«Com sa més bella inspiració un poeta». Penitència, redempció i poesia en Canigó de Jacint Verdaguer

Abstract

In Canigó, a long poem dedicated to the birth of Christian Catalonia, we can find two different proposals of what poetry should be like. The first is the ‘Cant de Gentil’, sung by the hero just before he dies, murdered by his uncle, Count Guifre of Cerdagne. Gentil leaves his post as the captain of Rià Castle, following his own wishes. In fact, he abandons his duty in an attempt to win the love of Griselda, a humble shepherdess, only to be deceived by Flordeneu, the fairy queen of Mount Canigó, who assumes Griselda’s identity. As Gentil becomes immersed in the realm of fairies, he loses his attributes as a knight, which are then replaced by those associated with poetry. With these new attributes, he sings his ‘Cant’, expressing his profound longing for knowledge and the absolute. However, the magnitude of his desire renders its fulfilment impossible, and Gentil’s chant concludes in tears. The self-centred attitude of the young knight, who is only concerned with his own pursuits, is not useful to the cause of Christianity and Catalonia, according to Verdaguer and his friend Collell. Consequently, it must be replaced by a new, enduring, more ‘solid’ kind of poetry. Guifre, penitent after slaying his nephew, and Oliba, the builders of Sant Martí de Canigó and Santa Maria de Ripoll, monasteries resembling poems in the verses of Canigó, represent a new poetic mode, infused with the Christian, collective and religious values needed to forge a new nation.