Reviews for Cuentos y leyendas del Valle del Baztڳan

The average rating for Cuentos y leyendas del Valle del Baztڳan based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-04-26 00:00:00 Jason Skweres It's a collection of recounted tales from the Basque area. The folk tales are a little disjointed as stories, and many of them are similar to other folk tales from regions that border the Pyrenees. As far as a collection of stories to share a taste of culture it's great. I notice a lot of reviews complain that the title is off, that there isn't that much about 'the witch.' I think more explanation in the book could have corrected that. There's a whole section on Mari and her other forms, and within this culture this is the character translated as a 'witch' into English. I think there's a confusion from a cultural and translation gap here. It's not a book about an old hag all messed up from being tortured and resentfully casting curses- that's not what a 'witch' is in many traditional cultures like this one. If that's what you're looking for you won't find it here.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-05-13 00:00:00 Bran Roth I sense I'm not getting the full picture of these tales, not knowing much about the culture from which they originate. That said... the stories are really weird. The fables don't seem to have any purpose or lesson and the stories and legends often consist of many details that have nothing to do with one another, their disparate parts making for some random and abrupt storytelling and leading to quite a few double-takes from me wondering just what the point was or what just happened. At times it seems like the stories got lost along the way, like parts were skipped or repeated incorrectly over generations of retelling, like a very long game of telephone, and what remains today is an incomplete picture of what it probably started out to be. I know that makes it sound like I didn't like it, and in a way I was not satisfied, but I definitely still see value in this little book. There are many seeds here that made me curious to learn more about this culture and its folktale traditions. If I ever come across a used copy, I will certainly add it to my library.