Examples of Philippine Epic Stories

Bicol Epic Poetry: The Ibalon – An origin tale, the Ibalon tries to explain how man came to be. Much
like the story of Adam and Eve; it follows the tale of the first man and woman in the regions Aslon and
Ibalon (now Camarines, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Albay).
It also narrates the adventures of the heroes of Ibalon and how they fought against monsters before
establishing their own village and learning to farm. The Ibalon also has an account reminiscent of the
flood story, where rains poured for days and almost destroyed the whole land.
Visayan Epic Poetry: The Maragtas Chronicles of Panay – This epic attempts to explain the origins of
the Filipinos and tells the story of 10 Datus or chieftains from Borneo that sail across the oceans to
escape the cruel reign of the Sultan Makatunaw. Upon arrival on Panay islands, the datus meet a tribe of
natives called the Aetas. The Aetas eventually sell a piece of their land to the datus and they live side by
side in harmony.
Old rules of conduct are also sometimes told in epic poetry form. The Haraya, also from the Visayas, is a
collection of moral conduct stories told in the form of heroic tales.
Mindanao Epic Poetry – Epic stories from Mindanao were only very recently put into writing. Known
locally as “Darangan”, these poems are very much like Greek mythology. The Darangan tells the
romantic adventures of noble warriors from Mindanao. A lot of the stories focus on one warrior-prince,
Bantugan, who owned magic shield and was protected by divine spirits.
A lot of the stories revolved around war and love, much like Homer’s Trojan War. But what makes the
Darangan extra special is that it is sung, instead of just said, in twenty-five beautiful chapters.
Igorot Epic Poetry: Aliguyon – The Aliguyon follows the life of the hero after which the story is named,
who is gifted with great powers (he can travel to far places without resting or eating and has never been
beaten in a battle). He embarks on a series of fights with his arch-rival, Pumbakhayon, the only warrior
with skills that match his.
The duel lasts 3 years without anyone winning. So, in order to end things, Aliguyon decides to marry
Pumbakhayon’s sister, thus unifying their tribes.
Ilokano Epic Poetry: Lam-ang – This tale follows the unusual life of a boy who could talk and right after
he was born. At nine months old, he embarked on a journey to avenge his father’s death, accompanied
by his pets, a rooster and a dog. In one of his adventures, he is eaten by a sea monster but comes back
to life.
He then goes on a quest to win the heart of the famed beauty, Ines Kannoyan. When he arrives, Ines’
house is filled with suitors. But with the help of his pet rooster who knocks the whole house down and
builds it up again with a flap of his wings, he eventually wins her heart.

MAY DAY EVE

By: NICK JOAQUIN

LITERARY ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS:

Anastacia

Agueda

Agueda’s daughter

Don Badoy Montiya

Voltaire – the grandson

THEME:

Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone.
Love was blinded and it turned into hatred
Love cannot be based on passion alone.

CONFLICT:

External conflict, Man vs. Man.

We can see that Agueda and Badoy after having a bad married life with each other, used to regret the
past that they’ve been together and it is revealed with their hatred for each other and how Agueda used
to describe the devil to her granddaughter as if it was Badoy and same way as Badoy describing the
witch in the mirror to his grandson as if it was Agueda.

LITERARY MOVEMENT:

GOTHIC FICTION with REALISM

The story happened in the year of 1847 and it has a little blend of horror and fiction because of the
superstitious belief of fortune telling as well as the devil and witch that will come out in the mirror if
everything in the ritual will go wrong.

ANALYSIS:

Agueda and Badoy’s bitter marriage all began on that May night. Agueda and Badoy are two, completely
different people. Agueda is a girl ahead of her time. She is bold and liberated unlike most girls her age.
She stands out from the broad range of followers of her era. The tragedy is when Badoy’s heart forgets
how much he felt for Agueda. The tragedy is how both were not careful enough to mend their drifting
marriage. Both Badoy and Agueda perceived their marriage to be a taste of hell. Instead of admitting that
they saw their spouses in the mirror, they claimed that it was the witch/devil they saw for that was
probably how each of them was to each other during their life together. Their contrasting attributes
perhaps were what brought them together. But it could also have been the root of the bitterness that
concluded their time together. Badoy harked back to the time ´of the girl who had flamed so vividly in a
mirror one wild May Day midnight, long, long ago and refreshed his memory of how she had bitten his
hand and fled which surprised his heart in the instant of falling in love with Agueda. But it has been a
while and time has healed the wounds of their relationship. The old love that was blinded by hatred which
brought pain has now resurfaced. The tragedy is that it is too late. It is good that Badoy can live in the
sweet past he and Agueda had but it is sad that Agueda never found out how much she really meant to
Badoy all this time. She died not knowing that what she and Badoy had was real. The love didn’t go
away. It was just covered up in the dust of time.

GENERALIZATION:

Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone. For Badoy and Agueda
Montiya, they both lived and loved with hate, resentment, regret, but as the story ends, Badoy realized
how he wasted his time with Agueda, how he could have loved her, so much more than he did. He
realized that he became the devil in Agueda’s life, as she became the witch in his life as well. In the end,
they both blamed the superstition of May Day Eve.
We must not put our lives in the conviction of fortune tellers and superstitious beliefs because I believe
that half of our fate depends on how we do things and how we value them. Because some beliefs are not
been proven and it may lead our lives into something that we are not supposed to be in.
Fate is defined in the dictionary as an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end. The story
is set under the assumption that the main characters in the story both believe in superstition, as well as
fate. They believed that for they saw each other in the mirror that fated night, which they are bound to be
with each other.
They chose to see the worst, but in the end, it can be seen that they were in love. The worst in each
other only came out when they chose to see it that way, because we all know that happiness comes out
whenever we choose to be happy.