The Art of Making Verses (224 pages) is Santiago Lopo’s fifth novel and earned him the Xerais Prize for novels in 2017. More than 10,000 copies of the Galician edition have been printed.

The book is divided into 59 short chapters and an epilogue. A falcon is hungry and approaches the town of Jaca in the Pyrenees, where it notices three covered wagons passing through the town. The driver of the first wagon, Nuno, attempts to take a side road behind the cathedral. A woman inside the wagon tells him not to, they’ll get stuck, and while Nuno and a dwarf attempt to lead the wagon back to the main road, the woman, Fadhila, rushes off to do a pee. A rider on a white horse appears and follows them at a distance. In Toulouse, it is the year 1237, and an inquisitor gives 32 heretics life sentences in a prison that has yet to be built. Outside the town wall, the three wagons stop by a river. Again, Nuno notices the rider on a white horse, who turns out to be a fifteen-year-old girl of undeniable beauty whose face he seems to recognize. She asks where they are headed and, when they say to Burgos, she indicates that she is afraid and would like to go with them. Nuno invites her to accompany them to the river, where they can consult the leader of their party, Manrique. Manrique is a Leonese strong man. They are itinerant artists who have been performing in the Pyrenees, but faced by the onset of winter they are now preparing to return to Santiago de Compostela. They also have a brown bear, Úrsula, and a macaque, Ximena, who share a cage. Manrique agrees to take the girl – whom he names Elvira, given that she remains mute – as far as Burgos in return for three gold dinars she has in her possession. The others are not so sure – they are afraid she is running from someone or is a witch.

Guy de Lille is a knight from Flanders who has taken part in the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars and has received land and wealth as a result. He hosts a dinner in his new castle, which is attended by the chief inquisitor, the Dominican Guillaume Arnaud, and his assistant, the Franciscan Étienne de Saint-Thibéry. Consuls from the city of Toulouse are also present, but the count, Raymond, is absent. One of the consuls protests against the treatment received by the Cathars, some of whom are local nobles (including the previous owner of this castle), but he is quickly silenced by Guy de Lille. The troupe of artists perform at an inn on the Road to Santiago. The musicians, Nuno and Xoán, play a drum and a zither, Fadhila dances, Manrique and Máximo the dwarf juggle. At one point, however, the audience becomes rowdy, and Máximo is hurled through the air. It seems a brawl is inevitable, but suddenly Elvira, who has not lost her voice, sings a beautiful song in Occitan, which quietens the mob. The members of the troupe are eager to learn her true identity. The inquisitor, Arnaud, wishes to become a malleus haereticorum, a “hammer of heretics”. He doesn’t like the northern knight Guy de Lille very much, but recognizes that with his troops he is useful. Elvira prefers not to reveal her true identity – after all, she has saved their skins. Nuno is impressed by her musical ability – when she sang, she used the highest note in the scale, which is not normally taught or played.

Guy de Lille visits the previous owner of his castle, Bernard Rosendus, in prison. He wants to know where his daughter has disappeared to, and why she left all his treasure in the castle, but took a book he believes to contain magic knowledge. In his cell, Arnaud has a nightmare in which he is about to be murdered by local nobles opposed to the Inquisition. He practises self-flagellation. Nuno tries to get Elvira to teach him some of the songs (cansos) she knows. He also wants to know where she goes at night with a sack and a torch. Elvira is grateful for his attention, but prefers to keep her distance. Guy de Lille reveals to the inquisitor Arnaud that he has information about a group of jugglers and musicians who speak Galician, among whom is a girl who sings in Occitan. He is convinced that this is Rosendus’ daughter. He asks the inquisitor to write to the local bishops in Spain to provide safe passage for someone he trusts to go after the girl. Arnaud agrees.

A hired assassin in the Pyrenees, Isahort, receives a message from Guy de Lille, who has a mission involving the Inquisition. The artists reach Burgos, where the king, Ferdinand III of Castile, is about to be married for the second time. There will be a lot of people. The artists are due to perform a play about the life of St Anthony, but both Manrique and Fadhila have fallen sick. Nuno can take Manrique’s role, but they will need Elvira to replace Fadhila. She agrees if they will return half of the money she paid them in the beginning. Guy de Lille dreams of getting his hands on the secret codex and replacing Count Raymond as the leader of Languedoc, not to say the whole of France. The artists perform their play in Burgos. Nuno is St Anthony, who has given up his inheritance and left his sister in the care of some nuns in order to practise asceticism in the desert. He is tempted by the devil, played by Máximo the dwarf, who sends Elvira, a sensual village girl, the monkey and the bear to attack him, but Nuno resists. The performance is a roaring success, although Elvira is aware that in other countries elements of it, such as its sensuality or praise of asceticism, could be construed as heresy.

Guy de Lille goes for a morning walk in Toulouse and insults those who speak the Occitan language. He feels they disrespect the King of France and longs to tax them more heavily. After their performance, Nuno and Elvira are invited to perform privately for a more select audience. A famous courtesan, María Balteira, leads them to the king’s residence. Arnaud recalls how two years earlier, in 1235, he was forced to abandon Toulouse by Count Raymond, who sided with his nobles, some of whom Arnaud had condemned as heretics. It took an intervention on the part of Pope Gregory IX to bring about Arnaud’s return. Nuno and Elvira pass through a hall of courtiers before reaching a room where there are many famous troubadours, including Pero da Ponte. They arrange the order in which they will sing, with Nuno and Elvira going last (considered an advantage, since that way you can respond to any insults that may have gone before). Arnaud threatens to castrate his barber (the previous one has disappeared). He has already ensured the barber’s wife and her family were burned as heretics. The troubadours in the king’s apartments perform, but just as Pero da Ponte is about to take his turn, the king and his bride, Joan of Dammartin, enter the room. Pero da Ponte sings a eulogy to the previous queen, Beatrice, which is a bit risky, given the circumstances. Everybody is then amazed by Nuno and Elvira’s performance. The king invites them to stay the night in his castle and wishes to hear them again the following day.

Arnaud suspects Guy de Lille of an interest in esotericism, but thinks the book of alchemy is in Carcassonne, not with the heretic girl who has escaped across the Pyrenees. Nuno and Elvira perform for the king and his bride. Joan of Dammartin is from Picardy, a region that has had hostility with Languedoc, where Elvira is from, so she pretends to be from Aquitaine and not to know any songs from her region. Isahort has arrived in Burgos and because of the crowds finds it difficult to locate the girl, but won’t give up. Balteira comes to warn Elvira that the new queen suspects her of being a Cathar fugitive; they’ve also heard the Church is looking for a witch in Burgos. Balteira complains at how she is treated and wishes she could practise her art in Languedoc, where women troubadours are respected. Elvira weighs up the possibility of revealing her identity to Nuno, she doesn’t think she can survive on her own. Guy de Lille has acquired the Liber Vaccae, a manual of black magic with eighty experiments in it. He hopes to create a homunculus, a little man, someone who will help him in battle and revere him as a god. There will be a tournament that afternoon in Burgos. The local innkeeper, Hilario, urges the members of the troupe to place some bets with the money they have earned performing for the king. Elvira thinks some extra income could help her escape. Near Toulouse, Arnaud interrogates an old woman on her death bed. She is a Perfect, an adept in Cathar teaching. By threatening her family, he manages to extract the name of the Cathar prior he has been after.

The tournament that afternoon consists of a fight on horseback between nobles, called “game of canes”. The Whites are veterans of the Siege of Córdoba, but Hilario prefers the odds (8 to 1) on the Reds. Horsemen on either side are thrown off their horses. The contest comes down to a single combat between the leaders of both bands, which is won by the Reds. Meanwhile, Isahort has spotted Elvira and plans to take advantage of the ensuing mêlée to spirit her away. Guy de Lille gathers all the ingredients necessary for the creation of a homunculus, which includes producing seed in the presence of an aggravated cow in the stables. Supporters of the two sides fight each other. In the crush, Nuno and Xoán lose sight of Elvira. Xoán is knocked unconscious. But it’s not Isahort who has taken Elvira. Isahort will have to wait for another opportunity. Arnaud and his assistant go in search of the Cathar prior, but arrive too late. The Cathars have fled. Xoán is cared for by a pretty woman, Delfina, whose plans are to head towards the Cantabrian coast in search of her long-lost husband. Nuno suggests to Elvira that the three of them go with her, pretending to be two married couples. Guy de Lille has placed all the ingredients in the cow’s womb and now awaits the birth of his creature. According to the book, he is supposed to eat the creature in order to acquire its powers once it is born. On the journey to the Cantabrian coast, they abandon their cart because of the steepness of the terrain and take refuge in some caves. Elvira teaches Nuno about the songs she has learned and encourages him to compose more cantigas. She also warns him what can happen to Galician language and culture once the king has reconquered Spain – the same as happened to her language, Occitan, with local nobles being replaced by nobles from the rest of the country. Nuno tries to kiss Elvira, but she rejects his advances. Meanwhile, Xoán and Delfina make love a little way off. On their last night in the caves, before descending to the Cantabrian coast, Nuno is visibly downcast because of Xoán and Delfina’s relationship and his own lack of success. Delfina produces a bottle of liquor for them to toast burgeoning romance. Xoán and Delfina then go to sleep in one part of the cave, Nuno in another. Elvira is unable to sleep and eventually notices Delfina getting up in the night and searching her horse. She realizes that Delfina has given them a sleeping potion, only Elvira hardly touched her cup. Delfina demands the book of alchemy she knows Elvira is carrying. She then stabs Nuno with a dagger. It turns out she is Isahort. Elvira knocks her head and cries to Xoán in the hope he will hear her.

Guy de Lille has a meeting with Arnaud, who says he has heard rumours about his fornicating and meddling in magic. Arnaud warns him against consulting forbidden books. Guy de Lille reminds the chief inquisitor that it is his soldiers who protect him. They reach a tense understanding. In the cave, Xoán has managed to fend off Isahort, who has fled with the book of alchemy, but Nuno breathes his last, much to Elvira’s dismay. Isahort goes in search of a messenger to take the book of alchemy to Guy de Lille and then resolves to finish what she started with Xoán and Elvira. Xoán and Elvira bury the body of their companion, Nuno. The former reveals that Nuno had composed a cantiga for Elvira, which he sings to her. In the night, without a bonfire, Isahort is attacked by a pack of wolves. She manages to kill two, but one of them bites her leg and she pours alcohol on the wound to prevent it becoming infected. A servant informs Guy de Lille that the cow is not pregnant. Guy de Lille turns his attention to another codex, which teaches about the migration of spirits, and selects a large falcon to experiment with. Xoán and Elvira reach the port of Santander, where they arrange passage on a ship to Galicia in return for Isahort’s dagger, which she dropped, and Elvira’s Arabian horse. Arnaud manages to capture the Cathar prior, but like the hired assassin, this turns out to be a woman, a prioress, Raymonde.

Isahort plans to kill Xoán and Elvira on board the ship they are due to leave on the following day, but the strong wind knocks her off the rope she is using to access the ship and she drowns, since she is unable to swim. Guy de Lille is summoned by the king of France to explain his troops’ unruly behaviour. He is afraid a trip to the Holy Land awaits him and he won’t be able to fulfil his political ambitions. The messenger arrives with Elvira’s book, but it is not a book of alchemy – it is The Art of Making Verses, a treatise on the art of making verses, together with a selection of the best local songs or cansos. This is what Elvira’s father valued so highly that he gave it to Elvira to take with her when she escaped. Guy de Lille is so shocked that he has a heart attack and dies, thus sharing Isahort’s fate. On board the ship bound for Galicia, Elvira reveals to Xoán that she spent the nights making a copy of the book stolen by Delfina. She finally feels free. Owing to Guy de Lille’s demise, Arnaud is shut up in his convent, waiting to see how events unfold. He is visited in his tower by a large falcon, which stares at him and then flies off. Elvira has arrived in Galicia. She resolves to earn a living by singing songs. She is a trobairitz, a female troubadour in the Occitan language, and her real name is Martine.

This is a charming story about a group of performers, including troubadours and musicians, trying to eke out a living and also to avoid being caught up in the political events of the thirteenth century. It is also a story of intrigue – the Church’s attempts to root out the Cathar heresy, the Cathars’ attempts to evade the Church’s ministers, Guy de Lille’s own political ambitions, the local people’s attempts to avoid falling into his clutches. All this relates to the Road to Santiago, along which, across the Pyrenees, so much culture travelled, together with pilgrims. It is a time when Provençal lyric poetry is in decline and Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry is about to enter a golden age under Fernando III’s son, Alfonso the Wise. The pace of the narrative, and the inclusion of numerous cantigas, ensure a successful outcome to this ambitious novel.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne