The impossible love of Nuredduna
The legend of Nuredduna was an invention of the Pollensa poet Miquel Costa i Llobera and a statue in her image can be found in Palma de Mallorca in Spain. The statue was created by Remigia Caubet González it is located near the Palacio de Congresos in Palma. Cast in bronze it represents Nuredduna pictured as a young sad woman, walking in front of the wind with her eyes downcast and a lyre in her right hand.
She is the protagonist of the epic poem entitled “La deixa del geni grec” (“The legacy of the Greek genius”) which was written in 1900 in Pollense. The term Nuredduna was coined by Costa y Llobera himself based on the word “nur”, whose meaning in the ancient languages of the East is associated with fire.
The Poem
The poem narrates the adventure of some Greeks, who landed a millennia ago in Mallorca, near the Port of Pollensa . Traveling with them is a young poet, Melesigeni, an alter ego of Homer. The Greeks are taken prisoner by the forces of the island and locked in the caves of Artá .
One night, the Mallorcan priestess Nuredduna, in love with Melesigeni, sets them free. Then, with the urgency of fleeing, Melesigeni forgets his lyre inside the cave. This will be the legacy of the Greek genius, the classicism that will fertilize popular poetry and give rise to cultured poetry.
Remigia Caubet
Remigia Caubet González is a famous Spanish artist and sculptor from Mallorca, Spain whose work focuses mainly on the Balearic Islands. She is known for many pieces among which is the Nuredduna statue in the port of Palma.
Did you know ?
Currently, several buildings and streets in the Balearic Islands are named after Miquel Costa, and there is also an asteroid (16852) named after Nuredduna .
