The ''Poema de Fernán González'' is a Castilian

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

, specifically, a '' cantar de gesta'' of the Mester de Clerecía. Composed in a metre called the '' cuaderna vía'', it narrates the deeds of the historical

Count of Castile This is a list of counts of Castile. The County of Castile had its origin in a fortified march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias. The earliest counts were not hereditary, being appointed as representatives of the Asturian king. F ...

, Fernán González. It was written between 1250 and 1266 by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza. In 1960 a fourteenth-century Arab roofing tile was discovered in Merindad de Sotoscueva north of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

that had some verses of the poem scrawled on it in

Old Spanish Old Spanish (, , ; ), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest, longest, and most famous literary composition in O ...

. It is the oldest copy of (a part of) the work. The poem reiterates the campaigns of Fernán González against the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

, his wars against the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre ( ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, with its northernmost areas originally reaching the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay), between present-day Spain and France. The me ...

, his debates with the

King of León In the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias (850–866), the kingdom began to be known as that of León. In 910, an independent Kingdom of León was founded when the king of Asturias divided his territory amongst his three sons. Below follows a ...

, and his protection of San Pedro de Arlanza, where he was eventually buried. Fernán's ability to keep Castile out of the reach of the Moors, however, is most heavily stressed. The poem is designed to present Fernán as the legitimate ruler of all Spain and thus justify Castilian supremacy in the poet's own day. The opening lines express the poet's own desire: Despite this strong ideological bent, the author was not well aware of the historical details. Very little about Fernán González has been conserved in writing and most of the stories about him were transmitted orally, developing into legend in the process. The ''Poema'' itself is conserved in only one fifteenth-century

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

, where the mentality and language of the work attest to its thirteenth-century origins.

Text

Complete text
at La Manticora: Revista de Textos Medievales.

Bibliography

*Avalle-Arce, Juan B. "El ''Poema de Fernan González'': Clerecía y juglaría." ''

Philological Quarterly The ''Philological Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on medieval European and modern literature and culture. It was established in 1922 by Hardin Craig. The inaugural issue of the journal was made available at sixt ...

'', Vol. 1, No. 51 (Jan., 1972), pp. 60–74. *Chalon, Louis. "L'effondrement de l'Epagne visigothique et l'invasion musulmane selon le ''Poema de Fernán González''." ''Anuario de estudios medievales'', Vol. 9 (1974–79), pp. 351–362. *Duque, Adriano. ''Política y memoria en el Poema de Fernán González''. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 2017. *García de la Fuente, O. "Estudio del léxico bíblico del ''Poema de Fernán González''." ''Analecta Malacitana'', Vol. 1 (1978), pp. 5–68. *Garrido Moraga, A. M. "Ensayo de ordenación conceptual del léxico en el ''Poema de Fernán González''," parts I–III. ''Analecta Malacitana'', Vol. 8–9 (1985–86). *Garrido Moraga, A. M. "El ''Poema de Fernán González'' como objeto semiótico." ''Analecta Malacitana'', Vol. 9 (1986), pp. 265–280. *Gimeno Casalduero, Joaquín. "Sobre la composición del ''Poema de Fernán González''." ''Anuario de estudios medievales'', Vol. 5 (1968), pp. 181–207. *Goldberg, Harriet
"The Dream Report as a Literary Device in Medieval Hispanic Literature."
''Hispania'', Vol. 66, No. 1. (Mar., 1983), pp. 21–31. *Harvey, L. P.; Hook, David
"The Affair of the Horse and Hawk in the ''Poema de Fernán González''."
''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 77, No. 4. (Oct., 1982), pp. 840–847. *Keller, J. P
"Inversion of the Prison Episodes in the ''Poema de Fernán González''."
''Hispanic Review'', Vol. 22, No. 4. (Oct., 1954), pp. 253–263. *Keller, J. P
"The Hunt and Prophecy Episode of the ''Poema de Fernán González''."
''Hispanic Review'', Vol. 23, No. 4. (Oct., 1955), pp. 251–258. *Keller, J. P
"The Structure of the ''Poema de Fernán González''."
''Hispanic Review'', Vol. 25, No. 4. (Oct., 1957), pp. 235–246. *Terry, Helen V
"The Treatment of the Horse and Hawk Episodes in the Literature of Fernán González."
''Hispania'', Vol. 13, No. 6. (Dec., 1930), pp. 497–504. {{DEFAULTSORT:Poema de Fernan Gonzalez 13th century in Castile Spanish literature Cantares de gesta Epic poems in Spanish