The broken or divided sword: its role in the Amadís de Gaula

Abstract

The recurrent image of the broken or divided sword is studied in the Amadís de Gaula. Since the two-part breakage or division must be taken as a stylistic rule or a formulistic cliché within the Amadís, we consider the only two cases of a three-part broken sword as a stylistic deviation of important consequences at the semantic level. Later on, we study these two cases in the light of traditional and medieval number symbolism and in their relationships with narrative contexts of any episode in which they occur, and so we bring forward new elements in order to support the thesis of a happy end for the up to now primitive lost Ur-Amadís.