ABSTRACT
As the repertoire of an isolated, archaizing minority, the ballad tradition of the Spanish-speaking Sephardic Jews constitutes one of the most distinctive and interesting branches of the Hispanic romancero. The first full text of a Sephardic ballad to be discovered so far was sung by the false Messiah, Shabbethai Zevi, and written down in a Dutch translation at Izmir (Turkey) in 1667. We also have versions of three traditional ballads, transcribed in a characteristic mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, from the Sephardim of Holland in a manuscript miscellany dated 1683. The Sephardic repertoire includes narrative types from almost all the thematic categories present in the other Hispanic subtraditions. There are Sephardic ballads ultimately related to the Cantar de Mio Cid (Poem of the Cid), to the Mocedades de Rodrigo (Early Adventures of the Cid), to Roncesvalles (the Spanish adaptation of the Roland), to La Mort Aymeri de Narbonne, to Beuve de Hantone, and to other epic narratives as well.
