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Copyright by Scott Franklin Spinks 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Scott Franklin Spinks Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Representation of God in Three Thirteenth-Century Spanish Narrative Poems Committee: Madeline Sutherland-Meier, Supervisor Matthew Bailey, Co-Supervisor Jennifer Ebbeler Michael Harney Frederick Hensey The Representation of God in Three Thirteenth-Century Spanish Narrative Poems by Scott Franklin Spinks, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2012 Dedication To my family and friends. Acknowledgements Everyone needs help along the way. I would like to thank my committee for their guidance of my academic work: first to Frederick Hensey for a conference course on Latin literature, Michael Harney for wise words on academic writing, and Jennifer Ebbeler for many years of consistent work on my behalf. Next to Madeline Sutherland- Meier, whose work on this project has meant so much to me, and to Matthew Bailey, without whom this project would not exist. Through it all there was the city of Austin and, thankfully, many good times. My gratitude goes to so many good friends from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Brian Bobbitt, Alanna Breen, Rebeca Castellanos, Meredith Clark, Rocío Del Águila, Adele Douglin, Jorge García, Fila Martínez, Lanie Millar, Paco Plata, Nicolas Poppe, Ryan Schmitz, Médar Serrata, Omar Vargas, and many more. The list could really go on and on. Finally, I give thanks to my parents, Hugh and Debbie, and my sister, Stacey, who have supported me unconditionally. v The Representation of God in Three Thirteenth-Century Spanish Narrative Poems Scott Franklin Spinks, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisors: Matthew Bailey and Madeline Sutherland-Meier Mentions of God were omnipresent in the early vernacular texts of thirteenth- century Spain. In this dissertation, I study the mentions of God in three well-known Spanish narrative poems written down in the thirteenth century. These are the Cantar de mio Cid, the Libro de Alexandre, and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora. In particular, I discuss how the representation of God in these works is shaped by each of the three poets‟ original intended audiences and the message that he wished to communicate to those listeners. I begin by reviewing critical reconstructions of the original intended audiences of the three poems. I then study three aspects of the representation of God in each of the three poems: the words used to reference God, the descriptions of the deity present in the texts themselves, and the roles and functions assigned to God as a character in each narrative. I conclude that the Judeo-Christian God was an expected element in early Spanish narrative poetry, but that his representation could vary widely based on the differing compositions of the audiences for whom the works were conceived. vi Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 God in Thirteenth-Century Spain....................................................................3 God in Narrative Poetry ................................................................................11 Relevant Previous Scholarship on God and Religion in the Cantar de mio Cid ..............................................................................................................15 Relevant Previous Scholarship on God and Religion in the Libro de Alexandre ..............................................................................................................22 Relevant Previous Scholarship on God and Religion in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora ..................................................................................................32 This Study .....................................................................................................36 Chapter 1: Three Texts for Three Distinct Audiences in Thirteenth-Century Spain45 Poetry for a Warlike Society: The Cantares de Gesta ..................................48 The Cantar de mio Cid: Purpose and Audience ...........................................54 Poetry for the Court ......................................................................................68 The Libro de Alexandre: Purpose and Audience ..........................................72 The Cantares de Gesta and the LAlex: Shared Motifs ..................................93 Poetry for the Monastery ............................................................................102 Milagros de Nuestra Señora: Purpose and Audience ..................................106 The MNS: Following the Cantares de Gesta and the LAlex .......................131 Summary: Genre and Audience of the CMC, the LAlex, and the MNS ......138 Chapter 2: Divine Imagery in the Cantar de mio Cid, the Libro de Alexandre, and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora .......................................................................140 Imagery in Literature ..................................................................................140 Visual Images of God in Thirteenth-Century Christian Spain....................143 Words Used in Reference to God in the CMC, the LAlex, and the MNS ....155 Divine Imagery in the Cantar de mio Cid ..................................................159 Divine Imagery in the Libro de Alexandre .................................................176 Divine Imagery in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora ...................................189 Images for Three Different Audiences .......................................................218 vii Chapter 3: Descriptions of God in the Cantar de mio Cid, the Libro de Alexandre, and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora .................................................................225 Descriptions of God in the Cantar de mio Cid ...........................................226 Descriptions of God in the Libro de Alexandre ..........................................231 Descriptions of God in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora ............................241 Descriptions of God for Three Different Audiences ...................................255 Chapter 4: References to God in the Cantar de mio Cid, the Libro de Alexandre, and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora .................................................................260 References to God in the Cantar de mio Cid ..............................................260 References to God in the Libro de Alexandre .............................................291 References to God in the Milagros de Nuestra Señora ..............................319 References to God for Three Different Audiences .....................................356 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................360 The Cantar de mio Cid ...............................................................................361 The Libro de Alexandre ..............................................................................363 The Milagros de Nuestra Señora ................................................................365 Works Cited .........................................................................................................370 viii Introduction This is a dissertation about representations of God. It is not about representations of religion. Of course, the two are intimately connected; the worship of God by a community implies religion. I mean, however, that the dissertation focuses when possible on the study of the entity called “God” rather than on the religious practices of a community, which are much broader in scope and might involve the analysis of rituals, saints, church hierarchies, and a wealth of other elements. Some attention to these aspects is inevitable, but the theme of this work centers on poetic portrayals of the divine being. When I refer to “God,” I refer to the God recognized by Christians of thirteenth-century Spain. When I say “Spain,” here and after, I refer to the Iberian Peninsula, as there was no nation-state called “Spain” in the Middle Ages. I refer to Spain in order to avoid the application of my discussion exclusively to the inhabitants of one particular kingdom, but the focus of this study does not deal with the entire thirteenth-century Iberian Peninsula. Rather, the north-central region, controlled by Christians, is the most pertinent to the texts under discussion, and in particular the kingdom of Castile, the Peninsular Christian kingdom that was expanding most rapidly at the time. Castilian was the dialect of that kingdom, but occasionally I use the term “Spanish” to refer more generally to the romance dialects spoken in Spain. 1 This is also a dissertation about three narrative poems in particular. The first text under analysis is the Cantar de mio Cid, to which I will refer as the CMC.1 The second is a very important and influential work of medieval Spanish literature, the Libro de Alexandre, to which I will refer as the LAlex.2 The final work is Gonzalo de Berceo‟s Milagros de Nuestra Señora, hereafter the MNS.3 These three texts form part of a tradition of narrative poetry in medieval Spain, but they were not created for the same original audiences. Each poet had a particular group of ideal listeners in mind as he composed, and it shaped his poem. One of the poetic elements