Valencian Folktales, Volume 2

Book excerpt: Enric Valor (1911–2000) is one of the most important Valencian authors of the 20th century. He has been, until now, almost completely unknown to an English-speaking audience. Following the publication of Valencian Folktales (2023), this second collection of his tales will help to consolidate work done on Valor in English, opening up both his fiction and the specificity of Valencian culture to Anglophone readers. The stories included here offer a sampling of the various types of tales he wrote: magical-theme tales, local-color tales and tales with personified animals. Valor collected these stories from the inhabitants of small towns and villages in the south of the Valencian territory and later gave them a polished, literary reworking. They are characterized by a detailed and lyrical treatment of the landscape and natural habitat of the region and an entertaining sense of humor. The selection begins with an introduction written by Maria-Lluisa Gea-Valor, co-translator and the author’s granddaughter. It provides a brief background to Valor’s biography, discusses the selected tales in the context of the folklore tradition and examines issues of the translation process, ranging from general considerations to more specific aspects.