Haunted by Spanish superstition and Moorish folklore, this story serves as a sequel to Tales of the Alhambra’s “The Arabian Astrologer,” reuniting readers with the enchanted Gothic princess whereas additional growing one of many central morals of the Alhambra legends: that humility and advantage are finally rewarded, whereas greed and corruption invite humiliation and spoil. Opening on St. John’s Eve (historically celebrated on the night time of June 23) — a liminal feast like St. Mark’s Eve or All Hallows’ Eve, when the invisible world is believed to brush towards the mortal one — the story follows a poor household’s fateful encounter with a supernatural secret, the grasping machinations of a sophisticated friar, and a galloping climax that strongly anticipates the comedian terror of “The Legend of Sleepy Hole.”
Trendy readers might particularly profit from understanding the bizarre cultural crossroads that formed these legends. Irving’s Alhambra tales are steeped within the ambiance of Granada after the autumn of Moorish Spain, when Christian Spaniards inherited the palaces, gardens, folklore, and architectural wonders of the defeated Muslim kingdoms. All through the story, Irving attracts on actual locations inside the Alhambra — together with the Court docket of Lions, the Generalife gardens, and the Gate of Justice — all of which have been already surrounded by ghost tales, treasure legends, and tales of enchanted Moorish kings lingering beneath the hills.
The narrative additionally displays in style Spanish people beliefs about St. John’s Eve bonfires, protecting talismans towards the evil eye, hidden Arab treasure caches, and the uneasy combination of Catholic devotion with older magical traditions inherited from each medieval Christianity and Islamic Andalusia. Even the comedian determine of the friar belongs to a protracted custom of Spanish satire through which gluttonous or worldly clergymen are mocked alongside gullible peasants, wandering troopers, and boastful nobles.
Understanding this mix of historical past, superstition, faith, and folklore helps clarify the dreamlike tone of the story, the place ruined palaces appear alive with reminiscence and the boundary between legend and actuality is all the time unsure.
In Tales of the Alhambra’s “The Legend of the Two Discreet Statues,” Washington Irving tells the story of Lope Sanchez, a cheerful laborer who lives along with his spouse and daughter within the decaying residences of the Alhambra. Lope is a vigorous, carefree man who spends his days gardening and entertaining the previous troopers of the fortress by singing ballads about Spanish heroes such because the Cid and Bernardo del Carpio. Although poor, he’s contented, particularly due to his beloved daughter Sanchica, “just a little black-eyed lady about twelve years of age,” who shares her father’s cheerful spirit and roams freely among the many ruins and gardens of the Alhambra.
On the eve of St. John’s Day, the inhabitants of the Alhambra collect atop a close-by mountain to rejoice the midsummer vigil with bonfires, dancing, and storytelling. Through the festivities, Sanchica wanders among the many ruins of an previous Moorish fort and discovers a curious black talisman: “a small hand curiously carved of jet, the fingers closed, and the thumb firmly clasped upon them.” A number of the revelers concern the article due to its Moorish origin, however an previous soldier who had served in Africa declares that it’s a magical appeal that protects towards “the evil eye, and all types of spells and enchantments.” Sanchica’s mom ties the talisman across the baby’s neck.
Because the night continues, the adults change legends of haunted caves and enchanted Moors mentioned to dwell beneath the mountain. One previous girl tells the story of a goatherd who descended right into a mysterious pit and vanished ceaselessly after talking of “hobgoblin Moors” residing underground. Fascinated, Sanchica sneaks away to search out the pit herself. When she drops a stone into it, she hears unusual echoes rising from beneath: “the confusion of voices as of a distant multitude, along with the faint din of arms, conflict of cymbals and clangor of trumpets.” Frightened, she runs again solely to find that everybody has already left.
As she rests close to the wooded avenue resulting in the Alhambra, midnight strikes, and Sanchica witnesses a ghostly procession of Moorish warriors driving silently by way of the moonlight. Amongst them are richly dressed courtiers, troopers, and King Boabdil himself, whom she acknowledges from portraits within the Generalife. A good looking woman with “lengthy golden locks entwined with pearls” rides sorrowfully amongst them. Although terrified, Sanchica feels protected by the talisman and follows the phantom cavalcade by way of the Gate of Justice.
There she discovers an underground chamber beneath the fortress. Inside sits an previous Moorish magician asleep beside a ravishing woman dressed as a Christian princess. Sanchica remembers listening to legends of a Gothic princess imprisoned by enchantment beneath the mountain. The princess explains that the magic binding her is suspended on St. John’s Eve and asks the lady to the touch her golden chains with the talisman. Immediately, the chains fall away. She then instructs Sanchica to the touch the sleeping magician’s workers, inflicting him to sink right into a deeper magical sleep whereas the princess retains him enchanted with music from a silver lyre.
The princess leads Sanchica by way of the Alhambra, which has been magically restored to its former Moorish splendor. The halls shine with wealthy silks, jewels, and fountains, whereas phantom servants put together banquets and silent troopers guard the courts. Within the Court docket of Lions, Sanchica sees Boabdil seated as soon as extra upon his throne. Finally the princess brings her to a hidden chamber beneath the Tower of Comares, the place two alabaster statues gaze towards a single spot on the wall. She reveals that they guard a hidden treasure and tells Sanchica to instruct her father to recuperate it, offered he makes use of it correctly and devotes a few of it to plenty for her deliverance. Earlier than disappearing, the princess offers Sanchica a wreath of myrtle product of gold and emeralds as proof of the journey.
The following morning Lope dismisses his daughter’s story as a dream till she produces the jeweled wreath. Realizing the story have to be true, he secretly investigates the chamber of the statues. Following the course of their gaze, he discovers a hid recess containing jars crammed with Moorish gold and treasured jewels. Assisted by Sanchica, whose harmless contact alone can transfer the treasure, he carries the riches residence.
Though all of a sudden rich, Lope turns into anxious and suspicious. Fearing discovery, he barricades his home and grows depressing beneath the pressure of defending his fortune. In the meantime, his spouse confides the key to her confessor, Fray Simon, a gluttonous Franciscan friar with a fame for having fun with the favors and delicacies of the neighborhood girls. Claiming to have obtained visions from Saint Francis, the friar repeatedly persuades Dame Sanchez to donate parts of the treasure to the church. Lope turns into livid as Fray Simon continues returning with requests on behalf of assorted saints, step by step draining the hidden wealth.
Decided to flee earlier than the friar impoverishes him utterly, Lope secretly prepares to flee Granada along with his remaining treasure. He hides his mule in a vault beneath the Tower of the Seven Flooring, a spot feared as a result of it’s related to the Belludo, a legendary goblin horse pursued by hellhounds. Someway studying of Lope’s plan, Fray Simon conceals himself alongside the avenue main from the Alhambra. When he hears hoofbeats within the darkness, he leaps onto what he believes is Lope’s mule. As a substitute, he finds himself astride the horrible Belludo.
The goblin horse races wildly by way of Granada whereas “a pack of seven hounds” howls behind it. Fray Simon is battered, bruised, and terrified as he’s carried by way of the streets all night time. Each prayer or invocation solely makes the creature gallop sooner. At daybreak, the Belludo throws the friar violently to the bottom earlier than vanishing into the tower with the infernal canines. Fray Simon later discovers that the wreath and gold he had extorted from Dame Sanchez have remodeled into “sand and gravel.”
Years afterward, certainly one of Lope Sanchez’s previous companions encounters him in Málaga residing in nice wealth and celebrating the wedding of Sanchica to a Spanish grandee. Although Lope claims that he inherited a copper mine in America, the individuals of Granada proceed to imagine that his fortune got here from the hidden Moorish treasure guarded by the “two discreet statues” of the Alhambra.
The nice theme of this story is, after all, discretion. The phrase itself (or variations of it) seems repeatedly all through the narrative, and the characters are outlined by both their potential to maintain secrets and techniques (Lope and Sanchica) or their lack of ability to take action (Dame Sanchez and Fray Simon). The good irony of this dichotomy, nevertheless, is that essentially the most discreet character — and the one personally entrusted with the key by the Gothic princess — is just a little lady, whereas the least reliable determine is Fray Simon: a father confessor with a suspiciously intimate relationship with the city’s religious girls and an implied brood of illegitimate dependents to help.
A chunky counterpart to Ichabod Crane, this grasping meddler suffers a comic book punishment rooted in one other widespread people superstition. The goblin horse pursued by hellhounds remembers a number of European folkloric traditions: the Irish Púca, the spectral riders of the Germanic Wild Hunt, and the Scottish Kelpie. In every case, it’s deeply perilous to search out oneself mounted upon such a supernatural beast; Kelpies specifically have been mentioned to own adhesive backs that trapped riders till they have been dragged to their deaths.
As is usually the case in Tales of the Alhambra, Irving finally rewards humility, braveness, and good nature whereas humiliating greed and corruption. Lope is rewarded for his generosity and cheerful simplicity; Sanchica for her “religion and braveness”; and even Dame Sanchez is partially redeemed for her indiscreet “tattling” as a result of her motives are rooted in honest non secular concern moderately than selfishness. Fray Simon, in contrast, suffers each bodily humiliation and symbolic publicity: stripped of dignity, bruised practically mindless, and disadvantaged of the wealth he tried to take advantage of.
In step with older folktales about treasure granted by way of supernatural means, his stolen riches dissolve into nugatory sand and gravel. Even the Gothic princess receives the hope of eventual launch from enchantment and purgatorial struggling by way of the prayers and lots more and plenty promised in her identify. In the meantime, the scheming astrologer is rendered symbolically powerless: his phallic workers loses its efficiency when touched by Sanchica’s talisman, and he lapses into an everlasting enchanted sleep — a Moorish counterpart to Rip Van Winkle, suspended helplessly exterior the circulate of historical past.
One additional aspect value noting is the story’s fascination with inheritance and cultural succession. All through the story, Christian Spain fairly actually inhabits the ruins of Moorish civilization, inheriting its palaces, treasures, legends, and anxieties. The enchanted halls beneath the Alhambra counsel that the Islamic previous has not vanished a lot as gone dormant beneath the floor of Spanish id, ready to emerge on nights when the limitations between worlds develop skinny.
Considerably, it’s not troopers, clergymen, or nobles who’re granted entry to this hidden legacy, however a toddler whose innocence permits her to maneuver safely between the Christian and Moorish worlds. Irving subsequently treats the Alhambra not merely as a ruined monument, however as a symbolic repository of reminiscence itself — a haunted area the place historical past, folklore, faith, and fantasy proceed to coexist uneasily.
