Saber y poder, prodigios ambiguos e interpretación medieval en el Libro de Alexandre y el Poema de Fernán GonÁ§ález

Abstract

Both the Libro de Alexandre and the Poema de Fernán GonÁ§ález present certain wonders of ambiguous meaning: the eclipse in the LA, the knight swallowed up by the earth and the fl ying snake in the PFG. The episodes in which these extraordinary or supernatural elements are inserted offer a series of similarities: the fear of the armies and the rhetorical skill displayed to reinterpret the sign, turn it in the hero’s favour and thus infl ame his men. The intention of this work is to examine these episodes and their signifi cance in the context of each of the poems, focusing on the problems of interpretation and the assignment of a certain meaning, and the relation of knowledge and power.