Stories 27
- ES
SpainMay 1615The road home
Disarmed for a year, trampled by pigs, and planning a shepherd's life, I rode back towards La Mancha until I saw my village.
Nature5 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
The Knight of the White Moon
A gentleman bandit, my first sight of the sea, a great city, and on its beach the hardest morning of my life.
City7 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
Sancho Panza's account: ten days a governor
My squire governed an island, judged like Solomon, starved like a hermit, and resigned like a gentleman. In his own words.
Culture & history7 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
The Duke and the Duchess
A great Duke and Duchess received me as a true knight errant. A wooden horse, a scolding chaplain and much laughter followed.
Culture & history6 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
The enchanted boat
An empty boat on the Ebro, plainly sent by an enchanter. The millers, the river and Sancho saw it otherwise.
Nature3 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
Master Pedro's puppets
A puppet show, an ape that reads the past, and a rescue I would make again, though it cost forty reales.
Culture & history5 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
What I saw in the Cave of Montesinos
I went down a hundred fathoms of rope and spent three days among enchanted knights. My companions say it was half an hour.
Nature7 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
Camacho's wedding
The richest wedding feast in La Mancha, a bridegroom with a sword in his chest, and Sancho's inventory of the pots.
Food & drink3 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
Four days with the Knight of the Green Coat
Four quiet days in the house of a good man, with a poet for a son and a cook who understood Sancho perfectly.
Food & drink3 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
The lions
The king's lions were on the road. I asked to have the cage opened. What followed earned me a new name.
Nature4 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
The Knight of the Mirrors
A stranger in a wood boasted that he had beaten me. At dawn I gave him the chance to prove it, and the enchanters gave him a face.
Culture & history5 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
A palace in El Toboso
I rode to El Toboso to kiss my lady's hands. I found a church, three donkeys, and the cruellest enchantment of my career.
Culture & history7 min read
- ESSpainMay 1615
Why I rode out a third time
A bachelor from Salamanca brings news: my history has been printed. My niece objects. Sancho asks for wages.
Culture & history6 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
Home in a cage
Phantoms seized me in my sleep and set me in a cage on an ox-cart. Sancho thinks the phantoms were from our village.
Road trip5 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The battle of the wineskins
In the dead of night I fought the giant Pandafilando and took his head. The innkeeper has a different account, and a bill.
Food & drink6 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
Penance in the Sierra Morena
A ragged lover in the rocks, a penance in my shirt like Amadís, a letter to Dulcinea, and a princess come to beg my help.
Nature7 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The galley slaves
Twelve men in chains, sent to the galleys by force. I set them free. They thanked me in the way that such men thank.
Culture & history6 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The fulling mills, and Mambrino's helmet
A night of terrible hammering, an enchanted horse, a story about goats, and at dawn the golden helmet of Mambrino.
Nature7 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The armies that were sheep
Two vast armies met on a plain in La Mancha. I named every knight in them. Sancho named them sheep.
Nature4 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
Sancho Panza's account: the blanket
My squire tells it his way: carriers, a dark attic, a balsam that turned us inside out, and a blanket he will never forgive.
Culture & history6 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
Marcela, and a funeral in the hills
Acorns, a speech on the Golden Age, a funeral for a poet, and a shepherdess who answered every one of her accusers.
Nature7 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The Biscayan
Two enchanters, a captive lady, and a duel with a Biscayan who fought behind a cushion. Half an ear is a fair price.
Culture & history4 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
The giants of Criptana
Thirty giants on a ridge, waving long arms. My squire saw windmills. The sage Frestón saw to it that he was proved right.
Nature7 min read
- ESSpainAug 1614
On choosing a squire
A knight needs a squire, and I found mine next door: a sound man with a good donkey and a keen interest in islands.
Road trip5 min read
- ESSpainJul 1614
Andrés, and the merchants of Toledo
On my first morning as a knight I freed a boy from a cruel master and saw him paid in full. Then came the merchants.
Culture & history4 min read
- ESSpainJul 1614
A vigil of arms at the castle (some call it an inn)
A castle with silver towers, two gracious ladies, a worldly castellan, and a long night guarding my armour by the well.
Culture & history6 min read
- ESSpainJul 1614
How I became a knight
Fifty years a quiet gentleman, then the books spoke plainly: the world needed a knight errant, and I was at hand.
Culture & history6 min read