Federico, the King of Storms, is the chronicler of Torregrises and the main narrator of the sections “Torregrises” and “Todos quieren entrar” (“Everyone Wants In”) of Pablo and Miranda. He lives on Floor 25 of the tallest building in Torregrises.
| Type | Character (historian) |
| Residence | Floor 25, Torregrises |
| Work | Pablo and Miranda — Final Edition |
| Spanish entry | Federico — el Rey de las Tormentas |
Description
He defines himself in the first person: “Mi nombre es Federico. Soy un historiador bendito. Vivo en la sede de las tormentas, último piso de un lugar muy alto. Yo, Federico, Rey de las Tormentas.” (“My name is Federico. I am a blessed historian. I live in the seat of storms, the top floor of a very high place. I, Federico, King of Storms.“)
Floor 25, “the summit where sky and earth confront each other”, is not an ordinary residence but a prophetic lookout, an observatory of the Storm and a ritual seat. From there he writes stories for “those drunk on sanity”.
The blessed historian
He calls himself “blessed” because he knows the Storm closely: he climbed the building’s reflective surfaces, drank “the mead of inspiration”, and was left with the ability to hear the sound in which the monster hides. His recurring line, which closes his sections, is “Allí donde hay sonido se esconde el monstruo” (“Where there is sound, the monster hides”); it is a working warning: the reader who recognizes the monster’s sound is already in danger, and the chronicle helps them recognize it in time.
The storms of Torregrises are living bodies whose voices Federico interprets. Each successive storm, up to Storm 25, which closes the cycle and which he narrates, brings a new monster, which he catalogs and transcribes. Standing on the sill with arms outstretched, he takes in the whole storm; the monster enters through his ears, and he sets it down in a notebook that becomes the chronicle.
Name
His name echoes Frederick II Hohenstaufen, the Stupor Mundi, and Friedrich Nietzsche.