Note: I’m going to mostly refer to/read the copy from Project Gutenberg (yes, it is public domain), but I'm also using the 2002 first edition of Obra Maestra, a Philippine literature textbook series by Rex Book Store, mostly for the scene divisions. As to why I’m using an old version of the textbook, it’s the only copy I have since my sister used it back then. If you’re curious, there’s a newer version of it in their store.
Anyway, since this is the case, there may be differences between the old and the modern versions of the poem itself.
This isn’t really a book, per se, but it’s a poem. An epic poem. A korido (or corrido), to be particular about it. Take note that the author for this is unknown/anonymous, hence the lack of an author name in the writing main page.
This is one of those pieces of Philippine literature that were usually discussed in schools for its cultural significance, but our school didn’t cover this (although it did cover Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo at least, not sure about Florante at Laura either but I think we did), so this would also be my first time reading it as well.
As for what its significance is, it’s partly because this story/poem has parallels with stories from other countries. Kind of like how different countries have their own version of, say, ghosts and dragons, they also have their own versions of this kind of hero’s tale, where a king or queen falls ill, and someone has to go out on an epic quest and get a cure, maybe encounter a test of character, fall in love with a princess, deal with some bad guys, etc. There are variations, but one could find some common ground between those kinds of stories. Heck, this kind of story was even parodied in Bob Ong's Ang Alamat ng Gubat.
And it's partly because the poetry form (the korido or corrido) is something that was adopted from the Spanish. Now that I think about it... All the important literary pieces discussed in school (Ibong Adarna, Florante at Laura, Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo) is Spanish-influenced.
We’ll be dividing the notes for this piece into events, since the whole thing is very long. Like, 1,600+ stanzas of four lines, eight syllables each line. (Well, based on the more modern version I'm using anyway, as I don't know how long the one on Project Gutenberg is, exactly.)
There are several characters in this poem, and not all of them are introduced at the start, so this will be updated along with the notes for the story. And since it’s long and I don’t really want to bother too much with importance of the characters, they’ll be listed in order of appearance/introduction. Edit (3-27-2024): I'm just gonna restrict the list to named characters, to reduce clutter.
Note: As said above, we will be using the textbook we have as basis of scene divisions. Also, this will be updated as we go.