Ibalong

The Ibalong is the epic of the Bicol region. Only about 60 stanzas survive, and the oldest text is in Spanish. The Franciscan friar Bernardino de Melendreras is thought to have written the longer poem from a Bicolano bard named Kadunung. A friar named Jose Castaño included the surviving part in a book in 1895. The full English translation appeared in 1996.

The fragment tells how heroes settled a land of monsters. Baltog killed a giant boar that raided his taro field. Handyong cleared the land of beasts with the help of Oryol, a serpent who took the shape of a young woman. He then made laws and taught farming, boat building and weaving. A great flood and the eruption of three volcanoes changed the land. Writers link this to the origin of Lake Buhi. Bantong then killed Rabot, a half-man, half-beast that could turn foes to stone.

The fragment ends there, and Kadunung promises more. The Ibalong Festival honors the epic each year in Bicol. Scholars note the heroes come from a place called Boltavara, which they link to India.