Legends of A Limia

A Limia has a very rich legendary tradition: a great lagoon that vanished, a river that makes you forget, rocky castles and mouras (enchanted Moorish women) who guard treasure. This section tells the legends in full, in the version collected by informants, and always says where each one comes from ^[1][2][3].

The great tales

• Antioquía, the drowned city under the Lagoa de Antela: Jesus as a beggar, the old woman and the bell tower under the water.
• The apparition at Trandeiras and King Arthur’s army.
• The Raíña Loba and her castle, on the crags of Covas (Os Blancos).
• Moors of A Limia: the mouras of Treboal, the Casa da Moura of Calvos de Randín and the treasures of Covelas and Mosteiro.
• The Romaría da Saínza and the Moors and Christians, in Rairiz de Veiga.

Legends by concello and place

• Sandiás: the Torre do Castro, the Fonte do Mouro and the procession of souls
• Xinzo de Limia: the Lethes, Trandeiras, the Torre da Pena and the mouras of the wells
• Vilar de Barrio: xianas, Moors’ holes and the Lagoa de Antela
• Vilar de Santos: the Mariquiña, Santa Marta and the St John’s snake
• Waters, springs and the devil’s horses: Porqueira and Calvos de Randín
• Crags, healing stones and humorous tales: Sarreaus, Baltar, Calvos de Randín and Os Blancos.
• Words of St John, Couto Mixto, Celme and tunnels: the charm against the devil and other legends of the comarca.

Recurring motifs

• The man-eating moura who kills and eats the girl who breaks the secret: from Treboal ("Mariquiña, Maricola"), Sandiás ("María, Mariola"), Laioso ("the Mariquiña for being a gossip"), Xinzo ("Marta, Martola") and Trandeiras, and from Monte do Castelo ("Maruja, Marujón"). In the Calvos version the broken secret makes the treasure say "Falaches, corneaches" ("You talked, you got horns").
• The St John’s snake that comes out of the spring with a jingle in its mouth: Cardeita (Sandiás) and Laioso (Vilar de Santos).
• The two beams, the gold one and the tar one: Sandiás, A Forxa and Saa.
• The devil’s horse that vanishes in the middle of a river: Porqueira, Sandiás and Casas da Veiga.
• The Moors’ tunnels between towers: Sandiás-Pena, Bóveda and Covelas.

How this section is written

Each legend is retold in full, with its variants, and the collector is cited (for example Urbano Santana in 1931 in Sandiás or Manuel Jardón Moure in 1994 in Os Blancos). When a reference has no accessible text, the page says that only the title is known. The literal texts are kept as an internal project archive and the rewritten version is published. Legends mentioned without confirmation, such as that of Romasanta in Rebordechao, are marked as such.

FAQ

Sources

1. Antonio Reigosa (coord.), Galicia Encantada. https://galiciaencantada.com/
2. Fronteira Esquecida Limia-Lima. https://fronteiraesquecida.eu/gl/
3. Xosé Calleja López, As tradicións da Limia. https://tradicionsdalimia.es/