Mito e historia: incursiones en la leyenda canaria La pared de Roberto

Abstract

One of the manifestations related to the oral literary tradition of the island of La Palma (Canaries) which remains under study is the legendary genre. During the second half of the nineteenth century, an outstanding group of writers rescued half a dozen of these stories and formalized them in some printed versions. Since then, they have been set up as the canon of «classical» legends of La Palma. One of them deals with the wall of the Devil or the wall of Roberto, at the Cumbre de los Andenes, on the upper edge of the National Park Caldera de Taburiente. Today this legend continues to be a story charged with romantic nuances. In order to deepen into the roots and evolution of this legend, we have carried out a description, inventory and analysis of the different discovered versions, opening new horizons of reflection on fundamental questions regarding concepts such as myth and history, language and writing, individual and people.