Ibrahim was only ten years old, but for some time his father had entrusted him with the responsibility of grazing the small herd of goats that the family had. They lived in the small farmhouse of Muràbit, located on cliffs that fell on the river. Sailors found it at the exit of the mountain pass that was upstream of Xârta: Barrufemes.
That morning he decided to go down to graze the goats precisely on the mountains that closed that gorge. He was restless. At dawn, after the muezzin had called to the first prayer, he had gone up, as every day, to sell milk to the al-murabitun, the warriors of the castle. This time, however, he overheard a conversation that upset him. As he understood, in Al-Quabtíl, the place where the river Turtûxa reaches the sea, a few weeks ago a good number of madjus had camped. It was only a matter of time before their dragon-headed ships and square sails appeared up the river.
Centuries later, Barrufemes, this hidden corner of the Ebro, remains the place where it is easiest to evoke all the stories that the river holds, including that of the warriors of the North who traced it back and who are the protagonists of the novel. that of Jordi Tiñena The smile of the viking.
