It has been the aim of the author in the following study to collect, classify, and analyze the various references made in the works of Alfonso X, el Sabio, to the beliefs and superstitions, of the Spaniard of that day, with reference to the supernatural. It is hoped that it will be possible in this way to reach a better understanding of the attitude of the Spanish people toward the supernatural in general and thus to acquire a more complete appreciation of that early period of the nation’s life.
No attempt has been made here to trace the origins of these early Spanish traditions (many of which were common thruout Europe during the Middle Ages), and the comparison of what has been found with the supernatural in the early literature of other European countries has been left for a later study.
The works of Alfonso el Sabio have been chosen because, to a large extent, they represent not only their own period but all that had gone before them, as recorded not only in Castillian but in Latin and to a greater or less degree in Arabic and Hebrew also. Alfonso gathered to his court a select group of scholars versed in these languages; and under his direction they produced or collected a representative library of works dealing with their respective subjects. It is the accessible books of this collection that have furnished the material for the present study.
The author wishes to express sincere thanks to Professor Federico de Onís of Columbia University for sympathetic encouragement and valuable suggestions thruout the entire period of study; to Professor Antonio G. Solalinde, of the Centro de Estudios Históricos, Madrid, for helpful suggestions and criticism of the manuscript as well as for the privilege of consulting the proof-sheets of the Antología de Alfonso X, el Sabio, which has recently issued from the press; to Professor Raymond Weeks, of Columbia University, for his sympathetic interpretation of the Middle Ages and for actually introducing the writer to the true spirit of that period; to his wife, thru whose timely assistance solely it has been possible to complete the study without undue delay; and especially to Professor Henry Alfred Todd, of Columbia, for his painstaking aid and expert criticism while this work was taking form and being put thru the press.
F. C.
Columbia University, January, 1923.
INTRODUCTORY
The human mind is always interested in those things that it can not understand; as soon, however, as the problem has been solved it is no longer an absorbing subject of attention. When a sleight-of-hand feat has been explained we turn with renewed zest to something else and revive our former interest only to mystify or amuse some friend. The unsolved problem, on the other hand, will grip our undivided interest for an indefinite length of time; our minds will revert continually to the unelucidated trick of legerdemain until we learn how it was accomplished. And so we might continue our illustrations thru the whole range of human knowledge.
Furthermore, we are not content to limit our curiosity to the comprehension of what others have understood before us, but push our way in quest of the answer to the eternal and ever haunting how? and why? We climb the mountains, we crouch beneath a shelter while the storm beats, we gaze into space on a starlight night, and these compelling queries become ever more insistent. This element of inexhaustible curiosity is, and has been as far back as the existence of society can be traced, present in all human nature; the leaders of mankind have not been slow to utilize it for the attainment of their own lofty or ignoble aims. The warrior has employed it to inspire his soldiers; the priest to exalt his followers; the minstrel to entrance his auditors.
In the introduction to her Columbia doctorial dissertation, The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction,[1] Dr. Dorothy Scarborough has discussed in a very engaging manner the inherent need of the supernatural in fiction. In real life as well it plays a highly important part. It is a demonstrated fact that when a man faces a supreme crisis—when face to face with death—not only will he turn instinctively to the supernatural powers in that moment but all that is extraneous to his real self will disappear and the true man will stand forth revealed. What is true of the individual in this respect applies also to the race. It is in recognition of this universal truth that the following study has been undertaken, in the hope that a careful examination of the supernatural aspect of the beliefs and practices of Spain as reflected in the literature of a given period will contribute to a better understanding of the questions involved.