The publication of Breogán’s Lighthouse is excellent news for those who wish to read some of the best examples of Galician literature.
Breogán’s Lighthouse is a comprehensive collection of nearly 300 texts in Galician, the language of the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, accompanied by new translations into English. From the flourishing literature of the Medieval period, including the Cantigas de amor, the Cantigas de amigo and the Cantigas de escarnho e maldizer, through the period of marginalisation between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – the Dark Centuries – Breogáns Lighthouse follows Galician literature to its recovery in the nineteenth century with selections from A Gaita Gallega (The Galician Pipes), the seminal collection of Xoán Manuel Pintos, and the works of Rosalía de Castro (Cantares Gallegos), Eduardo Pondal, Manuel Curros Enríquez and others. The anthology includes prose by Ramón Otero Pedrayo, Vicente Risco, Alfonso D. Rodríguez Castelao and Rafael Dieste from the Nós period, and writings of exile after the Spanish Civil War, when the Galician language and literature were erased at the stroke of the pen. Most importantly, Breogán’s Lighthouse includes many writings from the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, when the Galician language and literature acquired a new confidence.
Produced with the financial assistance of the Xunta de Galicia, Centro Ramón Piñeiro and the support of the Amergin University Institute for Irish Studies of the University of Coruña.
About the contributors
- Antonio Raúl de Toro Santos is Professor of English and Irish Literature at the University of Corunna. He is the Director of the Amergin University Institute of Research in Irish Studies and
- Dr John Rutherford, Emeritus Fellow of Queen’s College of the University of Oxford, has translated Don Quixote, La Regenta, and various works of Galician literature into English.
- Dr David Clark is Lecturer in English literature at the University of Corunna. He has translated widely in the field of Galician and literature in English.
- Dr Alan Floyd is Lecturer in English at the University of Corunna. He is an experienced translator from Spanish and Galician into English.
- Dr Anne MacCarthy is Lecturer in English literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She is a specialist in Irish literature and an experienced translator.
- Dr Juan Casas is Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Santiago de Compostela. He is a writer and literary critic.
- Ana Gabín is a freelance translator.
