In statements to a national newspaper, Pilar Rahola, winner of the 2024 Prudenci Bertrana awardHe spoke with solid arguments about his novel Cornelius, the AlmogavarRahola, who is more of a politician and opinion-maker than a writer of considerable renown, claimed that she had written this book to glorify the Almogavars, those assault troops (sturmtruppen(in German of the second and third Reich), an army of mercenaries that contributed effectively to the expansion of the Catalans in the Mediterranean, active above all during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Having studied the military exploits of the Almogavars for two years—there isn't much literature available to obtain accurate information about their feats; not even Ramon Muntaner, the soldier and chronicler, explains everything—the commentator, always an enthusiastic supporter of the independence cause, asserted that "they starred in one of the most epic moments in European history." In reality, the true architects of the prestige of the Crown of Aragon, including Catalonia, were the kings of that Crown and, secondly, the merchants who traveled across a sea that undoubtedly became a domain of Catalans (more so than of the Aragonese, who are landlocked), a fact that can fill us with pride when we look back.
But there's a difference between remembering and distorting or adapting history to a purpose that has clouded our author's judgment, and that of many others since the Romantic era. The Middle Ages, in this sense—as it was for German nationalism—is a political space and a historical period perfectly suited to the epic glorification of our past—much more so than the events of 1714, which belong to a historical period in which epic poetry was no longer practiced. A number of writers, playwrights above all, turned a blind eye to history and literary evolution as it actually unfolded, transforming historical events into epics that only deserve that name if the interpretation of what happened is distorted.
The Almogavars did not fight in Sicily and later in Thessaly, Thrace, Asia Minor, and the Dardanelles driven by love of country, because neither this concept nor that of nation existed yet. They fought under the dictates of the Crown of Aragon, but they did so, above all, because they enriched themselves in a way that would seem inconceivable to us today: the booty they obtained in each battle—always accompanied by the rape of girls and women; the indiscriminate slaughter of enemies, including children; the utter destruction of sieges; and looting and burning of their belongings—was enormous. In fact, Rahola acknowledges that the Almogavars "committed atrocities," but it cannot be said that this is an example for our current struggles, because our "epic," he says, "is also a savage epic." We don't know to whom or what he is referring, but the motto "awaken iron," when one does not possess an army, is not a realistic slogan.
