Level A2 · Chapter 29
That enchanted castle
The fight in the dark goes on. An officer of the law arrives, decides the knight is dead, and ends up breaking an oil lamp over his head.
What you will learn
- Point at something according to how far away it is: este, ese, aquel.
- Use the neuter forms esto, eso and aquello for things with no name yet.
- Put the demonstrative before the noun, with no article.
Before you read
The whole scene happens in the dark, so nobody can name what they are touching. That is why the characters keep pointing instead: this room, that hand of yours, that man over there. Spanish has three words for pointing where English has two.The story in easy Spanish
La pelea siguió a oscuras. Nadie sabía a quién pegaba.
The fight went on in the dark. Nobody knew who they were hitting.
Al ventero se le apagó el candil y el cuarto se quedó negro.
The innkeeper’s lamp went out and the room turned black.
Aquella noche dormía en la venta un cuadrillero de la Santa Hermandad.
That night a constable of the Holy Brotherhood was sleeping at the inn.
Era un hombre de la justicia y vigilaba los caminos de Toledo.
He was a man of the law and patrolled the roads of Toledo.
Oyó aquel ruido, cogió su vara y subió al desván.
He heard the racket, took up his staff and went up to the loft.
Entró a oscuras y pidió respeto para la justicia.
He came in in the dark and demanded respect for the law.
Tocó a tientas al primer hombre que encontró en el suelo.
He groped his way to the first man he found on the floor.
Era don Quijote, tendido en su cama rota y sin sentido.
It was Don Quixote, stretched out on his broken bed and unconscious.
El cuadrillero creyó que aquel hombre estaba muerto.
The constable took it that the man was dead.
Gritó que allí dentro había un muerto y salió a buscar luz.
He shouted that there was a dead man inside and went out for a light.
Con esas palabras todos se escondieron: el ventero en su cuarto, el arriero con sus mulas.
At those words everyone went to ground: the innkeeper to his room, the muleteer to his mules.
Cuando volvió el silencio, don Quijote llamó a su escudero.
When the silence came back, Don Quixote called his squire.
«Sancho, amigo, este castillo está encantado. Esa doncella vino a verme.»
"Sancho, my friend, this castle is under a spell. That damsel came to me."
«Y aquella mano que me golpeó era de un gigante invisible.»
"And that hand that struck me belonged to some invisible giant."
Sancho contestó que en aquella casa pegaban todos.
Sancho replied that in that house everybody was hitting everybody.
El cuadrillero volvió con otro candil y miró al caballero.
The constable came back with another lamp and looked at the knight.
«¿Cómo va, buen hombre?», preguntó desde la puerta.
"How goes it, my good man?" he asked from the door.
A don Quijote no le gustaron nada esas palabras.
Don Quixote did not like those words at all.
Un caballero andante no era un buen hombre cualquiera.
A knight errant was not just anybody’s good man.
El cuadrillero levantó el candil y se lo rompió en la cabeza.
The constable raised the lamp and broke it over his head.
Luego salió del desván y todo quedó otra vez a oscuras.
Then he left the loft and everything went dark again.
«Este es el moro encantado, señor», dijo Sancho desde su rincón.
"This one is the enchanted Moor, sir," said Sancho from his corner.
«Ese moro guarda el tesoro para otros y a nosotros nos da golpes.»
"That Moor keeps the treasure for other people and gives us the blows."
Don Quijote no quiso enfadarse con aquellos encantamientos invisibles.
Don Quixote chose not to lose his temper with invisible enchantments.
Vocabulary
The law
- el cuadrillero
- the constable
- la vara
- the staff of office
- la justicia
- the law, justice
- el camino
- the road
- el muerto
- the dead man
In the dark
- el candil
- the oil lamp
- a tientas
- groping
- sin sentido
- unconscious
- el rincón
- the corner
- apagarse
- to go out
Pointing
- este / esta
- this
- ese / esa
- that
- aquel / aquella
- that one over there
- aquí
- here
- allí
- over there
Demonstratives: este, ese, aquel
Este castillo está encantado.
A don Quijote no le gustaron nada esas palabras.
Aquella mano que me golpeó era de un gigante.
English points twice: this and that. Spanish points three times, and the third one is the one you have to learn on purpose.
| distance | masculine | feminine | neuter | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| here, next to me | este, estos | esta, estas | esto | this, these |
| there, next to you | ese, esos | esa, esas | eso | that, those |
| over there, far from both | aquel, aquellos | aquella, aquellas | aquello | that, those |
The middle one is about the listener, not about metres
ese means near you, the person I am talking to. It is your side of the table, your hand, the words that just came out of your mouth. When Don Quixote says esas palabras, he means the ones the constable has just spoken. Distance in Spanish is measured from the two people in the conversation, not with a ruler.
They take the place of the article
A demonstrative is enough on its own: este castillo, esa doncella, aquel hombre. Never put an article in front of it. English can say this castle of mine, and Spanish does the same with the strong possessive of the last lesson: esta mano mía.
The neuter three
esto, eso, aquello never come before a noun. They point at a whole situation, or at something you cannot name yet: ¿qué es esto?, eso no tiene sentido, aquello fue una noche terrible. That is exactly what a man in a dark loft needs. Note that these three have no plural and never change ending.
Time works like space
| Spanish | when |
|---|---|
| esta noche | tonight, the night we are in |
| esa noche | the night you have just mentioned |
| aquella noche | a night long ago, far from now |
Storytelling lives in aquel. Open a Spanish tale and you will find aquella noche, aquel hombre, aquellos tiempos, because the whole story is being pointed at from far away. That is why this chapter is full of it.
A note on the accents you will see in old books
In editions of Cervantes you will read éste and aquél with a written accent when they stand alone. Spanish spelling dropped that accent in 2010, so you write este and aquel in every case. Recognise it when you read it, do not copy it when you write.
The Holy Brotherhood
The Santa Hermandad was a rural police force, set up by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1476 and still working in Cervantes’ day. Spain had judges in the towns and almost nothing in between them, and the roads were where robbery actually happened. So the Brotherhood patrolled the open country, arrested people on the spot and tried them by its own summary procedure.
Its men were the cuadrilleros, who carried a short staff as their badge and a tin box with their papers inside. They were not admired. Cervantes, who spent time in a Seville prison and knew the machinery from below, never gives one of them a good moment, and this one is typical: he walks into a dark room, decides a man is dead on no evidence, and finishes by settling an argument with an oil lamp.
The lamp itself is worth a look. A candil was a small metal dish of olive oil with a wick floating in it, hung from a hook. It gave about as much light as a candle, it spilled, and it was the only thing between a Spanish household and complete darkness. Breaking one over a head means oil everywhere, which is why the next chapter opens with Don Quixote convinced he is covered in his own blood.
Cervantes in the original
Sin duda, señor, que éste es el moro encantado, y debe de guardar el tesoro para otros, y para nosotros sólo guarda las puñadas y los candilazos.
No doubt, sir, this is the enchanted Moor, and he must be keeping the treasure for other people, because all he keeps for us is punches and lamp blows.
Sancho points at the man who has just walked out with éste, written with an accent because it stands alone, which is the old spelling you will keep meeting and must not copy. The joke sits in the last word. Candilazo is a blow struck with an oil lamp, built from candil plus the ending -azo, which Spanish adds to any object to mean a whack with it. The suffix is still alive: codazo, portazo, botellazo. Sancho is inventing vocabulary at four in the morning while lying on the floor, and this is roughly why people love him.