Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Ancient Maya. Electronic Library

Abstract

The Popol Vuh is a well-known K’iche’ Maya book compiled in the sixteenth century in the highland Guatemalan town of Chichicastenango; the only known extant copy was made in the late colonial period by a Spanish priest. Although there is thus no pre-Columbian version available to us, and part of the text recounts conquest-and colonial-era events, the bulk of the manuscript is indubitably based on earlier oral and written traditions. Allen Christenson’s claim that this “is the most important example of Pre-columbia Maya literature to have survived the Spanish conquest” is a reasonable one.Christenson has been working with the K’iche’ Maya language — and reading the Popol Vuh — for some 25 years. This edition is thus not only the product of extensive research and contemplation but is a labor of love. The author’s profound appreciation for the text comes through. To be fair, the same is also true of Dennis Tedlock’s 1985 edition, and as far as I am able to judge, the translation is not markedly superior to that edition. But the Christenson edition is certainly equal to the Tedlock one and has the benefit of numerous additional features. Several years ago Christenson published a two-volume version of his translation of the text; the edition under review here is the “electronic library” version on DVD.I find reading long texts on screen to be tiring. However, in this case, that disadvantage is partially offset by the fact that the introduction is engagingly and accessibly written; even the second half of the introduction, which is more scholarly and outlines some of the literary and philological characteristics of the text, is readable.More to the point, the advantages of the DVD over a print version become stunningly apparent once the reader clicks into the text itself. The text is available in no less than seven different forms: a literal English translation; a more polished English translation; a Spanish translation; a transcription of the original K’iche’ text; a facsimile of the earliest extant manuscript copy; a rendition of the text in modern K’iche’ orthography; and an audio version read by a native K’iche’ speaker. The reader can easily navigate between these versions or view them in parallel (the possibilities limited only by the size of one’s monitor). Furthermore, there are numerous illustrations, all of which can be enlarged with a click of the mouse. The illustrations, like the notes, are tied to the text, so as one scrolls down through the text, explanations and images appear. The more time one spends with the disc, the more one discovers additional features (for example, philologists will enjoy the charts displaying character usage, vocabulary dispersion, and vocabulary frequency distribution). A small, ten-page glossy booklet accompanying the DVD provides basic instructions on how to navigate through the disc.The DVD requires Windows 2000 or XP. While I understand that market considerations do not motivate DVD producers to make discs that are Mac compatible, this is unfortunate, considering that many academics are Mac users. That issue aside, this edition is ideal for classroom usage, as it will allow instructors to emphasize different aspects of the text (depending on the level and type of class) and student readers to do likewise, exploring the manuscript to whatever depth and degree they are able.