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Roberto J. González-Casanovas the Function of the Epic in Alfonso X's

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Roberto J. González-Casanovas the Function of the Epic in Alfonso X's Roberto J. González-Casanovas The Function of the Epic in Alfonso X's Estoria de Espanna: Cantares de gesta as Authority and Example for the Chronicler This article will examine the manner in which Alfonso X's staff of historians incorporated heroic materials and narrative techniques from epic poetry into their Estoria de Espanna (1270- 75).1 What concerns us here is not the question of particular 1 The present article is a revised and expanded version of my paper, "Epic History and Literature in Alfonso X's Estoria de Espanna: Cantares de gesta as Authority and Example for the Chronicler," which I read at the Columbia University Medieval Guild in New York City, on 3 March 1990. Estoria de Espanna is the original title of the work, which was renamed the Primera Crónica General de España by Ramón Menéndez Pidal in 1906, so as to distinguish it from its sequels, among them the Crónica de Veinte Reyes, Crónica de Castillo, Crónica de Alfonso XI, and Crónica de 1344 (once known by scholars as Segunda Crónica General). Although in this article I refer to Alfonso X as principal author/editor, he was probably responsible for directing the chroniclers in their actual writing (as opposed to research or translation) on the periods up to the Moorish invasion (711-22); it was his son Sancho IV, often with the same historians under his supervision as had worked for his father, who continued the history through the reign of his grandfather Saint Fernando III (1217-52). There are many textual problems related to the manuscripts: the chronicle was not finished by Alfonso X (whose staff reached only chapter 616 in the versión regia), only half revised by his successor Sancho IV (up to chapter 896), and partly reworked during the century after their death, so that many of the latter chapters exist only in the versión vulgar or unpolished version. See Diego Catalán, De Alfonso X al conde de Barcelos (Madrid: Gredos/Seminario Menéndez Pidal, 1962) 17-94 and 95-204; José Gómez Pérez, "Elaboración de la Primera crónica general de España y su transmisión manuscrita," Scriptorium 17 (1963): 233-76; and Ramón Menéndez Pidal, "Estudio sobre la Primera Crónica General de España" and "Notas preliminares," which serve as introduction to his critical ed. of the Primera Crónica (Madrid: Gredos, 1955, rev. ed. in 2 vols., reprinted in 1978) I; xv-lvi and lvii-lxxii. 158 Olifant / Vol. 15, No. 2 / Summer 1990 sources nor the accuracy of the "facts," but the authority of the epic as history and its function as story.2 It should be noted at the outset that epic and chronicle share certain general narrative traditions, structures, and strategies.3 These include various rhetorical 2 Two fundamental studies on Castillan epic narratology in relation to chronicles are: D. G. Pattison, From Legend to Chronicle: The Treatment of Epic Material in Alphonsine Historiography, Medium Aevum Monographs, New Series 13 (Oxford: Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literatures, 1983), which was reviewed by Samuel G. Armistead, "From Epic to Chronicle: An Individualist Appraisal," Romance Philology 40 (1987): 338-59; and Fernando Gómez Redondo, "Fórmulas juglarescas en la historiografía," La Corónica 15 (1986-87): 225-39. Pattison's Conclusion (145-49) refers to certain epic techniques employed in vernacular historiography: selection, conflation, adaptation, and novelization. Armistead's critique of Pattison points out the cautious neoindividualist approach, which prevents Pattison from drawing further connections between oral traditions and written chronicles; the misleading terminology of "legends" to indicate prosified epic songs; and the many explicit references in the Estoria de Espanna (cited in pages 340-41) to oral sources precisely as cantares [de gesta]. In his concise and suggestive article, Gómez Redondo offers a catalogue, with subdivisions and examples, of the seven categories of formulaic style that he finds present in Castilian chronicles: oral textuality, descriptive detail, linguistic intensification, rendering of emotion, epic motif phrases, intensification in narrative series, and plot structuring. He concludes his survey by stressing the consequences of this oral influence for notions of genre: "La formula juglaresca resulta, así, un puente tendido entre la imaginación del poeta épico y el pensamiento del historiador oficial; puente por el que transitaron casi todos los grupos genéricos de la literature de los siglos XIII y XIV" (237). On Castillan historiography in relation to epic literature, see also Samuel G. Armistead, "New Perspectives in Alfonsine Historiography" in Romance Philology 20 (1966): 204-17; Brian Dutton, "Las fórmulas juglarescas: Una nueva interpretación," La juglaresca: Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional sobre la Juglaresca, Madrid, 1984, ed. M. Criado de Val (Madrid: EDI-6, 1986) 139-49; John S. Miletich, "Medieval Spanish Epic and European Narrative Tradition," La Corónica 6 (1977-78): 90-96; and Brian Powell, Epic and Chronicle: The "Poema de Mío Cid" and the "Crónica de Veinte Reyes" (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1983). Cf. Mercedes Vaquero, "The Poema de Alfonso XI: Rhymed Chronicle or Epic?," diss., Princeton Univ., 1984. 3 The importance for the Alfonsine historians of historiographie tradition (vs. oral tradition) and of vernacular prose stories (vs. lost epic songs) González-Casanovas / Alfonso X's Estoria de Espanna 159 conventions, didactic functions, sociopolitical codes, folk motifs, modes of heroic characterization, and manners of representing national events. In addition, each genre draws from the other at crucial stages in its development: Latin chronicles influence epic songs (oral and written), which in turn serve as models, along with learned sources, for vernacular histories.4 The episodes on Pelayo, is maintained by Colin Smith in "Epics and Chronicles: A Reply to Armistead," Hispanic Review 51 (1983): 409-28. Smith argues that the combination of written Castilian sources and extensive prosifications of epic were more decisive than cantares de gesta themselves in the literary development of Alfonso's historiography: the oral sources were submitted at an early stage of redaction to one general prosification (421) and the chroniclers' conventions constituted a written tradition (427-28). On the poetics (historical and theoretical) of the epic as oral and written narrative, see C. M. Bowra, Heroic Poetry (London: Macmillan, 1961) 179-214 and 254-98; Carolyn Bluestine, "Heroes Great and Small: Archetypal Patterns in the Medieval Spanish Epic," diss., Princeton Univ., 1983; Milada Buda, "From Truth to Fact: The Episteme of History in the Context of Early Narrative Genres," diss., Brown Univ., 1985; Alan D. Deyermond, El "Cantar de Mío Cid" y la épica medieval española (Barcelona: Sirmio, 1987); Alan D. Deyermond and Margaret Chaplin, "Folk-Motifs in Medieval Spanish Epic," Philological Quarterly 51 (1972): 36-53; Oswald Ducrot and Tzvetan Todorov, Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences du langage (Paris: Seuil, 1972) 198-99; Northrop Frye, 'The Rhythm of Recurrence: Epos" and "Specific Encyclopedic Forms," Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1971) 251-62 and 315-26, as well as 'Theory of Genres," Perspectives on Epic, ed. F. C. Candelaria and W. C. Strange (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1965) 114-20; Alvaro Galmés de Fuentes, Epica árabe y épica castellana (Barcelona: Ariel, 1978) 139- 141; Angelo Marchese and Joaquín Forradellas, "Epica," Diccionario de retórica, crítica y terminología literaria (Barcelona: Ariel, 1989) 129-32; Ramón Menéndez Pidal, "Orígenes de la epopeya castellana," La epopeya castellana a través de la literatura española (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1959,2nd ed.) 11-36, and Poesía juglaresca y orígenes de las literaturas hispánicas: Problemas de historia literaria y cultural (Madrid: Institute de Estudios Políticos, 1957,6th ed.) 240- 333; and Paul Zumthor, "L'épopée" and "Les chansons de geste," Essai de poétique médiévale (Paris: Seuil, 1972) 322-38 and 455-66, as well as Introduction à la poésie orale (Paris: Seuil, 1983) 103-24. See also these articles in Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. A. Preminger (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1974): Albert B. Lord, "Narrative Poetry," 542-50, and "Oral Poetry," 591-93; and Seymor M. Pitcher, "Epic Theory," 242-47. 4 In the case of the Cid cycle, for example, cf. the Latin Historia Roderici (heroic chronicle) and Carmen Campidoctoris (epic panegyric), as well 160 Olifant / Vol. 15, No. 2 / Summer 1990 Bernardo del Carpio, Fernán González, the Infantes de Lara, and the Cid will be analyzed briefly in terms of historical interpretation, ideological objectives, oral tradition, narratological strategies, and contexts of reception.5 By investigating the process of assimilating as the hybrid chronicles of Lucas de Tuy and Ximénez de Rada (histories with materials and scenes from oral traditions), with the Castillan Cantar or Poema de Mío Cid (cantar de gestd) and Estoria de Espanna (epic chronicle). See Alan D. Deyermond, "Medieval Spanish Epic Cycles: Observations on their Formation and Development," Kentucky Romance Quarterly 23 (1976): 281-303; Ramón Menéndez Pidal, La epopeya castellana and Poesía juglaresca; and Colin Smith, "Historias latinas y épica vernácula," Estudios cidianos (Madrid: Cupsa, 1977) 87-106, originally published as "Latin Histories and Vernacular Epic in Twelfth- Century Spain: Similarities of Spirit and Style," Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 48 (1971): 1-19. 5 On questions
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