«E ia-se deles rio/que Aguadalquivir maior»: water symbology in medieval lyrical poetry»

Abstract

Water —of all the cosmic elements the one arising a wider range of mystery and imaginative uses— flows beneath the hidden courses of medieval romantic lyrical poetry. It is by the shore of the sea at Vigo where the amorous encounter as well as the due separation of lovers is to be effected. Its waves are the addressees of the female lover who wonders about her beloved one: «se vistes mey amigo /e, ai Deus, se verra cedo», or else their role is merely that of inviting contemplation: «E miraremos las ondas!», although its major function is becoming the location for death. Invocation to the sea is an element in Gallician-Portuguese lyrical poetry, and it can be found as well in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, as well as in some of Alfonso X’s poems, where water imagery revolves and tells the echoes of its origins in Arabic-Andalusian poetry.