Merlín e familia
1955 · narrativa · Galicia
- Author / creator
- Álvaro Cunqueiro
- Date
- 1955
- Genre / field
- narrativa
- Period
- século XX
- Place
- Galicia
Merlín e familia inaugurates one of Cunqueiro’s most characteristic narrative methods: moving myth into a concrete Galicia and making it coexist with oral storytelling, humour and everyday life.
Published by Galaxia in Vigo in 1955, Merlín e familia places the Arthurian magician in a territory strongly reminiscent of northern Galicia. The story reaches us through the memory of Felipe de Amancia, Merlin’s servant, who reconstructs people, visits and extraordinary events in a familiar, oral voice.
The operation is more complex than a simple adaptation of legends. Cunqueiro makes European tradition, Galician popular culture and his own invention coexist in a world where the marvellous is accepted as part of normality. The result depends as much on the act of telling as on plot.
Merlín e familia marked Cunqueiro’s return to post-war Galician narrative and opened a series of books in which mythical, historical and literary figures are recreated through a deeply personal voice.
Myth relocated to Galicia
Arthurian material ceases to be distant and enters a world that speaks, eats and remembers like Galicia.
Orality and memory
Felipe de Amancia tells from memory, making recollection a central mechanism of the fiction.
The marvellous as everyday
Magic and daily life share the same level of reality, without requiring explanation.
- 1955Galaxia publishes Merlín e familia in Vigo · Vigo
- 1950sThe book consolidates Cunqueiro’s return to narrative in Galician
- Álvaro Cunqueiro · Álbum de GaliciaConsello da Cultura Galega
- Merlín e familia · Proxecto EpístolaConsello da Cultura Galega