A Legendary, Epic Road Trip

Lara. I took this photo through the car window because 
it was too cold to open it. 

It's only two months until Seven Noble Knights becomes available from Encircle Publications! What better way to celebrate than by remembering a "legendary" road trip where I unexpectedly met my characters. 

In January of this year (that nostalgia-inducing time before the pandemic arrived), I went to beautiful Burgos to visit my friend Daniel. Burgos in January is not for the faint of heart. But at least they're used to the cold there, and build their apartments accordingly. 

As you might imagine from previous posts, Daniel and I are far too intrepid to let a little freezing temperatures keep us inside the apartment staring at each other. "Let's take a drive through Lara, where your novel Seven Noble Knights is set," he said. 

Formidable hills in Torrelara 

I'd seen a little bit of Lara on a few occasions, but my friend was ready to show me "deep Spain" as I'd never seen it before, so I put on all the layers I'd brought and borrowed a couple more, and off we went. 

This rings a bell... 
Mambrillas de Lara 

We were minding our own business, looking for things like Romanesque architecture and dinosaur tracks, when there appeared to be a random scene from Seven Noble Knights painted on the side of a building. My frisson of recognition was confirmed when we saw the other corner of the building: 

It couldn't be anything other than the scene with the foreboding flights of birds before the heroes head off into battle. I was practically out of the car before it stopped. 

My heroes and me in Mambrillas de Lara 💖 

All the "Legendary Murals" in one photo
in a pub in Cubillo del Campo 

Wonder of wonders, when we read the informational plaque beside the mural, we discovered that this beautiful two-sided mural is part of a series that tells the entire legend upon which Seven Noble Knights is based! 

I snapped a photo of the map of the mural route, and we were off. We had inadvertently started at mural 5. Geography, hunger, and cold kept us from finding all ten, and we didn't find them in order, but I will present the legend in order (except mural 5) to you here. Subtle spoilers ahead! 

The tip of Los Ausines 

We found mural 1 on the edge of Los Ausines. When I say the "edge," I mean it: Los Ausines is a picturesque town wrapped around an oblong rocky outcrop. The photo doesn't do it justice. 

Blood Wedding by artists 9 Mil Siete 

The doughty knight cutting a handsome figure in mural 1 is meant to represent Álvar Sánchez, beloved cousin of the antagonist, Doña Lambra, whose wedding turns bloody. She wishes she were marrying Álvar, but no, she's obliged to marry Ruy Blásquez, the uncle of the seven noble knights. The blood starts to flow when Lambra's new nephew accidentally kills Álvar Sánchez, who in my book is a little annoying, but certainly doesn't deserve to die. 

The map only indicated which town each mural could be found in, but actually seeing the art often required significant digging. We found mural 2 wrapped around a small building in Quintanalara only after we'd given up and decided to have a hot tea to warm up in the town pub--which was directly across from the mural. 

Death at the Feet of Doña Lambra by RAF-ART

Daniel moved the chairs so I could get a better photo. The fact that there's an electrical grid and a bench stuck right into the painting points to the way the people of Lara live with this legend every day. 

This painting shows the second affront suffered by our antagonist, Doña Lambra, when a huge misunderstanding results in the death of her servant at her feet. I like this painting very much, but feel this mural series missed a great opportunity to portray the most bizarre scene in the legend, the bloody cucumber incident. It's what caused the "misunderstanding," after all. Not to worry, no scenes are missing in Seven Noble Knights. I included it all. 

Church of San Millán, Torrelara 

Mural 3 eluded us for some time, until we asked a resident of Torrelara where to find it. We had to climb one of the town's many hills, where it looks out at the landscape from the summit. 

Shouts of Revenge by Rodrigo 

This painting portrays our villainess crying out in grief and rage for the crimes the noble knights committed against her. She demands her husband, Ruy Blásquez, take revenge on his own nephews. What can he do? He promises he will. 

Quintanilla de las Viñas 

Quintanilla de las Viñas is a town I've been in before, spectacularly, never knowing that it participated in the mural retelling of my favorite epic legend. It's very pretty with its parish church against the backdrop of the bluff, though in the photo, it may be a little too forthcoming with its farming heritage. 

Don Gonzalo's Lament by Carlos Colio 

It's quite moving, up close. 

We missed mural 7 as we entered the town, and drove around and around, examining the sides of every building. A resident told us there was a mural as you enter the town, and after a couple of tries, we said, "Oh, that's it!" It's so very modern, it was hard to connect the disjointed art to a medieval legend, and it didn't help that neither of us expected it to be on the side of a corrugated aluminum warehouse. But there it was, symbolically telling of the devastating grief of Don Gonzalo, father of the seven noble knights. 

Mudarra by María José Castaño,
Cristino Díez, and Rubén Arroyo 

Although mural 8 sits unassuming on the side of a residence in Cubillo del César and is partially obscured by a children's playground, its imaginative composition portrays the some of the most complex imagery in this series. Called simply "Mudarra," the painting introduces the hero of the second part of the legend with details only the initiated would recognize while suggesting his person in silhouette. 

The chessboard and pieces portray his skill in that most intellectual of medieval games even while they suggest that the characters in the legend may be pawns at the mercy of a bigger story. The arches represent where Mudarra grows up, the fantastical palace complex at Medina Azahara. The silhouettes show Mudarra and his mother joined by the broken ring that will lead Mudarra back to his father. Even the hawk swooping in from the upper right is intentional and shows up in my Seven Noble Knights. 

Mudarra Faces His Destiny by Pedro López 

Mural 9 can be found on your way out of town in Cuevas de San Clemente, and it's the most fun, as it pays homage to classic comic books. The comic book form has a lot in common with medieval manuscript illustration, and it's an efficient, attractive way to tell an exciting story. The legend of Seven Noble Knights has been adapted into comic books on more than one occasion. Here, Mudarra finds his father, fuses the halves of the ring, tells his new family he's going to help them, and sets off to save the day (accompanied by many classic Spanish comic book characters). 

Mural 10, the grand finale, was the most extensive piece of art in the series. It's on the side of a tennis(?) court in Cubillo del Campo, and tells practically the entire plot of Part Two of Seven Noble Knights (without the psychological and historical warfare subtleties I put into the novel). We felt we were trespassing as we climbed along the uneven ground in some hearty freezing wind to look at the whole story. 

The Revenge by Susana Velasco 
I didn't manage to fit the entire piece into the shot. 

The heroes arrive in Burgos. 

After a confrontation, the bad guy, Ruy Blásquez, flees. 

Ruy Blásquez meets his end. 

Although the artistic quality of each piece varied, what we were able to see of the mural series was a delight. I love to see the way this legend is portrayed in the land where it took place, to see it outside of my head and heart and having an effect on the world. 

Daniel and I said we'd pick up the murals we'd missed, specifically 4 and 6, in better weather, but, you know, COVID. They're still in their lovely towns in Lara, and I hope to see them some post-pandemic day. 

The legend will be available to enjoy in all its novelistic complexity in Seven Noble Knights in just two more months! December 11, 2020, from Encircle Publications.