Hiking Pyrenees legends

Not only Hiking Pyrenees legends too, by Joan Amades

While we are Hiking Pyrennes legends will be explained to you, pay attention on this one, A Legend around the Pyrennes: The legend of Duchess of Cardona

When the Moors invaded the peninsula, the lady of Cardona Castle fell in love with a Moor of Malda Castle. Secretly, the Moor become a Christian and married her. But they couldn’t live together, because she knew her brothers would never accept a man of the Saracen race marrying into their family.

The Moor often dressed as a Christian man. He rode the distance to Cardona Castle to wait for his wife to signal with a lamp from the tower, advising him when the castle door was open. The man left his horse tied to a tree and greeted his wife through the opened door. They stayed together for some hours, then at sunrise, he rode back to his castle.

The Lady’s brothers heard about these encounters. One day her older brother caught her after the Moor left. She was taken to the main golden chamber of the castle. There, the other brothers were waiting for her. One brother, who was the Bishop of Girona, felt compassion for her and understood how love can make one do this. But, the other brothers understood this in a different way and they applied the most rigorous punishment. They locked the Lady in a narrow and dark jail close the golden tower, which had a double door, that was impossible to open. She was given only bread and water to eat, served by a mute servant. The brothers never visited her again. She couldn’t speak with anyone for the rest of her life. The Moor was deeply distressed and swore to avenge the Lady’s death.

The caliph, named Abdala, also lived in the Maldà castle. He was told about the Lady’s story by a servant that helped him during weddings and trusted him. He became involve with the story by writing anonymous letters.

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One of the brothers was injured by an arrow while hunting near the castle. No one knew where the arrow came from. Abdala put a letter close to him. It said: “Remember Amaltrudis’ death.” Another brother was found dead with the same type letter. Nobody knew who the killer was. The third brother, the youngest, named Folc, was killed on a street in Barcelona, with the same letter as before. The wife of the Folc was deeply distressed and promised to give all children Folc as their middle name.

After many years, Folc’s oldest son was walking with his son near Malda castle. They stopped and slept behind a tree because they where tired, when suddenly a big noise woke them up. The Moors surrounded them and took them to the Castle. After three days as prisoners, they were sent to the caliph Abdala. He was now an old man but still had vengeful feelings about what the brothers had done to the Lady of Cardona. He ordered to have their heads cut off and display them on a high point of the Castle Tower. Friends of Folc rode to Malda Castle and took revenge against the caliph by cutting off his head and displayed it in the same place where were the heads of the Folc’s were.