Xohán de Cangas

Who is Xohán de Cangas?

Johan de Cangas was a jograr or non-noble troubadour, probably active during the thirteenth century. He seems to have been from—or associated with -- Cangas do Morrazo, a small town on Pontevedra, Galicia. Only three of his songs survive. All three are cantigas de amigo and in each of them the girl mentions a religious site at San Momede do Mar. These references to the sea may be symbolic as they are real, but they have has earned this poet the designation of "singer of the sea". In the first text, a girl asks her mother for permssion to go see her boyfriend at San Momede do Mar; in the second she informs her mother than the boyfriend did not come and she has surely lost him; in the third she asks her boyfriend to meet her there, and not to break his word to her again.

As with most jograes, nothing is known for certain about his life, although the preservation of three of his cantigas suggests that he performed in the courts of local nobles. The location of the poet's compositions in the manuscript tradition, the use of a place-name in lieu of a surname, and the form and rhetoric of his songs all seem to confirm his status as a jograr.