“La Cristiada”: Edición crítica y anotada

The epic poem has served as a literary, cultural, and historical guide for literature students since at least the time of Homer. The richness and density of reference to sources outside the poem is one of hallmarks of the epic form, in which the poet serves as a guide, who leads the student to a more profound state of reflection on the nature of the human condition. This guide, however, is no mere tour guide, but extracts a rather demanding price of the traveler who wishes to cross the terrain of the epic. Each verse may appear to the uninitiated traveler as an insoluble riddle. Diego de Hojeda\u27s La Cristiada, while among the best epic poems written in Spanish, suffers from relative obscurity because of the limited number of editions, and the demanding density of the verse. The present dissertation fulfills a double purpose: it serves as a guide to the student, to explore the richness of La Cristiada, by providing a student edition of the poem, and in the same spirit, it endeavors to make a contribution to the revival of the epic poem in general. The present edition has several parts. We start with an introductory study to provide a solid foundation to understand in context Hojeda\u27s life, times and mission. This is followed by the complete original transcription of the poem from the archaic 16th century spelling into readable modern Spanish. Also, in the tradition of Chapman\u27s Homer, context side notes are provided throughout as a further guide to the student. Each of the twelve books of the poem ends with a series of notes, to document every name and place reference in the poem, as well as all historical, mythological and literary references. Finally, in the interest of completeness we have included several documents related to the first edition of La Cristiada, and the laudatory works that accompanied the poem when it was originally published in 1611