Between legend and history: Pelayo as a theme in American Literary Romanticism (1836-1866)

Abstract

This paper presents and gives details about six arguably important literary works
that have generally passed unnoticed. All of them include the word Pelayo as part of their title, and their main character is, in all cases, the mythical King of the Asturias of that name. Written in English by Anna Mowatt, William Simms, Elisabeth Porter Beach and Washington Irving, who authored as many as three different «Pelayos», these literary works (poems and short stories) were published in America during the Romantic and Post-Romantic eras, between 1836 and 1866. All of them feature a sense of fascination with the ancient legend, and respond to immediate historical circumstances, developing both concerns in diverse ways. With these interesting fictionalizations of King Pelayo’s historical figure, these authors and their works helped to prolong, in English and from the American cultural standpoint, the afterlife of the Spanish Reconquest’s pioneer and his ancient legend.