The sea will boil like a casserole in the oven: love that heals everything

We can never thank Antònia Carré-Pons, professor of medieval literature at the Autonomous University, enough for deciding to turn the family butcher shop, Cal Carré, into a small publishing house, because giving up cured meats is not only good for cholesterol but also opens the door to food for the soul and allows us to read gems like this one. History of Paris and Viana (Written around the 14th-15th centuries): a pure chivalric adventure set in the time of Charlemagne, possessing the temperament, rhythm, and wit that every good story should have. Thanks to her detective work among medieval manuscripts from different periods and languages, Gemma Pellissa Prades presents us with the amorous misadventures of two characters, Paris and Viana, the daughter of the Dauphin of France and a very young, courteous knight, in a Catalan that flows beautifully. They strive for love and overcome all kinds of obstacles.

And what are these obstacles that prevent them from being together in the heart of the Middle Ages? To begin with, Paris does not have the necessary social standing to aspire to marry the daughter of the Dauphin of France, that is, the heir to the throne. One by one, all the tropes of the literature of the time appear: the two young people fall in love before they even meet, because of what they hear about each other: to hear Paris sing, to imagine how beautiful Viana is. However, the maiden's cruel father prefers to lock her in an underground prison rather than marry her off to someone who isn't a nobleman, and so begin the years of suffering for the two lovers: Paris sets sail for the East, and Viana, accompanied by a faithful lady-in-waiting, is confined to prison. Every time a suitor appears, Viana resorts to some trick to scare him away: "Have you ever tried putting a rotten chicken under your armpit? Don't do it, unless you really want to never see someone again!" Viana's determination is matched only by the wit of her beloved Paris.

And it doesn't fall short: it also fulfills the trope of the journey to the East and the conversion to Arab (appearance, language) to win the favor of a sultan and be able to present himself as the savior of the Dauphin, after a series of twists and turns that are a delight: What a joy to realize that for so many centuries a well-told story has been all that's needed for a good time. How fascinating to follow the illuminating afterword along the path of the manuscripts that reproduced this story in different languages and versions of varying lengths, a path that has branches reaching as far as Catalonia. We can't help but imagine kings and nobles leafing through a leather-bound copy while traveling on horseback, perhaps thinking of some beloved lady.