Trips to Guatemala

POPOL VUH

The Popol Vuh, one of the most important texts of the indigenous Literature of the New World, written in the western plateau of Guatemala towards 1550, reunites to a set of myths and historical stories of great importance for the study of the native towns of Guatemala. The names of their authors are not known, but there are indications of which was written by prominent members of the nobility of the kingdom Quiche', who dominated an extensive region of the Guatemalan plateau at the time of the Spanish conquest. Writing in a careful poetic style, is also a skillful work in literary terms.

The Popol Vuh presents/displays a mythological version of the creation of the world, followed by a story of the adventures of the twin Gods, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, in times previous to the creation of the man. The triumph of the heroes on the natural forces and the Gods of the death gives rise to the creation of the man from the maize. The second part of the text concentrates in the origins of the governing lineages of the kingdom Quiche', their migration towards the plateau of Guatemala, its conquest of the territory, the establishment of its main city and history of its kings until the Spanish conquest.

The original text of century XVI is had lost. One knows that Quiche' was written in language, but using the Spanish alphabet. At the outset and at the end of the book, the authors mention they write that it because no longer it is possible to find a book called Popol Vuh, that existed formerly. He has speculated on himself much on the nature of this first book, that had to exist before the Spanish conquest. It is probable that it has been a pictorial manuscript similar to the posclásicos codices that are known Mexico in center.

The text older than is conserved of the Popol Vuh is a transcription of the text Quiche' done at the beginning of century XVIII by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez, who also made the first well-known translation to the Spanish. Ximénez presented/displayed in double column the text Quiche' next to the Spanish version, it titled and it “Begin Histories of the Origin of the Indians of this Province of Guatemala”. This manuscript is Yesterday in the collection of the Newberry Library of the city of Chicago. It was extracted of the library of the National University of Guatemala by the French Father Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, published who it for the first time in complete form in 1861. Since then numerous editions and translations have been realized.

The word Popol Vuh literally means “book of the mat”. Between the mesoamericanos towns, the mats or bed rolls were symbols of the authority and the power of the kings. High and head of lineages were used like seats for the rank governors, courteous of. Therefore, the title of the book has been translated as “Book of the Council”.

The mythological stories of the Popol Vuh closely are related to other compiled mythological texts at the beginning of the colonial time, as well as to many oral traditions that conserve until the present in the indigenous communities of Guatemala and other parts of Mesoamérica.