History and Mythology of the Aztecs THE CODEX C H IM ALPO PO CA History and Mythology of the Aztecs THE CODEX CHIMALPOPOCA Translated from the Nahuad by JOHN BIERHORST THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS Tucson Second printing 1998 The University ofA rizona Press Copyright © 1992 John Bierhorst All Rights Reserved © This book is printed on add-free, archival-quality paper. Manufactured in the United States ofA merica. 03 02 01 00 99 98 6 s 4 3 2 Library ofC ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Codex Chimalpopoca. English. History and mythology of the Aztecs : the Codex Chimalpopoca / translated from the Nahuatl by John Bierhorst. Companion volume to: Codex Chimalpopoca. Indudes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8165-1886-6 (pbk.: u!k. paper). ISBN 0-816S-1126-8 (doth: alk. paper) 1. Codex Chimalpopoca. 2. Aztecs—History. 3. Aztecs—Religion and mythology. 4. Manuscripts, Aztec— Facsimiles, s- Mexico—History—Tb IS19. 6. Colhuacdn—History. I. Bierhorst, John. U. Title. F1219.S9C62 1992 972'.018—dc20 91-42267 CUP British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record fir this book is available from the British Library. Contents Preface vii Introduction i Annals ofCuauhtitlan 17 Table of Contents 19 The Text in English 2 3 Legend of the Suns 13 9 Table of Contents 141 The Text in English 14 2 Concordance to Proper Nouns and Titles 163 Subject Guide 219 Source Abbreviations 231 References 233 v Preface Using terminology found in the codex itself, a more precise tide for this volume would be Tear Count [.xiuhpohualli] and Wisdom Tales [tlamachiliz- tlatolzazanüli] of the Aztecs—meaning the Annals of Cuauhtidan and Leg­ end of the Suns, the two Nahuad works contained in Codex Chimalpo- poca. There is, however, a point at which so much precision becomes unclear. I hope most readers will agree that the rough English equivalent, History and Mythology of the Aztecs, does not misrepresent the work at hand. To make the translation more widely available, its linguistic apparatus is being published separately in a companion volume entitled Codex Chimal- popoca: The Text in Nahuatl with a Glossary and Grammatical Notes. Readers unacquainted with the Aztec language need not consult it. Those who do may use the two volumes side by side as a bilingual edition. The entire project, so far as my own labor is concerned, has been supported by a grant from the Translations Program of the National En­ dowment for the Humanities—to whom I owe my first debt of thanks. In particular I have benefited from the good humor and encouragement of Susan Mango, founder of the Translations Program, and Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, its present director. I am grateful to Elsa Ziehm of the Free University of Berlin for her expert consultation in all matters pertaining to Aztec language and history. It was she who read over my shoulder, as it were, saving me from missteps at crucial moments. Errors that remain, need it be said, are my own, not hers. In addition, I have had two silent consultants, whose works, posthu­ mously, have been constant guides. Indeed, these works have made the present edition possible. I refer to Walter Lehmann’s German-Nahuatl Geschichte der Königreiche von Colhuacan und Mexico, which broke ground with its careful deciphering of the manuscript’s crabbed hand; and Primo Feliciano Velázquez’s annotated Spanish version. Códice Chimalpopoca, with its photographic facsimile of the now-missing original. A third silent consultant has been the late Thelma Sullivan, whose un­ published transcription and English translation of the first seven sides of the manuscript were kindly made available to me by Elizabeth Boone, director of precolumbian studies, Dumbarton Oaks. To Peter Tschohl of the University of Cologne goes credit for having Preface rediscovered the ending of the Codex in the León y Gama copy at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. As a result, the edition in hand is the first in any language to present the Legend of the Suns in its entirety. I am grateful to Professor Tschohl for an offprint of the 1989 paper that announces his find; and I thank Monique Cohen of the Bibliothèque Nationale for permission to transcribe and translate from the León y Gama manuscript. Along the way, numerous individuals and institutions have answered calls for help. I thank them all, especially R. Joe Campbell, John Ceely, Mary Clayton, Marc Eisinger, Willard Gingerich, and Michael E. Smith, all of whom shared unpublished research. History and Mythology of the Aztecs TH E CODEX C H IM ALPO PO C A