As I prepared to travel to Spain, several folks asked me to keep them up to date regarding what I found.   Today’s report:  Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.  The problem with asking is that you get answers!   Today, in Oviedo, Asturias, I was able to speak with the director of the Archivos del Arzobispado de Oviedo, Don Agustín Nevia Ballina, “Canonigo de la Catedral” and Director of the Archivo Histórico Diocesana –  a very helpful man who has spent his entire life studying the history of Asturias.  I learned so many things that I will have to write a longer message soon.  I am in the process of trying to remember everything he told me.  Despite the fact that while in Seville I had coffee in the  Cafe Al Grano (jee, jee) *

* NOTE:  In Spanish, Ruth keeps telling me to just tell her things, “Al Grano” that is – “Don’t tell me how to build a watch, just tell me the time”…

Still, as you will see, if you continue reading,  it will must take a bit of time to tell you what I learned in Oviedo today.

FIRST, THE ONLY GOOD NEWS FROM OVIEDO:

GOOD NEWS – I HAVE FOUND A CREDIBLE PICTURE (PAINTING) OF KING ALFONSO II.  On the wall of the Museum gallery within the Catedral de Oviedo – the major cathedral that the King ordered to be built in the Ninth Century, which was then rebuilt several years later.  Visitors are awed by the gothic temple it is today, and the impressive examples of gothic stone work and architecture.

NOW, THE NOT SO GOOD NEWS:

Fact Number One:  NO MENTION OF FAITHFUL SERVANT “AGRAZ” IN KING ALFONSO II’s LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT LEAVING ALL HIS PROPERTY AND “SIERVOS” TO THE CHURCH

At least here in Oviedo, from where King Alfonso II, The Chaste ruled his kingdom, there is simply NO mention of any Agraz being a “servidor” of the King as far as the Director could find.  And you would think that with such a significant event – that someone had saved his life! – King Alfonso would have remembered his valiant servidor in his will, right?  Or at least that by the time the King wrote his will the valiant servidor would have been one of the nobles who witnessed the King’s will…  Don Agustín showed me a true replica of the Will of King Alfonso II, complete with the holes in the corners of the pages where it had been chained to some pedestal in those times.   Don Agustín was the primary translator and publisher of the publication of the Will of King Alfonso II.  The will was witnessed by fifty-three (53) bishops, abbots, clerics, and noblemen, all of his court, and further, the King left not only all his property, real and personal, but also all of his siervos to the service of the Church.  Well, we found NO MENTION of “Agraz” – such a worthy servant, anywhere within the four corners of the will either as being passed on the Church, or as a witness to the will.

Fact number Two: (still disappointing)

Don Agustín, the director of the Archives and I spent most of the day together examining my simple question. Did the Agraz ancestor truly receive his title, lands, name, and coat of arms in the ninth century.  Or, as Don Agustín put the question:  Did he take the name of AGRAZ in the Ninth Century?  Answer: NO!   Don Agustín kindly observed a very obvious fact.  That in the ninth century, Kings and literate people in Asturias simply DID NOT SPEAK SPANISH, or CASTILLIAN. Further, remember King Alfonso II was the first KING OF ASTURIAS.  Not KING OF CASTILLE.  And even if some people in the Kingdom of Castille spoke their ancient version of Castillian in Castille, this ASTURIAN, VISIGOTHIC king spoke in LATIN, and would NOT speak in Castilian.  It is doubtful he would have used the Castillian word “Agraz” in any context, in the learned opinion of Don Agustín.   So, a collateral question, did the term “AGRAZ” even exist in LATIN, in those days?  Well… NO.  Agraz in todays’ Spanish means, bitter or immature taste, usually associated with grapes in a vineyard just prior to becoming ripe, ready for harvest.  No one would have said “Agraz” in describing the condition of immature grapes in a vineyard, even in Latin.  They might have said that the grapes were ‘ACERBUS’ in LATIN, meaning the grapes are sour.  The Director pulled out his favorite, well-worn Latin-Spanish dictionary and showed me the definition of the Latin adjective ACERBUS (definition in Spanish).

Don Agustín is a published author and world-known translator of ancient Latin manuscripts. He was chief translator of the Will of King Alfonso II.  He is: Licenciado en Lenguas Clásicas y en Filología Bíblica Trilingüe, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca.

HOPE STILL SPRINGS ETERNAL #1:  Don Agustín is truly a kind man.  He didn’t want me to go away sad.  He reminded me that over the centuries names of things and people are corrupted, changed, and modified.  And he said because of the way people commonly change/translate/corrupt terms in ordinary usage, then there is a very remote possibility that the descendants or relatives of one of the nobles who witnessed the will, might have become “Agraz” — Here is his thinking:

One of the witnesses of the Will of King Alfonso II was an Abbot named  ARGERICO

Don Agustín’s learned opinion is that perhaps, maybe, by chance, “por azar” the name ARGERICO was corrupted into the name AGRAZ by the time of the Reconquista, which everybody knows, ended in 1492, 6 centuries after the alleged valiant event occurred in the Ninth Century involving our alleged ancestor.

HOPE STILL SPRINGS ETERNAL #2:  The alleged “legend” of my ancestor’s heroic exploits expressly states the battle where he valiantly fought off the band of Moors occurred in Betanzos, Galicia, which was at that time within the Kingdom of Asturias, but which now is a totally different geographic part of Spain, although adjacent to Asturias.  And, this is very mountainous land.  Betanzos, Galicia is many, many mountains and valleys away from Oviedo.  Tomorrow, I travel – by bus – to Betanzos and A Coruna, Galicia.  Let’s see what I find.

‘TO BE CONTINUED IN BETANZOS, GALICIA’