The Structure and Classification of Spanish Ballads (Romances)

The Romance: Definition and Structure

The ballads are narrative poems, often anonymous, and are usually composed in stanzas. They typically use octosyllabic verse with assonance rhyming in pairs, although romances can also be found in verses of 9 and 7, or as short as 6 syllables, and some even use consonant rhyme.

Old and New Romances

• Old Romances: These documents date from the late Middle Ages up to the mid-16th century, a period when they enjoyed great popularity. Due to their anonymity and ancient oral transmission, the earliest known copy was made around 1421, though it is assumed that they existed since the 14th century.
• New Romances: These were composed by poets starting from the end of the 16th century, imitating the form and style of the ancient ballads.

Classification of Romances

There are multiple classifications based on thematic and poetic criteria.

Thematic Classification

• Medieval Epic Theme

  These derive from a chanson de geste or another literary source, and are therefore reworkings (refundiciones). They exalt the virtue of heroes and kings, often for propagandistic purposes (e.g., Romances of the Cid).

• French or Carolingian Theme

  This category addresses issues from French epics and romances about characters from courtly romance novels (e.g., the Romance of Don Roland and Doña Alba).

• Historical Theme

  Refers to events or occurrences in medieval Castilian history (e.g., the Romance of King Pedro the Cruel).

• Border Theme

  These narrate episodes of border struggles between Christians and Muslims (e.g., Abenámar).

• Fictional Romance

  This presents several subdivisions, including themes of unfaithful love, unpleasant love, adultery, incest, seduction, mockery of the badly married woman (malmaridada), and the beautiful princess.

• Biblical, Greco-Roman, and Religious Romances

  These recount episodes from the Bible, the apocryphal Gospels, pious and hagiographic legends, and stories of Greco-Roman antiquity (e.g., David's Lament).

Discourse Structure

The romances generally respect the chronological order of the narration, although this order is sometimes broken. It is common to start in medias res and use an abrupt ending in suspense, leaving an effect of uncertainty for the recipients. The narrator may be an observer or a first-person participant.

Poetic Style

The romances possess a distinct style, characterized by a series of peculiar features.

Features of Romance Style

• Use of Verb Tenses: The use of the historic present and the imperfect indicative is favored in contexts where the simple past tense might otherwise be imposed.
• Archaism: Includes phonetic features such as the maintenance of the Latin initial 'f' and paragoge (the addition of 'e' to the end of a word). Archaic verb forms are also used (e.g., sodes).
• Use of Formulas: Includes conative formulas to introduce dialogue and appeal to the audience (e.g., “well shall hear what he will say”), epic epithets, and parallelism.
• Repetitions for Mnemonic Purposes: Repetition occurs within the same line (two hemistichs), anaphora between two lines, or repetition across a group of verses (e.g., “Abenámar, Abenámar...”).
• Other Resources: Frequent use of antithesis (e.g., “bottom up”) and numerical figures (e.g., “The Alhambra was, sir”).