# Popol Vuh *Anonymous K'iche' (Quiché) Maya text, written down in the Latin alphabet in the mid-1550s; known only through the copy made by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez around 1701. Primary edition for this note: Dennis Tedlock's English translation (Simon and Schuster, 1985; revised edition, Touchstone, 1996).* > I did not read the Tedlock translation. It is in copyright, and the two Internet Archive scans of it are lending-only or print-disabled; I did not log in or borrow either one. What I did read: the Library of Congress records for both Tedlock editions, the Open Library records, Simon & Schuster and bookseller blurbs, the Wikipedia and Britannica articles on the Popol Vuh, the Newberry Library's research guide, Tedlock obituaries, and a 2005 interview transcript with Tedlock. Open Library's public "search inside" returned short snippets of the 1996 scan, and those covered the **whole table of contents**. That is where the outline in section 5 comes from. I also skimmed the introduction of Allen J. Christenson's translation, which is free on Mesoweb, for the dating argument and the manuscript history. I read the Video Summaries note and the YouTube captions around the two mentions. Everything else about what the text says comes from those secondary sources, and I say so where it matters. Related in this vault: the source video note [[Video Summaries/Archaeologist Ed Barnhart/Mississippian Deep Dive]]. There are no other Maya or Mesoamerican dossiers in Book Summaries yet. The closest thing in kind is the traditional-text dossier [[Book Summaries/Vyasa/Bhagavad Gita - Vyasa|Bhagavad Gita]]. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Popol Vuh* (K'iche' *Popol Wuj*, modern *Poopol Wuuj*). Usually glossed "Book of the Community" or "Book of Counsel", literally the book "of the mat", a mat being the K'iche' seat of authority ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh)). Tedlock's 1985 title: *Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings* | | Author | Anonymous. K'iche' nobles of the ruling lineages at Santa Cruz del Quiché wrote it in the Latin alphabet after the Spanish conquest. Proposed names, such as Diego Reynoso or Cristóbal Velasco, are conjecture ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh)). See section 3 | | Composition | Undated. Internal evidence puts it between **1554 and 1558**: rulers named as living, and a lineage official who took office soon after 1554. The argument is Recinos's and Tedlock's, set out in detail by Christenson ([Mesoweb PDF](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf), "History of the Popol Vuh Manuscript"; [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh)). The authors say they were writing down an older Popol Vuh that, in the Goetz-Recinos English, "cannot be seen any more". Whether that was a hieroglyphic book, an oral performance or both is unknown | | Surviving manuscript | The only surviving text is Francisco Ximénez's copy: the K'iche' text with a Spanish translation in a parallel column, made at Chichicastenango (Santo Tomás Chuilá) c. 1701-1703. The Newberry gives the range 1700-1715. The 16th-century original Ximénez worked from is lost. Newberry Library, Chicago, **Vault Ayer MS 1515**, bound with Ximénez's *Arte de las tres lenguas* ([Newberry research guide](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh)) | | Tedlock 1985 | New York: Simon and Schuster, ©1985. 380 p., ill., 22 cm; bibliography pp. 373-380. ISBN 0-671-45241-X. LCCN 84023644 ([LC](https://lccn.loc.gov/84023644)); OCLC 11467786. Touchstone paperback 1986, ISBN 0-671-61771-0 ([Open Library OL7660345M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7660345M)) | | Tedlock rev. ed. 1996 | New York: Simon & Schuster, "A Touchstone book", ©1985, 1996. Rev. ed., 388 p., ill., maps, 24 cm; bibliography pp. 363-373, index. ISBN 0-684-81845-0 / 978-0-684-81845-0. LCCN 95046822 ([LC](https://lccn.loc.gov/95046822)); OCLC 33439111. LC's subtitle for this edition is "the Mayan book of the dawn of life". The cover and Simon & Schuster keep the "Definitive Edition…Glories of Gods and Kings" wording. The publisher's product page gives January 31, 1996 and 384 pages. Per the publisher it adds "new notes and commentary, newly translated passages, newly deciphered hieroglyphs, and over forty new illustrations" ([Simon & Schuster](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Popol-Vuh/Dennis-Tedlock/9780684818450)) | | Other Tedlock editions | Ebook: Amazon lists a Kindle edition (ASIN B0051I4YX0). A bookseller aggregator gives ebook ISBN 9781439144756 (unverified). Wikipedia cites an eBookIt.com 2013 edition, ISBN 978-1-4566-1303-7. Spanish: *Popol vuh: el libro maya del albor de la vida…*, Mexico: Diana, 1993, ISBN 968-13-2512-5, 358 p. ([Open Library OL52463459M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL52463459M)) | | Form | Tedlock divides the text into **five parts**. Each part is a run of headed episodes whose headings are the text's own opening lines (see section 5). The manuscript itself has no divisions. Most other editions follow the four-book scheme (plus preamble) that Brasseur de Bourbourg imposed in 1861 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh), citing Recinos) | | Language | K'iche' (Mayan), written in Ximénez's adaptation of Spanish orthography, including the "Parra" letters; Tedlock translates from the K'iche' column, not from Ximénez's Spanish | | Awards | Tedlock's translation won the PEN Translation Prize in 1986 ([Wikipedia, Dennis Tedlock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tedlock); [UB obituary](https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/working/obituaries.host.html/content/shared/university/news/ub-reporter-articles/briefs/2016/08/obit-dennis-tedlock.detail.html)) | | Cover | [Open Library cover, 1996 Touchstone edition](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/425626-L.jpg) | **Where it came up.** - Video: [Mississippian Deep Dive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo), *Archaeologist Ed Barnhart*. - [30:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo&t=1836s): in his "heroic twins" theme, Barnhart notes that the Pueblo and Navajo both speak of twins, and "the most famous example is the Maya with their hero twins from the Popol Vuh." Some take the twins as proof of Mesoamerican influence on North America. He says the chronology has to be worked out first, and that he personally thinks it is "another one of those echoes from a deeper shared past." (YouTube auto-captions.) - [33:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo&t=2026s): "The connection between the Maya creation story, the Popol Vuh, and ancient art took a similar path decades ago." This is his model for how Red Horn and other Mississippian art might be linked to a lost creation story. - Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Archaeologist Ed Barnhart/Mississippian Deep Dive]] (listed under "Things mentioned → Books and texts"). ## 2. Book resources **Reference and catalog pages.** [Simon & Schuster (1996 Touchstone paperback)](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Popol-Vuh/Dennis-Tedlock/9780684818450); [Open Library work OL35215W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35215W), with editions [OL2860843M (1985)](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2860843M), [OL809990M (1996)](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL809990M) and [OL7721222M (1996 Touchstone)](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7721222M); [Google Books (1996)](https://books.google.com/books?id=qpdB1HzGAygC); [WorldCat OCLC 33439111 (1996)](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33439111) and [OCLC 11467786 (1985)](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/11467786); [Library of Congress LCCN 95046822](https://lccn.loc.gov/95046822) and [84023644](https://lccn.loc.gov/84023644); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh); [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh); [Newberry Library research guide](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh). **Free (legal): the Tedlock edition.** I found no free legal copy of the Tedlock translation. It is in copyright (©1985, 1996, Dennis Tedlock), and neither the publisher nor the translator's estate has posted it. Copies of his text on general "sacred texts" sites are not authorized, and I have not linked them. - **Internet Archive (controlled lending).** [1986 printing, `popolvuhmayanboo00tedl`](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmayanboo00tedl): borrowable. [1996 revised edition, `popolvuhmayanboo0000unse`](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmayanboo0000unse): print-disabled access only. I did not borrow either. - **Open Library borrow.** The 1986 scan is borrowable through [OL15315702M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL15315702M). - **Libby/OverDrive.** Not found. Searches of two large library catalogs (Los Angeles Public Library and New York Public Library, via OverDrive) for "Popol Vuh" show no Tedlock ebook or audiobook. Your own library may differ: [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=Popol%20Vuh%20Tedlock). - **Hoopla.** Not checked; Hoopla's search needs a script-driven browser I did not use. - **Project Gutenberg.** Not applicable to Tedlock. **Free (legal): other translations.** - **Allen J. Christenson (2003/2007), English, posted on Mesoweb.** [*Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People* (PDF, 285 pp.)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf), the full translation with introduction and notes. Its title page calls it the "Electronic version of *Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya* (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2003)". [*Popol Vuh: Literal Translation* (PDF)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PV-Literal.pdf) is the line-by-line version, an electronic version of the 2004 *Literal Poetic Version*. [K'iche' transcription (PDF)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PV-Original.pdf). These sit on Christenson's own "Online Publications" page at [Mesoweb](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/), published as Mesoweb Publications. I take them to be posted with the translator's agreement, so they are legal free copies. Wikipedia calls Christenson's edition the most up to date. - **Lewis Spence (1908), English.** [Project Gutenberg #56550, *The Popol Vuh: The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56550), public domain in the USA. It is an early-20th-century English account rather than a modern translation from the K'iche'; treat it as a period piece. Also as a [Google scan on Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmythica00spengoog). - **Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1861), French, with the K'iche' text.** *Popol vuh. Le livre sacré et les mythes de l'antiquité américaine…* (Paris: Bertrand). Public domain: [Internet Archive (Google scan, readable)](https://archive.org/details/popolvuyhlelivr00bourgoog); [another scan](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhlelivres00bras). This is the edition whose four-part division most later editions copied. - **Carl Scherzer, ed. (1857), Spanish.** Ximénez's own Spanish translation: *Las historias del origen de los indios de esta provincia de Guatemala* (Vienna: Gerold). Public domain: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/lashistoriasdelo00sche). - **Justo Gavarrete (Spanish, 1905; 1923 edition titled *Biblia de los Maya Quiché*).** [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/el-popol-vuh-o-libro-sagrado-de-los-antiguos-vota-nides-1923-santiago-i.-barbere). It is relevant to the "Maya Bible" label in section 6. I did not check the scan's quality. - **The manuscript itself.** Ohio State University hosts a facsimile and transcription of Ayer MS 1515 at its Popol Wuj project (`library.osu.edu/projects/popolwuj/`, linked from Wikipedia). The site did not respond when I checked, so I give the address without vouching for it today. **Paid.** - **Amazon print.** [Tedlock, Touchstone paperback, ISBN 0684818450](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684818450) (in print; the publisher's list price is $19.99); [1986 Touchstone paperback, ISBN 0671617710](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671617710) (used). - **Kindle.** Amazon's search shows a Kindle format for the Tedlock title: [ASIN B0051I4YX0](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051I4YX0). The link came from search results, and I did not open the product page. - **Audible.** No Tedlock audiobook. Audible's English options are other translations, chiefly [*The Popol Vuh*, Michael Bazzett's verse translation, narrated by Bazzett](https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Popol-Vuh-Audiobook/B0D1HW44W7) (Milkweed). Libby carries that one too (OverDrive [ebook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/4354449), [audiobook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/10650625)). There are also several Spanish-language readings. - **Other print translations.** Christenson, University of Oklahoma Press: *The Sacred Book of the Maya* (ISBN 978-0-8061-3839-8) and the *Literal Poetic Version* ([OU Press, ISBN 978-0-8061-3841-1](https://www.oupress.com/9780806138411/popol-vuh/)). Adrián Recinos's Spanish (Fondo de Cultura Económica) and its English version by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Morley (University of Oklahoma Press, 1950). Libby also lists Spence (Dover) as an [ebook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/5103019). ## 3. Author biographies **The anonymous K'iche' authors (mid-1550s).** The writers do not name themselves. In the Goetz-Recinos English quoted by Wikipedia, they say "This we shall write now under the Law of God and Christianity; we shall bring it to light because now the Popol Vuh, as it is called, cannot be seen any more". The book ends with the genealogy of the K'iche' ruling houses (the Cauecs, Greathouses and Lord Quichés) down to men alive in the 1550s. So the authors were almost certainly members of those lineages at Santa Cruz del Quiché, literate in the Latin alphabet through mission schools. The prominence of the Kaweq (Cauec) lineage at the end has led some scholars to think the writer or writers came from it. Rudolf Schuller suggested Diego Reynoso, a signatory of the *Título de Totonicapán*; others have suggested Cristóbal Velasco. Neither has been shown ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh); [Christenson, Mesoweb](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf)). The book was written in a decade Christenson describes as one of great impoverishment at Santa Cruz del Quiché. **Francisco Ximénez (1666 – late 1729 or early 1730), copyist and first translator.** A Spanish Dominican who arrived in the New World in 1688 and finished his novitiate there. Woodruff notes that little else about his life is documented, and the year of his death is uncertain ([Wikipedia, Francisco Ximénez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Xim%C3%A9nez)). The Newberry gives his dates as 1666-1729. Some library catalogs still say "ca. 1722". He was parish priest of Santo Tomás Chichicastenango from about 1701. There he borrowed a K'iche' manuscript, copied it with a Spanish translation in a parallel column, and placed it at the end of his linguistic work *Arte de las tres lenguas kakchiquel, quiché y tzutuhil* (ca. 1700-1703). Around 1714 he put a Spanish version into his *Historia de la provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala*. His manuscript passed to the Universidad de San Carlos after the Dominicans were expelled in 1829-30. Carl Scherzer copied and published its Spanish in 1857. Brasseur de Bourbourg took the volume to France in 1855; Wikipedia, following Woodruff, says he "apparently stole" it. After Brasseur's death in 1874 it went through Alphonse Pinart to Edward E. Ayer, who gave his collection to the Newberry Library, Chicago, where it is **Vault Ayer MS 1515** ([Newberry](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh); Christenson). Adrián Recinos is usually credited with rediscovering it at the Newberry in 1941; Edmonson and López credit Walter Lehmann in 1928. **Dennis Tedlock (June 19, 1939 – June 3, 2016), translator of the primary edition.** He grew up in Albuquerque and Taos, studied anthropology at the University of New Mexico and took his PhD at Tulane (1968). He taught at Boston University, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Yale, and from 1987 was James H. McNulty Professor of English and Research Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, later SUNY Distinguished Professor. He co-founded UB's Poetics Program (1991) and, with Jerome Rothenberg, the ethnopoetics movement and the journal *Alcheringa*. With Barbara Tedlock he edited *American Anthropologist* (1994-98). With her he did fieldwork among the K'iche' and trained as a daykeeper (*ajq'ij*) at Momostenango. Andrés Xiloj, the daykeeper and lineage head who taught them, then read the Popol Vuh text with Tedlock line by line. Tedlock called the result a "three-way dialogue" among Xiloj, the text and himself ([Wikipedia, Andrés Xiloj](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Xiloj)). His other books include *Finding the Center* (Zuni narrative), a translation of the *Rabinal Achi*, and *2000 Years of Mayan Literature* (2010). He died at his home near Taos ([UB obituary](https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/working/obituaries.host.html/content/shared/university/news/ub-reporter-articles/briefs/2016/08/obit-dennis-tedlock.detail.html); [UB English newsletter, Fall 2016](https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/cas/english/Newsletters/Fall2016version286.pdf); [Jacket2](https://jacket2.org/commentary/dennis-tedlock-june-19-1939-%E2%80%93-june-3-2016); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tedlock)). Wikipedia, Jacket2 and the Library of Congress-based record give June 19, 1939. The UB English newsletter's memorial prints "July 19, 1939", which looks like a slip. ## 4. Author interviews and talks None exist for the anonymous authors, for obvious reasons. For Tedlock: - [*Breaking the Maya Code* interview transcript, Barbara and Dennis Tedlock (Night Fire Films), recorded February 11-12, 2005, in Angel Xiloj's weaving workshop, Momostenango](https://nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/interviews/TedlocksTRANSCRIPT.pdf). Tedlock explains why he read the text with a living K'iche' speaker. He describes how Andrés Xiloj caught puns nobody had noticed, and how Xiloj recognized the twins' honoring of their father as the origin of the custom of visiting cemeteries on Hunahpu days. He also covers the *Rabinal Achi* and his then-forthcoming Maya literature anthology. - [Night Fire Films interview with Angel Xiloj](https://www.nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/interviews/XilojTRANSCRIPT.pdf): the son of Tedlock's teacher on daykeeping at Momostenango. It is useful background, but it is not about the translation as such. - [PennSound: Dennis Tedlock](https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Tedlock.php): Charles Bernstein's *LINEbreak* radio program (Buffalo, 1995, 29:03), readings at Buffalo (1994), the 1978 *Alcheringa* "Oratory in Three Languages" recording, and a 2009 talk with Barbara Tedlock on Zuni healing and ethnopoetics. I did not listen to them, so I can't say how much of each concerns the Popol Vuh. - [Jacket2 tribute by Charles Bernstein, with remembrances by Jerome Rothenberg (2016)](https://jacket2.org/commentary/dennis-tedlock-june-19-1939-%E2%80%93-june-3-2016): it places the Popol Vuh translation in Tedlock's "total translation" work. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** The text's own claim is the place to start. The writers set out to record "the ancient word" of the K'iche' nation: how the gods made a world and a people able to praise them, and how the K'iche' lords came to rule. Tedlock's titles, "the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings", follow that arc from first dawn to dynasty. Tedlock's own case, as the publisher states it, is that this is "the most important text in the native languages of the Americas" and "an extraordinary document of the human imagination". He also holds that a translator needs living K'iche' knowledge (calendar, divination, prayer speech) to read it well; hence the subtitle's "with commentary based on the ancient knowledge of the modern Quiché Maya". **Outline.** These are Tedlock's five parts with the episode headings and start pages from the **1996 revised edition's** table of contents. I reassembled them from Open Library "search inside" OCR snippets of the scan `popolvuhmayanboo0000unse`. The headings are Tedlock's renderings of the text's own opening lines, not chapter titles he invented. Page numbers are as printed; "[1?]" marks a digit the OCR dropped. The 1985/86 edition has the same five-part plan with different pages: snippets of that scan show a "Pronouncing Quiché Words" section before Part One and Part Five starting at p. 201. One-line glosses in *italics* are mine, drawn from the headings and the [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh) and [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh) summaries, not from reading the translation. - Front matter: Illustrations 13 · Preface 15 · Introduction 21 - **Part One** (63-73). *Preamble; the primordial sea and sky; the makers' first failed attempts at people; the flood of the wooden people.* This is the beginning of the Ancient Word 63 · This is the account 64 · Now they planned the animals of the mountains 66 · And then the deer and birds were told 67 · Again there comes an experiment with the human work 68 · Then comes the naming of those who are the midmost seers 69 · Again there comes a humiliation 71 · This was when there was just a trace of early dawn 73 - **Part Two** (77-85+). *Hunahpu and Xbalanque topple the false sun Seven Macaw (Vucub Caquix) and his sons.* Here is the beginning of the defeat and destruction of the day of Seven Macaw 77 · And here is the shooting of Seven Macaw by the two boys 78 · And here are the deeds of Zipacna 81 · Now this is the defeat and death of Zipacna 84 · And the third to magnify himself is the second son of Seven Macaw, named Earthquake 85 - **Part Three** (91-141). *The twins' father and uncle, One and Seven Hunahpu, die in Xibalba. Blood Moon (Xquic) conceives the twins. The twins outwit the lords of Xibalba in the houses of trial and the ballgame, die and come back, defeat the lords, and restore their father.* And now we shall name the name of the father of Hunahpu and Xbalanque 9[1?] · And these are the lords over everything 92 · And now for the messengers of One and Seven Death 93 · After that One and Seven Hunahpu left 94 · And One and Seven Hunahpu went inside Dark House 96 · And here is the account of a maiden 98 · And after the maiden was noticed by her father 99 · And when Blood Moon came to the mother of One Monkey and One Artisan 102 · And this is their birth; we shall tell of it here 104 · And then they sang, they played, they drummed 106 · And now they began to act out their self-revelation 109 · So now there was fire in their hearts 111 · Happy now, they went to play ball at the court 112 · They went down to Xibalba 116 · First they entered Dark House 119 · And after that, the boys next entered Razor House 122 · And now they entered Cold House 124 · So next they entered Jaguar House 124 · So next they entered the midst of the fire 125 · Now they were put inside Bat House 125 · And here it is: the epitaph, the death of Hunahpu and Xbalanque 130 · This is the making of the oven 131 · And on the fifth day they reappeared 132 · And they came to the lords 133 · And this is the sacrifice of little Hunahpu by Xbalanque 136 · And then they named their names 138 · And this is their grandmother, crying and calling out in front of the ears of green corn 139 · And here their father is put back together by them 141 - **Part Four** (145-173). *People are made at last, from yellow and white maize. The first four men and their wives; the migration from Tulan; the gods Tohil, Auilix and Hacauitz; the first dawn; wars with the other tribes; the death of the founders.* And here is the beginning of the conception of humans 145 · These are the names of the first people who were made and modeled 146 · And then their wives and women came into being 148 · And this is our root, we who are the Quiché people 149 · And this is the name of the mountain where they went 151 · They walked in crowds when they arrived at Tulan, and there was no fire 152 · When they came away from Tulan Zuyua 156 · And then they came away, just camping on the road 157 · And then Tohil, along with Auilix and Hacauitz, spoke to them 158 · And here is the dawning and showing of the sun, moon, and stars 160 · And there began their song named "Camacu" 162 · And here they burn their copal 163 · And then comes the killing of the tribes 165 · First the tribes tried to plan the defeat of Tohil, Auilix, and Hacauitz 166 · And they sent the two of them, named Lust Woman and Wailing Woman 167 · And here is the joining together of all the tribes 170 · And then Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Not Right Now, and Dark Jaguar 172 · Now this is where we shall tell about the death of Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Not Right Now, and Dark Jaguar 173 - **Part Five** (179-198). *The founders' sons go east to the lord Nacxit and receive titles of lordship from him (Tedlock's commentary, per snippets, calls them "the pilgrims who received titles from Nacxit"). The K'iche' build their citadels, ending at Rotten Cane (Q'umarkaj). The book closes with lineages, titles and the generations of lords down to the authors' own day.* And then they remembered what had been said about the east 179 · And then they came before the lord named Nacxit 179 · And then they came to a place where they founded a citadel named Thorny Place 180 · And Bearded Place is the name of the mountain of their citadel 181 · And then they got up and came to the citadel of Rotten Cane 183 · And here are the titles of the lords who led the Cauecs 184 · And now these are the lords who led the Greathouses 185 · And now these are the Lord Quichés 185 · And there were also two lineages of Zaquic lords 185 · Then splendor and majesty grew among the Quiché 185 · And here are the names of the sixth generation of lords 187 · After that came the sentries 188 · And now we shall name the names of the houses of the gods 191 · And this is the cry of their hearts 192 · And here are the generations, the sequences of lordships 194 · And here shall appear the faces, one by one, of each of the Quiché lords 194 · And here are those of the Greathouses 196 · And now these are for the Lord Quichés 197 · And there are three Masters of Ceremonies in all 197 · This is enough about the being of Quiché 198 - Back matter: Notes and Comments 201 (Orthography 201 · Abbreviations 202 · Mayan Poetics 202 · The Mayan Calendar 205 · Notes and Comments 209) · Glossary 336 · Bibliography 363 · Index 375 Count: 80 headed episodes (8 + 5 + 29 + 18 + 20). The page spans for Parts Two and Five's ends are inferred from the next part's start. **Key ideas (from the sources named above; not from a reading).** - **Creation by trial and error.** The makers (Heart of Sky with Sovereign Plumed Serpent, in Tedlock's names) want beings who will speak their names and keep their days. Animals cannot. People of mud crumble. People of wood fail and are destroyed in a flood; the survivors become monkeys. Only people made from maize succeed (Wikipedia's summary; Tedlock's headings call the attempts "an experiment with the human work" and "a humiliation"). Humanity's material is the K'iche' staple, which is the point. - **The Hero Twins' story fills the gap before humans can exist.** Before the dawn, Hunahpu and Xbalanque clear away false pretenders (Seven Macaw and sons) and beat the lords of death at their own game. They become sun and moon, and the "dawn of life" of the title can then come. Tedlock's headings show how much of the book this takes up: Part Three alone runs about fifty pages. - **Myth runs into dynastic history without a break.** Parts Four and Five turn into a charter of the K'iche' state: migration from Tulan, divine patrons, investiture by a lord in the east, the citadels, and the lists of lords. It is as much a political document for 1550s K'iche' nobles as a religious one. - **Tedlock's method.** He translates from the K'iche' column. He leans on Xiloj's daykeeper knowledge; he called the process a "three-way dialogue" among Xiloj, the text and himself (quoted by Wikipedia). He reads the text as performed speech, with attention to couplets ("Mayan Poetics"), and he uses the Mayan calendar ("The Mayan Calendar") and astronomy to interpret episodes. The 1996 revision adds new hieroglyphic decipherments and illustrations from Classic Maya art. - **Reception.** The 1986 PEN Translation Prize; Rothenberg's praise of it as "total translation" (Jacket2). Many later scholars and translators work with or against it. Christenson's translation (2003) is now the other standard English version. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **mixed**. The manuscript facts and the Tedlock edition data check out against primary catalogs and the Newberry. Several popular framings (the "Maya Bible", a "hieroglyphic original", one-to-one links with Classic Maya art) are disputed or unproven. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Written in K'iche' in the Latin alphabet between 1554 and 1558 | Supported (scholarly consensus, by inference) | Internal references to rulers and officials alive at those dates: [Christenson (Mesoweb)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf); [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh); Recinos 1947 and Tedlock 1996 as cited in [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh). A minority (Woodruff) doubts that any 16th-century alphabetic text existed, since only Ximénez's copy survives | | Anonymous authorship by K'iche' nobles; named candidates (Diego Reynoso, Cristóbal Velasco) | Anonymity supported; names unverified | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh) presents Schuller's Reynoso theory and the Velasco suggestion as conjecture | | "Originally written in Mayan hieroglyphs" (Simon & Schuster blurb) | Unverified / disputed | The authors say an earlier Popol Vuh "can no longer be seen". Christenson thinks a lowland-style codex was likely, but no such book has been found ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh): "No evidence of such a codex has yet been found"). The blurb states as fact what is an inference | | Only surviving text is Ximénez's c. 1701-03 copy, Newberry Library, Ayer MS 1515 | Supported | [Newberry](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh) (which dates the transcription 1700-1715); Christenson; [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh) | | Brasseur de Bourbourg took the manuscript from the University of San Carlos library | Supported as reported; "stole" is an inference | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh) ("apparently stole", after Woodruff); Brasseur later gave inconsistent accounts of his source | | The manuscript has no divisions; the usual four parts are Brasseur's | Supported | Recinos, quoted in [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh). Tedlock's five-part scheme is his own (contents page, section 5) | | The Popol Vuh is "the Maya Bible" | Disputed as a description | It is a label, not a fact. A 1923 Spanish edition was titled *Biblia de los Maya Quiché* ([IA](https://archive.org/details/el-popol-vuh-o-libro-sagrado-de-los-antiguos-vota-nides-1923-santiago-i.-barbere)). The book is one lineage's myth-and-history, not a canon or a law code for all Maya peoples, and it comes from one highland nation in the 1550s | | Humans were made from maize after failures with mud and wood | Supported (as the text's content) | Tedlock's headings ("an experiment with the human work", "the conception of humans"); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh) structure summary | | The Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque defeat the lords of Xibalba and become the sun and moon | Supported (as the text's content) | [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh); Tedlock Part Three headings | | Popol Vuh characters and episodes appear in Classic Maya art (Coe, 1973 onward) | Supported in part; disputed in degree | Coe's *The Maya Scribe and His World* (1973) identified the Hero Twins and other figures on Classic ceramics ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh)). Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (*Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya*, Yale 2017; ["Xibalba in Technicolor"](https://core.tdar.org/document/473432/xibalba-in-technicolor-the-popol-wuj-and-the-interpretation-of-ancient-maya-art)) cautions against reading a 16th-century highland text back onto Classic lowland art one to one | | The 2009 El Mirador stucco panels (c. 300 BCE) "authenticated" the Popol Vuh story | Overstated | [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh) uses that word. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh) says the figures "might be the Hero Twins". An iconographic identification can suggest a story's antiquity but cannot authenticate a text | | Tedlock's translation drew on daykeeper Andrés Xiloj | Supported | [Wikipedia, Andrés Xiloj](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Xiloj); [Night Fire Films interview](https://nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/interviews/TedlocksTRANSCRIPT.pdf) | | Tedlock won the PEN Translation Prize for it (1986) | Supported | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tedlock) (citing PEN's archived winners list); [UB obituary](https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/working/obituaries.host.html/content/shared/university/news/ub-reporter-articles/briefs/2016/08/obit-dennis-tedlock.detail.html) | | Declared intangible cultural heritage of Guatemala (August 22, 2012) | Supported as reported | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh), citing *Publinews*, 25 August 2012; I did not see the original | | Barnhart: hero twins in North American traditions are an echo of a deeper shared past rather than proof of Mesoamerican influence | Opinion; unverified | Barnhart presents it as his personal view and says the chronology must be worked out first ([30:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo&t=1836s)) | ## 7. Citations and references **Scholarship and editions the tradition rests on** (as cited by Wikipedia, Christenson and the Tedlock snippets; listed, not all read): - Ximénez, Francisco. *Empiezan las historias del origen de los indios de esta provincia de Guatemala*, MS c. 1701-03, Newberry Library, Vault Ayer MS 1515 ([guide](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh)). - Scherzer, Carl, ed. *Las historias del origen de los indios de esta provincia de Guatemala*. Vienna, 1857 ([IA](https://archive.org/details/lashistoriasdelo00sche)). - Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles Étienne. *Popol vuh. Le livre sacré…* Paris: Bertrand, 1861 ([IA](https://archive.org/details/popolvuyhlelivr00bourgoog)). - Spence, Lewis. *The Popol Vuh: The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America*. London: David Nutt, 1908 ([Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56550); imprint per the Gutenberg title page). - Schultze Jena, Leonhard, trans. *Popol Vuh: das heilige Buch der Quiché-Indianer von Guatemala*. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1944. - Recinos, Adrián, ed. *Popol Vuh: las antiguas historias del Quiché*. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1947. English by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morley, *Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya*. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950. - Edmonson, Munro S. *The Book of Counsel: The Popol-Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala*. New Orleans: MARI, Tulane, 1971. - Estrada Monroy, Agustín, ed. Facsimile edition. Guatemala City, 1973. - Coe, Michael D. *The Maya Scribe and His World*. New York: Grolier Club, 1973. - Tedlock, Dennis, trans. *Popol Vuh*. Simon and Schuster, 1985; rev. ed. Touchstone, 1996 ([LC 84023644](https://lccn.loc.gov/84023644), [LC 95046822](https://lccn.loc.gov/95046822)). - Colop, Sam, ed. *Popol Wuj: versión poética K'iche'*. Guatemala: Cholsamaj, 1999. - Christenson, Allen J. *Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya* (2003; OU Press 2007) and *Literal Poetic Version* (2004) ([Mesoweb](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/)). - Woodruff, John. On the making of the Ximénez manuscript ("Ma(r)king Popol Vuh"), 2009, as cited by Wikipedia; not seen. - Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo. *Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya*. Yale University Press, 2017 ([review, caa.reviews](https://caareviews.org/reviews/3349)). - Bazzett, Michael, trans. *The Popol Vuh: A New Verse Translation*. Milkweed, 2018. **Links this note used:** - Catalogs and copies: [Open Library work OL35215W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35215W); [OL2860843M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2860843M); [OL809990M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL809990M); [OL7721222M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7721222M); [OL7660345M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7660345M); [OL15315702M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL15315702M); [OL52463459M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL52463459M); [IA popolvuhmayanboo00tedl](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmayanboo00tedl); [IA popolvuhmayanboo0000unse](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmayanboo0000unse); [Open Library search inside](https://openlibrary.org/search/inside?q=%22This+is+the+beginning+of+the+Ancient+Word%22); [LC 84023644](https://lccn.loc.gov/84023644); [LC 95046822](https://lccn.loc.gov/95046822); [WorldCat 33439111](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33439111); [WorldCat 11467786](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/11467786); [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=qpdB1HzGAygC); [Simon & Schuster](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Popol-Vuh/Dennis-Tedlock/9780684818450); [Amazon 0684818450](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684818450); [Amazon 0671617710](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671617710); [Amazon Kindle B0051I4YX0](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051I4YX0); [Audible, Bazzett](https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Popol-Vuh-Audiobook/B0D1HW44W7); [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=Popol%20Vuh%20Tedlock); [OverDrive Bazzett ebook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/4354449); [OverDrive Bazzett audiobook](https://www.overdrive.com/media/10650625); [OverDrive Spence](https://www.overdrive.com/media/5103019); [OU Press, Christenson](https://www.oupress.com/9780806138411/popol-vuh/); [Open Library cover](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/425626-L.jpg). - Free texts: [Christenson translation (Mesoweb)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf); [Christenson literal (Mesoweb)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PV-Literal.pdf); [K'iche' transcription (Mesoweb)](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PV-Original.pdf); [Mesoweb Christenson page](https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/); [Gutenberg #56550](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56550); [IA Spence](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhmythica00spengoog); [IA Brasseur](https://archive.org/details/popolvuyhlelivr00bourgoog); [IA Brasseur (2)](https://archive.org/details/popolvuhlelivres00bras); [IA Scherzer](https://archive.org/details/lashistoriasdelo00sche); [IA Gavarrete 1923](https://archive.org/details/el-popol-vuh-o-libro-sagrado-de-los-antiguos-vota-nides-1923-santiago-i.-barbere). - Background: [Wikipedia, Popol Vuh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh); [Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Popol-Vuh); [Newberry research guide](https://www.newberry.org/collection/research-guide/popol-vuh); [Wikipedia, Francisco Ximénez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Xim%C3%A9nez); [Wikipedia, Andrés Xiloj](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Xiloj); [tDAR, Chinchilla "Xibalba in Technicolor"](https://core.tdar.org/document/473432/xibalba-in-technicolor-the-popol-wuj-and-the-interpretation-of-ancient-maya-art); [caa.reviews](https://caareviews.org/reviews/3349). - Tedlock: [Wikipedia, Dennis Tedlock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tedlock); [UB obituary](https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/working/obituaries.host.html/content/shared/university/news/ub-reporter-articles/briefs/2016/08/obit-dennis-tedlock.detail.html); [UB English newsletter, Fall 2016](https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/cas/english/Newsletters/Fall2016version286.pdf); [Jacket2](https://jacket2.org/commentary/dennis-tedlock-june-19-1939-%E2%80%93-june-3-2016); [Night Fire Films, Tedlocks](https://nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/interviews/TedlocksTRANSCRIPT.pdf); [Night Fire Films, Angel Xiloj](https://www.nightfirefilms.org/breakingthemayacode/interviews/XilojTRANSCRIPT.pdf); [PennSound](https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Tedlock.php). - Source video: [Mississippian Deep Dive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo) at [30:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo&t=1836s) and [33:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS4uYLxKCSo&t=2026s); [[Video Summaries/Archaeologist Ed Barnhart/Mississippian Deep Dive]].