Menéndez Pelayo and the Romancero

Abstract

The article aims to make a revaluation of the romances from the point of view of Menéndez Pelayo. This author wrote thirteen volumes about narrative poets (such as Berceo or Archpriest of Hita) and also about epic poetry, a genre opposed to lyric. Both Wolf and Pelayo continued and improved the work of Durán, who produced the first edition of the Romancero. The article concludes that the work of Menéndez Pelayo is more complete and finished than that of Wolf, but the main merit lies in having conceived the Romancero within another more comprehensive and large plan.