April 23rd is approaching, the most awaited day in Catalonia, and during these dates, we always like to remember the legend that surrounds our long-awaited feast of the rose and the book. You probably already know it, you’ve read it in other articles, heard it at school or even seen it on posters and pamphlets of Sant Jordi’s Day.
Surely you already know the protagonist of the story, the brave Jordi who, with four swords, killed the dragon and saved the princess. What you may not be so clear about is the name of our other protagonist. We have all heard of her, we have mentioned her and we visualize her in the legend, but we have never thought about something as simple as this: What is the name of the princess?
We leave you this information so that now you can walk around Sant Jordi with a new look at the legend.
What does the legend say?
The fact is that the same thing happened to us. From one day to the next we had the doubt, how is it possible that we have the name of Jordi so engraved and we have never wondered how the princess is called? So we decided to investigate.
Let’s take a look at the legend: A long, long time ago a terrifying dragon decided to settle in the village of Montblanc and, as it could not be otherwise, the people of the village were completely terrified. With the intention of calming the wrath of this creature, they decided to sacrifice a person every day, who was chosen by a lottery.
One day it was the turn of the king’s daughter, our princess, so a knight named Jordi (because we do know his name) confronted the dragon and killed him with four swords. The blood he spilled became a rose bush, from which Jordi cut a rose to give to the princess (so far anonymous).
Cleodolinda, Violant… or does she simply not have a name?
It turns out that, as is often the case with women in legends, there seems to be no agreement on the name of the princess, and it is not even entirely clear whether she has one. In most versions of the legend (such as the one we have told you about above) she is referred to as “the princess”, without further detours, without any name or distinction whatsoever.
However, among the versions that do name her, it seems that the most widespread name is Cleodolinda. And we say the most widespread because it is not the only one. It turns out that another, apparently quite common, is Violant.
In the editorial staff of Barcelona Secreta we could not be left with so many options and so few answers, so we have contacted the City Council of Montblanc, the town where all this feat took place according to legend. And what have they told us? Well, what we feared the most, that according to the most traditional version of this town, the princess has never had a name.
Be that as it may, if something is clear, is that legends change and evolve over the years, so (at least we) from now on, we will mention the name of the other protagonist of Barcelona’s favorite story when we tell this story.