Cónquel and Pedíu (Calvun’s telling)

Overview

In Calvun’s account, Cónquel and Pedíu are brothers and nephews of Latrapai, who offers his two daughters in exchange for labour. The axes he gives them break at their first blows. After reporting the failure, they obtain permission to use their own tools and call upon thunder axes, which sound progressively nearer until they reach the earth. The brothers take one each and fell the old oaks with single strokes. The narrative then says they marry; the wild-bull hunt and the later rhea-and-guanaco hunt follow that marriage.

A fox leads them on the later hunt, fails to catch the birds and leaves them behind. While they remain absent, Latrapai orders him to kill their wives. Returning, the brothers initially mistake the bodies for sleeping women and only recognize the deaths after attempting to wake them. They weep, threaten Latrapai and capture the fox. They declare that nothing will remain alive and that night will last four years. The printed text says they put night in a pot. Lenz’s accompanying expectation that the sun should instead be enclosed is his commentary, not a license to substitute another object.

Birds assemble and offer daughters as prospective new wives. The brothers reject the candidates, including a swallow who moves near their heads and behind them, and darkness continues. A partridge proposes startling their mule so that the pot will fall. The bird darts beneath the animal, dawn returns, and the birds survive; Latrapai has died of hunger during the darkness. Four years is the brothers’ announced duration, not an explicitly measured interval that the account confirms has elapsed.

The brothers are still grieving when a rhea offers help. They sing at its direction while it dances in a hole. First two old women emerge; later two beautiful women appear, each blind in one eye. The old women supply eyes to them, the brothers marry the women, and happiness returns. The ending does not explicitly identify the new wives as the murdered daughters resurrected. The fox’s capture is recorded, but the story does not give his final punishment.

Origins & earliest records

The earlier directly inspected witness is Calvun’s El viejo Latrapai in Lenz, Estudios araucanos VII,225–234, within the volume dated1895–1897. Lenz names Calvun as Segundo Jara and describes1895–1896 collection work with Víctor Manuel Chiappa, but no exact date is attached to this tale.

Records & interpretation

Complete El viejo Latrapai225–234,47sections plus linguistic/comparative notes, read in Lenz’s original transcription and Spanish rendering. Selected original scans verify kinship, night wording, and the eye-exchange ending. Neither a conjectural reconstruction nor another collector’s variant replaces this narrative.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Estudios araucanos, VII: Cuentos míticos

   Rodolfo Lenz; narrative by Calvun (Segundo Jara) · 1897

   Collected volume title1895–1897; VII no2, El viejo Latrapai,225–234, complete47sections and notes read. VII introduction221–222 credits Calvun and recording by Lenz/Chiappa; V127–128 describes Chiappa’s1895 correspondence and Lenz’sFebruary1896 sessions, without assigning an exact date to this individual story.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textInternet Archive: Lenz Estudios araucanos original collected volumeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.