Title of the Lords of Totonicapán
Also known as: Título de los Señores de Totonicapán, Título de Totonicapán, Title of Totonicapan
A 16th-century Kʼicheʼ Maya chronicle that blends migration lore, divine covenants, and dynastic genealogies to legitimize the lords of Totonicapán. It complements the Popol Vuh by preserving origin narratives, sacred place-names, and claims of authority rooted in pre-Columbian tradition.
Description
The Title of the Lords of Totonicapán is a brief Kʼicheʼ Maya record composed in 1554 that interweaves sacred history with political memory. It recounts ancestral migrations from mythic places of emergence, covenants with patron deities, the naming of mountains and shrines, and the founding of highland centers. Genealogies of ruling houses are traced to hallowed forebears and sacralized through ritual obligations, especially the keeping of fire and offerings to patron gods. The text situates Kʼicheʼ lordship within a sacred geography—mountains, caves, and temples—tying political authority to divine sanction and remembered journeys.
Historiography
Known from copies of a 1554 Kʼicheʼ original, the work circulated in local custodianship before entering scholarly view in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Modern editions and translations (e.g., Recinos; Carmack and Mondloch) established the text as a key complement to the Popol Vuh. Scholars debate its Biblical and Central Mexican resonances while emphasizing its core Kʼicheʼ ritual geography and dynastic legitimation. It remains central to reconstructing highland Maya political memory in the early colonial period.
Date Notes
Composed in Kʼicheʼ with Latin script by Kʼicheʼ nobles; extant text derives from later copies of the 1554 original.
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Balam-Qitzé
- Balam-Acab
- Mahucutah
- Iqui-Balam
Myths
- Quiché Lineage from the Ancient Place of Seven Caves
- The Covenant with Tohil
- Migrations from Tollan and the Founding of Quiché Rule
- The Sacred Bundle and Royal Legitimacy
Facts
- Composed in 1554 in Kʼicheʼ using Latin script during early Spanish colonial rule.
- Preserves Kʼicheʼ migration traditions and sacred place-names tied to mountains and caves.
- Centers on covenants with patron deities Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz.
- Functions as a charter of legitimacy for the lords of Totonicapán through genealogy and ritual duty.
- Shares motifs and personages with the Popol Vuh yet maintains distinct political focus.
- Invokes Central Mexican resonances (e.g., Nacxit) alongside core highland Maya frameworks.
- Highlights the centrality of sacred fire and offerings in sustaining lordly authority.
- Embeds political memory within ritual geography rather than linear annalistic time.
- Known via later copies; the autograph 1554 manuscript is not extant.
- Modern critical editions anchor translation and commentary in Maya linguistics and ethnohistory.