Biag ni Lam-ang

Biag ni Lam-ang means "The Life of Lam-ang." It is an Ilocano epic about a hero who can speak at birth and picks his own name. Singers kept it alive by mouth, and scholars think it is pre-colonial in origin. A common claim names the blind poet Pedro Bucaneg as its first scribe, but the historian Arsenio Manuel doubts this. He credits Fr. Gerardo Blanco of Narvacan, who sent the text to the folklorist Isabelo de los Reyes. De los Reyes printed it, with a Spanish prose version, in his paper El Ilocano in 1889 and 1890.

The story has two quests. In the first, Lam-ang is only nine months old when he sets off to find his father, Don Juan, who was killed by headhunters. He beats them alone. In the second, he courts Ines Kannoyan in Kalanutian. He defeats a rival and monsters, helped by his magic rooster and dog. A giant fish later eats him. Ines gathers his bones, and the pets bring him back to life.

The epic mixes older beliefs with Catholic elements, since it was kept by a Christian lowland people.