Legends and myths
Narratives that encode fears, volcanoes, ravines, seas and the limits of the known world.
Canarian myths are not a folkloric margin of history, but a way of encoding fears, volcanoes, ravines, seas and the limits of the known world. Many of these narratives blend indigenous roots, Christian reinterpretation and modern oral transmission.
St Brendan and the blessed isles
The phantom island of St Brendan synthesises the Atlantic fascination with a territory lost between geographical reality and imagination. Its journey runs from medieval accounts to supposed modern sightings.
Insular myths
Guayota, the tibicenas, the mafasca or the sea gods offer symbolic maps of an archipelago defined by volcanism and the sea. These stories help read the landscape as a cultural text.
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San Borondón
The phantom island of the Atlantic, present in cartography and literature since the tradition of Saint Brendan.
Read moreThe Legend of Guayota
Demon or evil being linked to the interior of Mount Teide, present in Guanche beliefs of Tenerife.
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The Tibicenas
Demonic beings in the form of large, shaggy dogs, attributed to the tradition of Gran Canaria.
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The Light of Mafasca
Luminous apparition of Fuerteventuran folklore, linked to the belief in suffering souls.
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Sea myths
The Atlantic Ocean as a space of mythical islands: the Fortunate Isles, Atlantis and San Borondón.
Read moreSources used
- Marcos Martínez Hernández — Islas míticas en relación con Canarias (2010), pp. 139-158 Dialnet (Universidad de La Rioja)View reference
- Maximiano Trapero — Estudios sobre el guanche. La lengua de los primeros habitantes de las Islas Canarias (2007) Dialnet (Universidad de La Rioja)View reference
- Cabildo de Lanzarote; Cabildo de Fuerteventura (eds.) — XV Jornadas de Estudios sobre Fuerteventura y Lanzarote – Tomo 2 Historia del arte, lengua y literatura (2013), pp. 549 p. Servicio de Publicaciones del Cabildo de Lanzarote / Cabildo de FuerteventuraView reference
- José Manuel G. y García de la Torre — Leyendas guanches de las Islas Canarias (Primera recopilación) (1969), pp. 245 p. Memoria Digital de Canarias — ULPGCView reference