{"id":38,"date":"2008-12-07T03:55:38","date_gmt":"2008-12-07T03:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=38"},"modified":"2008-12-07T03:55:38","modified_gmt":"2008-12-07T03:55:38","slug":"the-song-of-attabiscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2008\/12\/07\/the-song-of-attabiscar\/","title":{"rendered":"The Song of Attabiscar"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this in Eclectic Magazine Foreign Literature By John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell<\/a>. I imagine it is a well-known song in Euskadi, but I hadn’t come across it before. This is the Basque perspective of the events portrayed in the Song of Roland. I don’t know how old this is, but I thought it was interesting.<\/p>\n

The Song of Attabiscar<\/strong><\/p>\n

A cry is heard
\nIn the Basque mountains.
\nEvery etcheco-javna [master of a house], standing before his door,
\nListens and cries, Who is there, and what seek they?
\nThe hound which was sleeping at his master’s feet,
\nRises; and his deep baying resounds through Attabiscar.<\/p>\n

There is a noise on the hill of Ibaneta;
\nIt echoes, as it draws near, between the rocks.
\nIt is the dull murmur of a coming host.
\nOur men have answered it on the mountain-tops,
\nThe warning of their horns has been heard,
\nAnd the etcheco-jauna sharpens his weapons for the fight.<\/p>\n

They come, they come! What a hedge of spears!
\nBanners of all hues float in the midst,
\nAnd a dazzling light flashes from their arms.
\nHow many are they? Comrade, count them well.
\nOne, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
\nThirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.<\/p>\n

Twenty! aye, and thousands more.
\nIt would be a waste of time to count them.
\nLet hand join with hand, to uproot the rocks,
\nAnd hurl them down from the mountain-summits
\nOn their heads,
\nTill they lie crushed and dead.<\/p>\n

What would they with our hills, these men of the North?
\nWherefore have they come to vex our peace?
\nWhen God made these mountains, it was that men should not pass them.
\nBut the rocks fall, and smite down their hosts.
\nThe blood flows in streams, the mangled limbs quiver.
\nHa! for the crushing of bones! Ha! for the sea of blood!<\/p>\n

Fly, ye who have strength; fly, ye who have horses!
\nFly, King Carloman, with thy sable plumes and scarlet mantle?
\nRoland the Brave, thy loved nephew, lies dead;
\nThy bravery hath been of no avail for him.
\nNow, ye Basques, leave these rocks,
\nAnd shoot down your enemies in their flight with your arrows.<\/p>\n

They fly, they fly! Where is the hedge of spears?
\nWhere are the banners of all hues that floated above them?
\nNo dazzling light flashes from their blood- soiled armor.
\nHow many are they? Comrade, count them with care.
\nTwenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen,
\nTwelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.<\/p>\n

One! there is not even one remaining.
\nAll is over. Etcheco-jauna, thou mayest go back with thy hound,
\nEmbrace thy wife and thy children,
\nFurbish thy weapons, hang them up with the horn, and then lie down to sleep beneath them.
\nThe eagles will come in the night to feed on mangled flesh,
\nAnd the bones shall bleach on the ground for evermore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found this in Eclectic Magazine Foreign Literature By John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell. I imagine it is a well-known song in Euskadi, but I hadn’t come across it before. This is the Basque perspective of the events portrayed in the Song of Roland. I don’t know how old this is, but I thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}