Other activities

Wednesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at the Archaeological Museum of Asturias

Presentation of the novel VIII EDHASA HISTORICAL NARRATIVES AWARD 2025

The Song of the North. The Asturian Warrior

by Pilar Sánchez Vicente

The author will be accompanied by Lisardo Lombardía of the Belenos Foundation

The year is 745. Toledo has fallen, Don Pelayo has died, and Spain is now in the hands of the Caliphate of Damascus. Orders come from Córdoba. But the north of the peninsula remains, as always, rebellious... There, faith in ancestral powers has not been lost, in continual struggle with an expanding Church; and there is no ground more sacred than the Orandi Valley, whose great oak tree has seen the centuries pass.

No one dares deny the last will of Sancha Asuera, the Asturian warrior who has already given her name to that song recited around the fires. And with her go her captains, Queen Emersinda, and also the one who sings this story, her sister Aurelia.

Because this is the story of a turbulent north, a land where, amid fear and famine, the shadow of Pelayo suddenly rises, marked by the cross in his destiny to be king. And also, and above all, the feat of a group of women, led by Sancha, who managed not only to fight the enemy on their own, but also to reconquer Cangas for Christianity and begin the creation of a new kingdom.

From village markets and Muslim harems to the Battle of Cova Longa, this is the story of Sancha Asuera, the Brave Woman, and her warriors. This is The Song of the North.

Pilar Sánchez Vicente transports us to a time steeped in history and legend. Inspired by oral tradition and little-known documentation, she immerses us, with a firm, dizzying, and absorbing pen, in unforgettable characters and an era that will mark the turning point in our history...