The Romance of Evast and Blaquerna (Old Catalan: ''Romanç d'Evast e Blaquerna''), often shortened to ''Blaquerna'' or ''Blanquerna'', is a

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

written in Catalan between 1283 and 1285 by the

Majorcan Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balear ...

Ramon Llull Ramon Llull (; ; – 1316), sometimes anglicized as ''Raymond Lully'', was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art ...

. It chronicles the life of its

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

hero. It is the first major work of literature written in the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

, regarded as a founding work of

Catalan literature Catalan literature (or Valencian literature) is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The focus of this article is not just the literature of Catalonia, but literature written in Catalan from anywhe ...

and one of the first European novels.

Structure

The novel is divided into five parts. Robert M. Place, ''Buddha Tarot'' (Llewellyn Worldwide: 2004), 56. Llull's ''Llibre d'Amic e d'Amat'' (''Book of the Friend and Beloved'') is often included as a semiautonomous section within ''Blanquerna''.Josiah Blackmore; Gregory S. Hutcheson, ''Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance'' (Duke University Press: 1999), 170.

Plot summary

The central character of the novel named after him, Blanquerna, was born to Evast and Aloma. Before marrying, Evast, a nobleman, had wanted to follow a religious life but at the same time wished to experience matrimony. He became a merchant after his marriage to Aloma, and he gives his son an education based on religious and philosophical pursuits. In the second part of the novel, Blanquerna confronts the same choice his father did: between a

celibate Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term ''celibacy'' is applied on ...

life and a married one. Blanquerna decides to become a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

, which saddens his mother; she tries to have her son marry the beautiful Cana. But Blanquerna persuades Cana to become a nun, and she later becomes an abbess.Ramon Lull; E. Allison Peers (translator), ''Book of the Lover and the Beloved'' (Kessinger, 2003), 16. Blanquerna also faces sexual temptation in the form of a maiden named Natana. This second part includes a description of the seven sins. In parts three through five of the novel, Blanquerna, having chosen a religious life, becomes a

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

(though he desires to become a hermit instead), and quickly becomes an

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

. In time, he is elected

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. The road to the

papacy The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

is not easy; Blanquerna is constantly faced with troublesome decisions and temptations, and he is not perfect. Indeed, Blanquerna "is made credible precisely because he is prone to make mistakes and to experience temptation, and in the end this gives him an authority which other authorities are obliged to recognize."Arthur Terry, ''A Companion to Catalan Literature'' (Boydell & Brewer, 2003), 14. Blanquerna's life takes him through widely varying places and social strata, from uninhabited forests and wildernesses to the dense

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

urban landscape of thieves and prostitutes, from interactions with young maidens to interactions with popes and emperors. As he matures, Blanquerna listens to the advice of a

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...

, a "wise fool" named Ramon. Blanquerna reforms the Church completely as pope, with Ramon’s help, and finally becomes the hermit he had always desired to be. As a hermit, he composes a book of meditations to help his fellow hermits defeat temptation: this is the ''Llibre d'Amic e d'Amat'', which consists of 365 love poems. This text "purports to offer the protagonist’s mystical confessions, based on personal experience and examples of '

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

preachers,' as a guide to contemplation within the apostolic

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

of a reform of contemporary

Christendom The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...

Selected verses

''27 The bird was singing in the garden of the Beloved. The Lover came and said to the bird: - If we don’t understand each other through language, let’s communicate through love, because your song represents my Beloved to my eyes.'' ''295 The Lover was in danger in the great sea of love; and he trusted his Beloved, who came to rescue him with tribulations, thoughts, tears and cries, sighs and sorrows, since the sea was one of love and also made to honour his principles.''

English translation

* ''Romance of Evast and Blaquerna''. Translated by Robert D. Hughes. Barcelona: Barcino-Tamesis, 2017.

References

External links