The Sibyl of the Cathedral performs without a sword because it generated "social alarm" on the train

BarcelonaThe medievalist and singer Laura de Castellet She has been the Sibyl of Seu d'Urgell for years. When she performs, she always carries the traditional sword used to represent the Song of the Sibyl. Hers is metal and quite heavy, but it's designed as a prop and doesn't cut or pierce. Although it looks quite realistic, she says that the sword doesn't usually attract attention – "people look at their phones" – and she even notices more stares when she's carrying a large instrument. That's why she never imagined that carrying the sword would lead to her being identified by a police officer, much less that she wouldn't be able to board a train while carrying it.

De Castellet lives in a sparsely populated area of Solsonès, and when she performs in Barcelona – like today, in Sant Andreu – she parks on the outskirts to enter the city by public transport. This Thursday morning, she was trying to enter the Valldoreix train station when a security guard stopped her. "I told him it was for theater, and he kept asking me how I could even think of taking a sword on public transport," she explained in an interview with ARA. The alert from the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) control center reached the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) at 7:52 a.m.

"The security guard was very diligent with his work, perhaps a little too much so," jokes De Castellet, who has taken the whole incident in good humor: "Luckily he was on time. I already have this year's Christmas anecdote; I've taken it with humor," adds the PhD in medieval history from the University of Barcelona, whose doctoral thesis of the year was awarded best at the UB for its study on the soundscape of medieval Catalonia.

Very soon, De Castellet was stopped by two officers who asked for his ID. "They made me explain everything and told me I couldn't carry it because it causes public alarm. I told them that a bicycle could be more dangerous than a theatrical sword, but they said a bicycle doesn't cause alarm." De Castellet immediately told the officers he would leave the sword in his car. "Then they said, 'We'll escort you to your vehicle,' they accompanied me, and I left the sword inside. Afterward, they escorted me to the station to make sure I didn't come back for it," he explains. Today, De Castellet performed the Song of the Sibyl without a sword, but a woman in the audience lent him her walking stick to use in place of it. Tomorrow he performs in Vic, and he hopes to be able to use the sword. Just in case, he says that from now on he will avoid taking it on public transport.