Paul Scott Derrick

Valencian Folktales, Volume 3

Enric Valor (1911-2000) is one of the most important Valencian authors of the 20th century. This third selection of his highly popular rondalles (folktales) will complete the publication of his folktales in English translation. At a time when Catalan was under threat from the cultural bulldozer of the Franco regime, which condemned the use of anything but Castilian Spanish in public communication, Valor went to great lengths to disseminate knowledge of the language, through writing grammar and linguistic studies (as well as teaching it to fellow inmates when he was imprisoned by the regime for his cultural activities). These tales, collected over a number of years in small villages in the province of Alacant, were a significant part of his ongoing efforts to safeguard the Catalan language and the culture and history of the region. The Rondalles Valencianes have been compared to Italo Calvino's Italian Folk Tales and Henri Pourrat's Treasury of French Folk Tales. Like them, Valor aimed in rewriting the oral material to establish a common national body of folk narratives and to make the stories more appealing to Valencian readers, young and old alike. The critical introduction provides a classification of the tales in terms of themes and motifs and also explores relevant historical and social aspects that characterize Valor's folktale corpus.