MESTER DE JUGLARÍA: CHARACTERISTICS, THEMES, AUTHORS AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

The minstrel mester was a type of poetry typical of the Middle Ages, specifically the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, with which it was sought to entertain the lower social classes. Its structure lacked complexity for it to be fully understood.

This type of poetry was considered one of the first cultural manifestations in the history of mankind. The pieces of the mester de juglaría were identified as the chants of deed, which were recited by the jugglers, people who were dedicated to performing in public spaces to survive.

Monument of El Cid Campeador, from the work «El Mio Cid». Source: Pixabay.com

Generally, these people were of humble origin, so they also used to engage in recreational activities such as juggling, comedy, dancing, singing and miming.

The name of minstrel mester comes from the Latin minstrel ministerium, which means "the office of minstrels."

characteristics

Orality

The main characteristic of the poems of the minstrel mester lies in their orality. This means that the interpreters recited the pieces verbally, which facilitated the understanding of their main audience. It was mainly recited to the poor, most of whom did not have the necessary academic training to understand written language.

The fact of reciting these types of poems from memory, allowed the minstrels to make small modifications in the stanzas to make certain variations to them. However, this caused the structures of the pieces to break down over time.

Those poems that managed to survive over the years were the ones that prevailed in the memory of those who heard them. All those poems that managed to last in time were those that were transmitted from generation to generation.

Musicalization

The poems of this type were interpreted with an instrumental accompaniment, with which the minstrels managed to add dynamism and make the piece more striking for their audience.

Usually the interpreters had the ability to play an instrument along with their singing, so it was common to see them themselves musicalizing the poem they recited.

Assonance rhyme

Due to the fact that many of the authors of the poems and the interpreters had no academic training, the rhymes of the poems were often assonance with the absence of complex literary devices, which also facilitated their understanding.

As it is an assonance rhyme, the meter of the verses varied for each stanza, which made it a poetry with an irregular structure.

Public

This type of poetry was recited in public places such as markets or squares; meeting place for people belonging to the lowest social strata. Despite this, with the passage of time, the minstrels managed to reach castles or palaces to make their interpretations.

The division of the social strata of medieval society was very marked, but this did not mean an impediment for the minstrels to recite the poems to families belonging to the nobility.

Topics covered

Epic poems and lyric poems

Another of the main characteristics that stand out from the poems of the minstrel mester are the themes they addressed. Given the variety of stories that they could collect, the minstrels were divided into two types: epic minstrels and lyrical minstrels.

On the one hand, the epic minstrels were those who interpreted stories about confrontations, epic battles, exploits of heroes of the time or praise for royalty; his subjects were of great interest mainly for the public with a high socioeconomic level.

On the other hand, the lyrical minstrels made use of everyday themes, love stories or themes with a sentimental nature.

Eventually, the poems were adapted to the place where they were told, so the minstrels added to the stanzas some news or characteristic events of the region, which facilitated the variation of their structure.

Thematic differences with other mesteres

Commonly the poems of the mester of minstrels are confused with other types of poetry typical of the Medieval Age: the mester of clergy and the mester of troubadours.

On the one hand, the clergy mester dealt with themes mainly inclined to religion: the virgin, saints or other deities were acclaimed in these poems. Despite this, it was common to decorate religious poems with characteristics of the jugglers, with the daily life of the time, for example.

The authors were the clergy: people dedicated to writing poetry for worship purposes. In addition, this type of poetry was disseminated in written form, unlike that of the mester de juglaría.

On the other hand, the poetry of the mester de trovadores tackled varied themes such as love and satires. As it was written by troubadours, who were properly those who were dedicated to the writing of poems, the linguistic level was higher than that of minstrel poetry and clergy poetry.

Given the characteristics of this type of poetry, the troubadours had as their main audience the nobility. Ceremonies, literary festivals and palaces were the main places these people went. Due to its refined character, even some members of royalty came to dedicate themselves to this activity.

Authors

The poems of the minstrel mester were written by people without an education that would allow them to carry out elaborate and professional work.

Changes in the structure of the stories told thanks to the improvisation of the minstrels and the incorporation of local events, contributed to the loss of authorship over time.

Unlike other types of poetry common in the Middle Ages, the vast majority of the works of this type of poetry do not have a recognized author.

Localities

The lack of authorship of the poems of the mester de juglaría provoked numerous debates about the origin of certain works, among them the popular Cantar del Mio Cid. Despite the fact that the identity of the author of this poem is still unknown, two theories point to the possible location of the minstrel who possibly developed the story.

The style of the verse and certain data provided in it show that the author of the poem came from Medinaceli, a municipality in the province of Soria-Spain, or from San Esteban de Gormaz.

Representative works

Song of the Mio Cid

Despite all the modifications that the works have undergone and the difficulty of putting the poems on paper for the time, numerous pieces have survived over the years. Their historical character has made several of them an elementary piece in today's literature.

Considered one of the first works of Spanish literature and the most important in that country, the Cantar del Mio Cid recounts the feats that Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a Castilian gentleman of the 11th century, performed. This song of deed has been adapted over the years to give coherence to the events that are related there.

Despite having been written about a real life character, it is considered that it had several literary models such as epic poems for its elaboration. This makes the Cantar del Mio Cid a purely literary document, so its content should not be taken into account when looking for historical information.

The Song of Rolando

The Song of Rolando is one of the deed songs written under the genre of romance. It is an epic poem that recounts the defeat of the Frankish army in the first battle of Roncesvalles, carried out on August 15, 778. In addition, it is considered one of the most important literary pieces in France.

The Song of Rolando talks about the courage of one of the war fighters. As is characteristic of medieval works, the author of this poem is unknown. However, some attribute the authorship to Toruldo, a Normandy monk; one of the regions that make up France.

The story was based on a series of real events. Despite this, it was written three centuries after the events, so the actions carried out in La Canción de Rolando and the characters developed in the story underwent important transformations.

The document is now kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, and has more than 4,000 verses.

Song of the Nibelungs

Like the Song of the Mio Cid and The Song of Rolando, The Song of the Nibelungs is an epic poem that recounts the exploits of Siegfried, a dragon hunter from a tribe in Germany, who gets the hand of a princess.

Various themes such as love, hatred and revenge are addressed in this song of deed, which relates a well-known German legend. It is theorized that the author of this poem may be of Austrian origin.

The manuscript of The Song of the Nibelungs is currently in the State Library of Bavaria, Germany, and is part of the Memory of the World Program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

References

1. Anthology of medieval poetry, Antonio del Rey, (2006). Taken from books.google.com
2. Differences between the mester of minstrels and the mester of clergy, Space of Spanish literature in Brno, (2008). Taken from litebrno.wordpress.com
3. Mester de Juglaría, Crystal Harlan, (2013). Taken from aboutespanol.com
4. Mester de juglaría and mester de clerecía, Portal de lasletrasmolan, (2014). Taken from molanlasletras.wordpress.com
5. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar: El Cid Campeador, writers of the Portal Historia de España, (nd). Taken from historiaespana.es
6. El Cantar del Mio Cid: the great song of Hispanic deed, Alberto Montaner Frutos, (nd). Taken from caminodelcid.org
7. The Song of Rolando, Pedagogical Folder Portal, (nd). Taken from Universal Literature.carpetapedagogica.com
8. The Song of the Nibelungs, Pedagogical Folder Portal, (nd). Taken from Universal Literature.carpetapedagogica.com
9. Mester de juglaría, Wikipedia in Spanish, (2018). Taken from wikipedia.org
10. Cantar de Roldán, Wikipedia in Spanish, (2018). Taken from wikipedia.org