Poem of the Cid by Unknown

First published:Cantar de mío Cid, early thirteenth century (English translation, 1808)

Type of work: Poetry

Type of plot: Epic

Time of plot: c. 1075

Locale: Fief of Bivar, north of Burgos, Spain

Principal characters

• Ruy Díaz, called My Cid, Lord of Bivar
• Alfonso, the king of León, by whom the Cid was exiled
• Doña Ximena, the Cid’s wife
• Martín Antolinez, one of the Cid’s chief lieutenants
• Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, the Cid’s daughters
• Minaya Alvar Fáñez, the Cid’s chief lieutenant and companion
• Félix Muñoz, the Cid’s nephew and rescuer of his daughters
• García Ordoñez, lord of Grañón, the Cid’s enemy
• Diego and Fernando González, the princes of Carrión, suitors and husbands to the Cid’s daughters, two villains
• Gonzalo Ansúrez, the count of Carrión, father of Diego and Fernando González

The Poem:

By royal edict, the Cid is banished from Christian Spain by King Alfonso VI of Castile. The royal edict allows him nine days in which to leave the kingdom but forbids him from taking with him any of his wealth and goods. Any man in the kingdom who offers aid to the Cid will forfeit his estate. Nevertheless, the Cid enlists the aid of Martín Antolinez in swindling two moneylenders, Raquel and Vidas, in exchange for two large sealed coffers, supposedly loaded with the Cid’s riches but containing only sand. The Cid and a small force of vassals then ride away and make a secret camp. On the morning of the Cid’s actual departure from the country, with a fair-sized group of loyal vassals, Mass is said for all at the abbey where Doña Ximena, the Cid’s wife, and his two infant daughters, Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, have been ordered to remain.

Becoming a soldier of fortune, the knight leads his host in conquest of one Moorish territory after another, each time generously sharing the spoils and booty among his knights and vassals, even the lowliest. Thus he builds up a larger and stronger force with every foray, and after each victory Mass is said in thanksgiving. The Cid fights his way to the eastern side of the peninsula, where he fights his most crucial battle and wins his greatest victory when he takes as his prisoner Count Ramón of Barcelona. After Count Ramón has been humbled and forced to give up all his property, he is granted his liberty.

Although Minaya Alvar Fáñez returns to King Alfonso with gifts and a glowing report of the Cid’s successes, the king does not revoke his decree of banishment. Minaya’s estates are restored, however, and he was granted freedom to come and go without fear of attack. The Cid continues his campaigns against the Moorish territories in order to increase his favor with King Alfonso. After he has conquered the provinces of Valencia and Seville, however, his men grow tired of fighting, and many wish to return to Castile. The Cid, although still generous and understanding, proves himself master by threatening all deserters with death.

Again the Cid sends Minaya to King Alfonso, this time with a gift of one hundred horses and a request that Doña Ximena and her daughters be permitted to join him in Valencia. Visibly softened by the Cid’s growing power, King Alfonso grants this request. In addition, he returns to the Cid’s men their former estates.

Shortly after a triumphant reunion with his family in Valencia, the Cid overcomes the king of Morocco. As a gesture of victory, he sends the Moroccan’s tent to King Alfonso. This dramatic gift earns the Cid’s pardon as well as the king’s request that the Cid give his daughters in marriage to Diego and Fernando, the princes of Carrión. At the victory feast, many marvel at the great length and abundance of the Cid’s beard, for he had sworn at the time of his banishment that his beard would never again be cut. The fullness of his beard has now taken on a mystical significance related to the Cid’s power and success.

The Cid has reservations about giving his daughters to the princes of Carrión. His daughters are, he thinks, too young for marriage. Also, he distrusts the two men. However, with a great show of humbleness and subservience, he returns Doña Elvira and Doña Sol to the king with word that Alfonso will honor the Cid by disposing of his daughters’ future as the monarch sees fit.

After the weddings, the elaborate wedding feast, to which all the Cid’s vassals as well as those of the territory of Carrión have been invited, lasts for more than two weeks. The Cid expresses some satisfaction in having his family united with noblemen as rich as Prince Diego and his brother Fernando.

Two years of happiness follow, then, one day, one of the Cid’s pet lions escapes. Far from showing valor in the emergency, Diego hides from the lion under the bench on which the Cid is asleep, and Fernando flees into the garden and hides behind a winepress. After the Cid’s vassals easily subdue the lion, the favored princes become the butt of much crude humor and scorn. The Cid, however, choosing to ignore the evident cowardice of his daughters’ husbands, makes excuses for them.

Once again the Cid is forced to war with the Moroccans, this time against the mighty King Bucar. After a great battle, Bucar is killed and his vassals are subdued. The Cid is jubilant. As the spoils are divided, he rejoices that at last his sons-in-law have become seasoned warriors. His vassals are half amused and half disgusted at this, because it is common knowledge among them that neither Diego nor Fernando showed the slightest bravery in the conflict, and at one point the Cid’s standard-bearer had been forced to risk his life to cover for Fernando’s shocking cowardice.

Diego and Fernando are richly rewarded for their supposed valor, but their greed is not satisfied. Resentful and injured by the insults and scorn heaped on them by the Cid’s vassals, they begin a scheme for revenge by telling the Cid that, proud of their marriages and their wealth, they would like to make a journey to Carrión to show off their wives and to sing the Cid’s praises. In secret, they plan not to return from this journey. The noble and generous Cid, always ready to think the best of anyone, grants their request without question. He adds further to the princes’ treasure and sends them off with a suitable company of his own vassals as an escort of honor. Then, belatedly concerned for the safety of his daughters, he also sends with them his nephew, Félix Muñoz, after charging the young nobleman with the care of Doña Elvira and Doña Sol.

When they are safely away from Valencia, the princes send the company on ahead and take their wives into the woods. There, with viciousness, they strip the women of their rich garments and their jewels, whip them, and leave them, wounded and bleeding, to die. Félix Muñoz, whose suspicion has been aroused by the princes’ desire to separate their wives from the rest of the party, follows the princes’ tracks and finds the women. He nurses them back to consciousness and returns them to the Cid.

The princes’ scheme of revenge rebounds to their further disgrace. Word of their wicked and dishonest acts spreads quickly, and King Alfonso, in his great displeasure with the Carrións, swears to try them in Toledo. The Cid swears to avenge the treatment his daughters have received by marrying Doña Elvira and Doña Sol to the richest men in the land.

At the trial, the princes are first ordered to return the Cid’s valued swords, which he had given them as tokens of his high regard. Then they are ordered to return his gold; because they have squandered it all, they are forced to give him equal value in horses and property. In the meantime, ambassadors from Aragón and Navarre have arrived to ask for the Cid’s daughters as queens for their kings. The Cid is jubilant, but still he demands that the princes of Carrión pay in full measure for their brutality: trial by combat with two of the Cid’s chosen knights. King Alfonso charges the princes that if they injure their opponents in the least, they will forfeit their lives. Proved craven in the fight, the princes are stripped of all honor and wealth. The Cid rejoices that, once banished, he can now count two kings of Spain among his kinsmen. He dies, Lord of Valencia, on the Day of Pentecost.

Bibliography

Chasca, Edmund de. The Poem of the Cid. Boston: Twayne, 1976. Offers an excellent place to begin for a general literary and historical account of the poem. Includes discussion of medieval epic poetry and the historicity of Poem of the Cid as well as examination of the use of humor and epic formulas in the work and speculation on its authorship.

Cowell, Andrew. “Taking an Identity: The Poem of the Cid.” In The Medieval Warrior Aristocracy: Gifts, Violence, Performance, and the Sacred. Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 2007. Examination of Poem of the Cid is part of a larger work that focuses on how medieval epic heroes, like the Cid, reflected society’s concerns about the nature of the warrior elite.

Fletcher, Richard A. The Quest for the Cid. New York: Random House, 1990. Presents a historical account of the period 711-1516, providing a valuable discussion of the cultural background of Poem of the Cid. Includes extensive bibliography.

Matulka, Barbara. The Cid as a Courtly Hero. New York: Institute of French Studies, Columbia University, 1928. Explores the figure of the Cid from his appearance in medieval epics through Pierre Corneille’s treatment in Le Cid (pr., pb. 1637; The Cid, 1637). Provides a short, informative account of such literary motifs as the love-test, voluntary death, and the Cid’s sword.

Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. The Cid and His Spain. Translated by Harold Sunderland. London: John Murray, 1934. Detailed discussion of El Cid and its background by the author of the poem’s most influential critical edition. Includes attention to the struggle for Valencia, the invasion (and subsequent repulsion) of the Almoravides, the court of the Cid, and the process by which the historical figure of the Cid was transformed into a legend.

Montgomery, Thomas. Medieval Spanish Epic: Mythic Roots and Ritual Language. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. Examines Poem of the Cid and other medieval Spanish epics, describing how they originated in ancient myths about the initiation of young warriors. Places these epics within their cultural and social contexts and analyzes their poetic language.

Smith, Colin. The Making of the “Poema de mio Cid.” New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Claims that Poem of the Cid was an experimental work, the first epic to be composed in Castilian, and that Per Abad, the figure who is usually regarded as the poem’s copyist, was actually its author.