{{Short description, Collection of Spanish romances, a type of folk ballad A ''romancero'' is a collection of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

'' romances'', a type of

folk ballad Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

(sung narrative). The ''romancero'' is the entire corpus of such ballads. As a distinct body of literature they borrow themes such as war, honour, aristocracy and heroism from

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

, especially the medieval ''

cantar de gesta A ''cantar de gesta'' is the Spanish equivalent of the Old French medieval ''chanson de geste'' or "songs of heroic deeds". The most important ''cantares de gesta'' of Castile were: * The '' Cantar de Mio Cid'', where the triumph of the true no ...

'' and

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalri ...

, and they often have a pretense of

historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denot ...

. The ''romancero'' was once thought to extend back in time to before the earliest Old Spanish ''cantares'', like the '' Poema del Cid'', but it is now argued that they are instead successors to the truly epic chivalric genres. The earliest examples of ''romances'' date from the fourteenth century, and some are shortened narrations of stories drawn from the ''cantares'' and romances. Many tales take place against the backdrop of the ''

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

'', showing Spaniards and Moors in conflict or in love, while others draw their themes from the

Matter of Britain The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

or the Matter of France. ''Romancero gitano'' (Gypsy Romancero) is title of a book of songs by Federico Garcia Lorca, many of which have themes derived from the life and culture of the Gypsies of Andalusia.

References

Romancero
(2011). In ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved on 22 February 2011. *''Romancero tradicional de las lenguas hispánicas''. Ed. by R. Menéndez Pidal, D. Catalán, et al. Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1957-85). 12 vols. *Katz, Israel J. "Romancero," ''Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericana'' (Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 2002). Spanish literature

References

Further reading