Galician Literature: From the Dark Ages to Rosalía de Castro
The Evolution of Galician Literature
The Dark Ages (Séculos Escuros)
During this long period, only a few literary manifestations were preserved:
- Oral, anonymous, and traditional poetry: Music, novels, short stories, poetry, sayings, etc.
- Academic: Renaissance and Baroque compositions by Martín Torrado, Tonel Gómez, Isabel de Castro (Countess of Altamira), etc.
- Panxoliñas: These experienced significant development due to the *galeguización* of the Christmas theme, because of the identification between Galilee and Galicia.
- Theater: The first preserved and famous work is the interlude on fishing in the river Minho by Gabriel Feixóo de Araújo (1671).
The 18th Century and the Enlightenment
With the arrival of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the situation began to change. Some enlightened individuals sought to restore the dignity of the Galician language. The leading figures of this time were Father Feijóo and Father Sarmiento.
- Father Feijóo: Advocated for the dignity of the Galician language.
- Father Sarmiento: Carried out major studies on the Galician language, compiled an extensive lexicon, researched its etymology, and defended the use of Galician in education, the church, and administration.
Other enlightened figures of this time were Father Sobreira, the priest of Fruíme, and José Cornide y Saavedra.
*Follas Novas* (New Leaves) by Rosalía de Castro
The publication date of this book is 1880. In the prologue, the author uses two words for the themes:
- Subjective theme: Present in the texts in which she sets her own tone of suffering. It is a bitter pessimism that permeates all these poems.
- Objective theme: Deepens the analysis of the injustices suffered by our land and its inhabitants.
Its merits lie in the original use of metrics and innovative metric combinations. *Follas Novas* became a great book of poetry in Galician, and Rosalía de Castro became a great poet of our literature.