Alvaro Cunqueiro and Anxeles Bellows: Galician Literature
Alvaro Cunqueiro’s Narrative
In the novels and short stories by Alvaro Cunqueiro, we find an originalísima mixture of reality and fantasy. In each of his books, fantastic characters coexist with other facts that might well be part of everyday life.
The characters of his works are, in many cases, the old myths of other cultures. So, in Merlin and Family, the protagonist is the same wizard Merlin who accompanied King Arthur in their legendary adventures. In If the Old Sinbad Returned to the Islands, the main character is the same Sinbad of The Thousand and One Nights.
He also makes use of Norse myths and Greek literature.
Humor is another essential characteristic of Cunqueiro’s narrative.
His Poetry and Theatrical Work
Cunqueiro never stopped writing poems at any stage of his life. His poetic activity in the pre-war period was followed by other books later. After the war, he published Dona do Corpo Delgado and Herba aquí ou acolá.
He also wrote dramas. Highlights include O Incerto Señor Don Hamlet, Príncipe de Dinamarca and A Noite Vai Coma un Río.
But Cunqueiro’s work would be incomplete without quoting his work as an essayist.
The Post-War Narrative: Anxeles Bellows
In the post-war narrative, besides the extraordinary work of Alvaro Cunqueiro, the figure of Anxeles Bellows especially stands out. He was a master of the short story, a narrative format very present in Portuguese literature from the early decades of the century. Bellows knew how to synthesize the thematic and stylistic richness of the Portuguese oral tradition, enriching it with the influences of some of the authors he admired, particularly the American Edgar Allan Poe.
Biographical Profile of Anxeles Bellows
Anxeles Bellows was born in Lugo in 1903. His life was intimately connected to his hometown. When the Civil War began, Bellows was already introduced into cultural and political circles linked to the Galician party.
The repression unleashed after the war caused him to march to the lands of O Incio and Courel, mountainous areas, where he remained for years as well.
In 1953, Bellows returned to Lugo and began working as a journalist in the newspaper Folha Online, a post from which he developed a broad cultural work, parallel to his work as a narrator.
He died in 1986. In 1997, he was devoted to the Day of Galician Literature.
The Narrative Work of Bellows
The four major books that Anxeles Bellows published are volumes of short stories. The first two, Ao Pé do Sagrado and Terra Brava, both reflect the world of the rural lands of O Incio and Courel.
The books that might be called the author’s second stage are Tales of the Fog (1973) and No One Believes Stories (1981), already acclimatized in the world of the city of Lugo.
In his books, he uses a language…
A Portrait of Galicia and Popular Magic
In Bellows’ tales, references to the material and concrete reality of Galicia (landscape, flora types, parties, traditions…) converge with those from the spiritual culture (beliefs, superstitions…). He portrays a mysterious and magical Galicia, in which three fundamental aspects gain prominence:
- Parapsychological experiences (hallucinations, apparitions, premonitions…).
- Traditional beliefs (witchcraft, folk medicine, witches…).
- Superstitions of religious tradition, such as the Holy Company.
His narrative is characterized by gathering some of the traces of the oral narrative tradition. So we have:
Aspects of the Narration
- Opening formulas (long ago…).
- Spiral narration: one story leads to another, and so on.
- In the final stretch of the narrative, a conceptual conclusion of a didactic nature is given.
- The voice of the narrator presents himself as a witness, which gives credence to what he says, and makes a call to action for listeners.
Aspects of the Language
- Abundant use of proverbs.
- The Galician used appears frequently mixed with barbarisms and dialect, in an attempt to collect the actual speech.