios,

(Mendoza 1964:nos. 14, 46, 48, 137)

Yet another formulaic

/ voy a empezar a cantor. / poderoso de los cielos . . . . . . / y de la Virgen Maria

. .

construction

common

to romances

and

corridos

is the ya actualizante. Innumerable examples could be cited from both genres. I will quote here some instances from corridos:
. . . Ya la muertefue llegando Ya venimos, ya llegamos . . . . . . Ya se va Julian Garcia 1964:nos. 7, 8, 112) (Mendoza to mention, con esto me

Not

of

course,

the

universally

present,

Ya

des

pidoP
in both

Yet another
genres.26

shared formula is Otro dia por la manana, which abounds

We that could occur also take note here of various motifs, and also com show frequently in the Romancero

monplaces,

topoi,

up in the corridos.One
Un Le El

is the placing of events on a Monday.

. . .

In corridos:

(Mendoza 1964:nos. 35, 38, 124)

lunes seria por cierto, / como a las diez, mas temprano . . su retrato, / el lunes por la manana. . . a se acerco. mina lunes por la manana, la / sacaron

in the Romancero and it The Monday motif is even more abundant goes back to a very early date, since Juan Ruiz, parodying the heroic ballad style, in his episode of the country mouse and the citymouse, amor (datable already uses it to good effect in El librode buen
Mur

in 1330):

(Joset 1974:v. 1370) What

de Guadalfajara

un

lunes madrugava

. . .

seems to have been

attested

lost in the corridos,however, is the implica

early Romancero?that actions initiated

tion?universally

in the

on Monday

bring extremely bad

luck.27 Further

shared motifs

involve

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Spanish Epic and Hispanic the corridos' decided for sorrel horses: el caballo

Ballad

101

preference

alazan,2^

and

again the hero's habit of speaking

to his horse:

no se te olviden tus manasl /Caballo prieto mentado, / caballo / jEntrale prieto, delfierro de Catalina!

(Mendoza 1964:88fo's, 93) The motif of the intelligent horse is shared by the Romancero and by the corridos with other traditions and particularly with ballads of Balkan
linguistic All mon communities.29 these features verbal, that formulaic unite the agreements, two enormously shared motifs, poetic and com genres,

successful

strongly suggest an uninterrupted continuity, a direct genetic relation (1963) has ship between romances and corridos.As Merle E. Simmons
shown, songs very similar to corridos, in form and in style, began to

in Spain, particularly inAndalucia, and in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.30 I believe that Simmons' could analysis is correct: "Since ballads from Argentina or Colombia

appear in various areas of Spanish America, starting in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Simmons cites convincing examples from term and while the Chile, corrido, to designate a Uruguay, Argentina, narrative song, is also widely distributed and we can document its use

not possibly have exerted any influence whatsoever inMexico, the only reasonable explanation of their affinities to the corrido is to suppose
[that] the songs of all three areas were drawn from a common source.

Most

remotely this source could only have been the Iberian Peninsula's romance vulgar, which itself had numerous corrido already developed traits before it transmitted them to the New World" (Simmons 1963:12).
the corridos "deprives ultimate it of its derivation just claims from to fame its Peninsular as a vigorous ancestor, creation in no of the sense,

But

Mexican and

(Simmons 1963:13). dramatic, heroic, popular genius" tragic events of the Mexican Revolution afforded Mexican popu lar poets a unique opportunity to forge, out of balladic trends already common to Spanish America, a brilliant, new, highly distinctive ballad, whose overwhelming popularity would carry everything else before it and extend We its poetic hegemony and far into Central America. throughout the American Southwest

The

have come a very long way in a very short time: from medieval Europe and its earliest known epic poetry to Spanish America and the corridos of the Mexican Revolution. All the same, I believe that the
matic agreements between the medieval epic, its genetic offspring, the

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102

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD

Hispanic
conflict;

ballad, and our corridosare strongly suggestive of an unbroken, ultimately genetic relationship: narrative themes of ethnic and religious
the role of frontiers, boundaries, and borders as the stage upon

which such conflicts take place; and, again, the function, common
three on we and genres?epics, remembering such ballads, important common and corridos?as events from features a medium the with immediate a significant for past.

to all
When

reporting

juxtapose

thematic

number

of formulaic components
ballads make and a very the good case for

shared by late 18th- and 19th-century Spanish

corridos, origins I strongly of believe we can the medieval the Mexican corrido.

Spanish-American

University ofCalifornia, Davis

NOTES
1. I would Joseph splendid again, years. and cial like to thank my F. Nagy, at UCLA, It is also esteemed friend with and an admired me for honoring It is a great conference. where Professor colleague, to in this participate an honor to be here, once literature, to recall?with played a guide, a for a dozen affection

invitation and

long ago in the present appropriate

pleasure I taught

Spanish context who

deep, role,

great abiding gratitude?a own in the early stages of my

folklorist,

research?as

a cru key role, as a mentor, as

a role model?a

was enthusiastic generous, support great folklorist, whose us as to our work and from time when, happens kept going all-important in to time, the I am thinking, of course, of a great scholar going got rough. at UCLA: D. Hand. I the Folklore and Mythology here Wayland Program never also support forget his generous during Romancero Benichou's judeo-espanol of those long-ago and years. his article after on the

will 2. Note

(1968b) the

3. 4.

of Portugal the prince (1975), of Creadon poetica (1968a). appearance et alibi). See now also McDowell (2000:63-65 the death For a modest start in such (Armistead Menendez a direction, 2002, Pidal's see my internacional" in press). achievements, of his '98

latter published

article, see

"El corrido

y la balada on his

5.

Concerning relationship

now

my

article

to the Generation Pidal explained

(Armistead

2001). ballads among (1992; For see "El

6. Menendez in his book, many updated, 7.

L'epopee

confirmations 2000b:121-27). work

of the epic origins of Spanish text 1959). castillane For one (1910; Spanish see Armistead of Menendez Pidal's theory, theory on romances, Menendez see

our Concerning recent epic-ballad my articles, Romancero

Judeo-Spanish discoveries confirming

FLSJ, Pidal's

II, 4-22. findings, (1996) and

and "Judeo-Spanish y la epica carolingia"

Pan-European (2000a).

Balladry"

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Spanish Epic and Hispanic 8. Most Africanisms In 1921, "The in American such a survived

Ballad

103

English

latente. dently from of of

respected slaves, but

authority

a of estado protracted period as H.L. Mencken could confi

and phrases retained many words the speech all from have disappeared they languages, save for a few in the Gullah dialect their descendants surviving today, The Africanisms Carolina" the South 1921:113). (Mencken eighty-plus state: early of course, their native by David Some Dalby of these (1972) Africanisms (cat, eloquently are or attest to the error of such an behind which

identified assumption.

homophones semantic (bad

hiding Africanisms

their English have expanded

counterparts the meaning phenomena the extensive Such

dig, jelly), words be

of English would knowledge

'very good'; if not

kill 'to affect to hunt by

strongly'). down

difficult, of African

impossible,

without

II (1948:263-70). Dalby. Mencken modifies his opinion in Supplement

9. For the distinctive scholarship, Castilian and torical 10. One and of the Annates approach perspectives see The French Historical Revolution (Burke is the vernacular fines were in medieval intimate curses and and quite exact insults. school 1990). we

languages

controlled

of his

notable

exception

of medieval actionable are recorded

knowledge Since these were uttered Marta

have legally they has

specific

imposed

on whoever (fueros).

them, Madero

studied them in detail (1992). 11. See Braune (1928:83-4, 186-98); Broszinski (1985); Renoire (1988:133-56). 12. See Menendez Pidal (1960:372-81); for the text:Riquer (1952:364-77).
13. "The Digby end of MS . . . [is] descended or on from a lost original of the of (X) composed see at the the eleventh For studies the beginning the dating see D. Alonso de la Aotaparait narratives twelfth century" de Roland, the Chanson and Menendez aux see annees FLSJ, (Whitehead Duggan (1960).

very exactly

law books

1970:vi). 14. On On

(1976:34-5).
the Nota the date: Emilianense, "L'ecriture On (1954) Pidal remonter in Spain, 1065-1075" III, 37-46, docu

(1960:385). 233-38 15. See Rico

later Roland

et alibi. 1985. new On the Cantar (1993). de Mio Cid, see Montaner's massively

mented 16. For the

edition

texts of

absorbed

Pidal (1971; 1980) and Carola Reig (1947).

17. Concerning 1968:95-124) covered 18. The Old Norse of all the ballad and now of the death Diego of Prince new Catalan's

in prosified

the Infantes de Lara and the Cerco de Zamora, epic poems see Menendez form by medieval chronicles, Spanish see Benichou based on

John, analysis,

(1963-64; recently dis

documentation poem

(1998-99:11, of The Battle

35-107). theHuns, of the Goths and "perhaps was in the North," saved from

the oldest

the heroic

oblivion by being joined

early poem would seem

to the prose Saga ofKing Heidrek the Wise. The

to

lays preserved

authentic late 4th- and early 5th-cen embody and Davidson & Fisher (1960:viii, xxi-xxix) tury data. See Tolkien (1998:11, The Rhine is seen as a 82, nn. 91, 94, 95; 84, nn. 99, 102; 85, nn. 109-10). crucial boundary between Huns and Germans in the 9th- or 10th-century

This content downloaded from 200.75.19.130 on Mon, 3 Mar 2014 16:13:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

104

SAMUEL G. ARMISTEAD

Germano-Latin

well as in theNibelungenlied (circa 1200). See Kratz (1984:22-23, w. 431-32)

and Bartsch (1944:240-52: Aventiure Christian Chanson 25). The and Rhine is also the frontier (repre Russians between sented confront 1960). Charlemagne's as Muslims) in La warriors des Saisnes the pagan Saxons

epic

of Waltharius

(clearly

based

on a vernacular

source),

as

(Riquer

1968:219-23).

1944) and Christides (1962) and, on Bosnian Muslim epics, Lord and Lord and Bynum (1954-86).
19. For more 20. For Greek data: the guerrilla Armistead warfare (2002). development of the Romancero, see Menendez against Turkish rule, see Baud-Bovy

in The Song of Prince Igor (Nabokov Kumans the River Don along see For Greek-Arab in medieval conflicts Anatolia, (1933; Gregoire

(1964)
(1958); Pidal

(1953); Diaz-Mas
21. For nally 22. the three

subsequent

(1994).
cited songs Paredes here, see CMP H2, M13, NI; for other origi that were romances, (1976:nos. (or were see CMP, 5, 6); in the process I, 56, n. 66. Mendoza and of being) Mendoza

romances

non-octosyllabic for

transformed See,

into eight-syllable example,

(1952:65-67); Armistead (1992:64-68).

23. See Mendoza like has where 24. Note song (a Louisiana these

Henestrosa

(1977:19-41);
Ortiz Guerrero

for additional
(1992:27). For

bibliography:
another corrido romances, and n. 13),

(1964:256-57); same

decima), verses,

which, is listed. crucially

like numerous

traditional

absorbed additional McDowell's

see Armistead

(1992b:68-69 study of the

bibliography pioneering,

mulistic diction (1972).

25. For multiple Silverman examples (1979:34,

important

corridos'' for

of the ya actualizante n. 31) and FLSJ,

in romances, 1.

see Armistead

and

I, 39, n.

26. See Mendoza

27. See as FLSJ,

(1964:203, 205, 210, 221, 224); McDowell

n. 6; also the Stith Thompson motif:

(2000:228).
Ml28.2. Monday (1964:155,

I, 177-79,

28.

day. unlucky See, for example, the caballo

Mendoza

and Mendoza

(1952:79); and III, Silverman

Mendoza

274, 292); Ortiz Guerrero

alazdn I, 174, FLSJ, 179-80;

(1992:62, 75, 82, 96); McDowell

n. 59; horse. 163-64, 275, n. 54;

(2000:222); for
compare also

in romances: Armistead II, 263, Speaking

(1982:118-23).

29.

See

30. For the Philippines, see Fansler (1916:204-05); Eugenio

S. Thompson:

B211.1.3.

(1987).

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