Discover Legends

Trust in time, for it often provides sweet resolutions to many bitter difficulties

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

A legend is the kind of story that evokes a sense of wonder; a text that directly appeals to the emotional experience of places it portrays as particularly perfect, sublime, remarkable, and full of meaning—a radically positive and pleasurable emotion that captivates and surprises.

The Spanish Hispanic Legendary Literature Project aims to preserve, conserve, and disseminate the most significant texts of 19th-century Spanish literary legend. To this end, it has been awarded funding for three projects:

1. Project “19th-Century Hispanic Literary Legends: Design and Implementation of a Transmedia Narrative,” Principal Investigators Belén Mainer Blanco and Pilar Vega Rodríguez, DLLHO19_transmedia, Project PID2023-152730OB-I00, Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, Knowledge Generation Projects 2023, 2024–2028.

2. Project: “19th-Century Hispanic Literary Legends: Dissemination and Cultural and Creative Uses,” Principal Investigator Pilar Vega Rodríguez, RTI2018-096493-B-I00, Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities, January 1, 2019–December 31, 2022.

3. Project “Design of a 19th-Century Hispanic Legend Accessible Online,” Principal Investigator Pilar Vega Rodríguez, FFi-2013-43241, State Program for Research, Development, and Innovation Aimed at Societal Challenges ( programme ). January 1, 2014–December 31, 2017.

We studied the selected literary legends drawn from a specific corpus: travel guides, geographical dictionaries, and stories published in the 19th-century press—a particularly significant historical milestone, as it marked a major period of revival and cultural transformation of folkloric elements.

We believe that identifying the best versions of various legendary tales can help revive local traditions—which have been shaped by the regionalist or nationalist ideology of the time—and contribute to the sustainability of Spain’s intangible cultural heritage (mitos y leyendas), which is undeniably important for the protection and promotion of cultural heritage.

Legendary texts can inspire contemporary narratives for content creation, tourism, education, and innovation to promote the “Spain” brand. It is also a space open to international horizons, providing content for internationalization platforms that integrate the real and virtual worlds.

The texts included on this website are geolocated and have been edited and annotated to make them accessible to a wide audience. The details provided by these authors reflect traditions associated with places that are no longer significant today. Consequently, this textual corpus is well-suited to the process of re-signifying Spanish cultural geography.

In light of these objectives, specialists in digital textuality, lexicography, the history of journalism, the history of Spanish literature, French literature, and English literature, as well as specialists in cultural and audiovisual industries, have come together to carry out this project.

Who might be interested?

The creation of this bibliographic and textual corpus, which is accessible online, offers opportunities for:

1. The development of literary and cultural tourist routes.

2. Collaborating in the preservation and conservation of the Peninsula’s intangible cultural heritage by recovering texts that are not typically featured on tourism and cultural information websites.

3. Future research on the representation of space in 19th-century Spanish literature.

4. Studies of the Imaginary (motivos, temas, personajes, lugares que identifican espacios y tradiciones).

5. Research projects on 19th-century popular literature, literary movements and styles (romanticismo, costumbrismo, realismo, naturalismo y simbolismo), narrative discourses (novela histórica y cuento), dramatic discourses (género histórico), and the history of journalism (autores, géneros).

6. The use of [fo_img] in the teaching of Spanish to foreign learners.

7. Inspiration for emerging literary and artistic creators.

Who is this intended for?

This project is aimed at three types of audiences:

1. Researchers in the fields of literature, history, sociology, and culture.

2. Creators in literature and other arts: 2.1. visual arts 2.2. children’s and young adult literature, historical fiction, theater, video games. 2.3. audiovisual material, video games

3. Protagonists of an individual or collective experience (performance, entretenimiento, interés turístico, aprendizaje de lenguas, publicidad, etc.).