They sing their own songs and write their own literature in their own language, Euskera. They graze sheep on impossibly steep, green slopes of mountains that are thrilling in their rare, rugged beauty. According to one theory, these rosy-checked, dark-haired, long-nosed people were the original Iberians, driven by invaders to this mountainous corner between the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Sierra, and the Bay of Biscay. They have lived in what is now the northwest corner of Spain and a nick of the French southwest for longer than history records, and not only is the origin of their language unknown, but the origin of the people themselves remainsĪ mystery also. This Basque folktale shows not only the Basque attachment to their orphan language, indecipherable to the rest of the world, but also their tie to the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, a fish that has never been found in Basque or even Spanish waters.

But what was astonishing was that it spoke an unknown language. And the fact that the cod could talk was not especially surprising. He said it must be Friday, the day he could not sell anything except servings of a fish known in Castile as pollock or in Andalusia as salt cod.Ī medieval fisherman is said to have hauled up a three-foot-long cod, which was common enough at the time. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with this prolific fish. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. 'Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done' Express on Sunday Charting the waves a mere fish can send through history, Kurlansky has fashioned an epic masterpiece out of a seemingly small subject.

Cod by mark kurlansky