Exploring Medieval Spanish Literature

Popular Lyric Poetry

Characteristics

• Oral transmission
• Use of verse
• Theocentricism: The doctrine that God and religious life should be the center of all human concerns.
• Anonymous authors
• Didactic and moralizing purpose

Jarchas

These short poems have irregular syllabic measure and abundant parallelism. The protagonist is typically a young woman lamenting the absence or infidelity of her lover.

Mio Cid

Song of Exile

King Alfonso VI banishes Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, El Cid, who leaves with his friends and vassals. The Cid and his followers fight the Moors, winning the battle of Alcocer. The first song ends with the Count's release, ashamed of his defeat.

Wedding Song

El Cid conquers Valencia after a two-year siege. A new victory against the Emir of Morocco brings him greater power and wealth, attracting the greedy heirs of Carrión. They ask for the king's daughters' hands in marriage. Despite El Cid's resistance, the weddings proceed by the king's decree.

Song of the Shame of Corpes

This song begins with the lion episode, revealing the Carrión heirs' cowardice. Returning to León, they abandon Doña Elvira and Doña Sol in the oak forest of Corpes. El Cid seeks justice in the courts of Toledo, overcoming the contempt of the Leonese nobles and winning his lawsuit.

New weddings are arranged with the heirs of Navarre and Aragon.

Theme and Structure

The main theme is the loss and recovery of honor. The structure highlights El Cid's final triumph.

Narrative Characteristics

The poem uses irregular verses of approximately sixteen syllables with assonant rhyme.
The minstrel frequently engages the audience. Direct and indirect styles alternate, along with varied tenses. Descriptions are concise.

Stylistic Features

• Archaic language
• Abundant epic epithets
• Use of rhetorical figures

The Book of Good Love

Elements

• A collection of examples, fables, and stories
• A commentary on the Ars Amatoria
• A narrative of the loves of Don Melón and Doña Endrina
• An allegorical tale of Lent: the battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma
• Satires, praises, lyric poetry, religious verses, etc.

Style

The style incorporates oral language. Opinions differ on the work's intention. Some argue for its didactic nature, while others emphasize its humor and sensual aspects.

Jorge Manrique

Jorge Manrique wrote around fifty compositions, mostly love poetry influenced by troubadours. His most famous work is the Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre.

It consists of forty-two sextina stanzas with a broken foot, also called manriqueñas stanzas.

Structure

• Stanzas I-XIV: Reflect on life's transience and instability.
• Stanzas XV-XXIV: Provide concrete examples with references to famous people.
• Stanzas XXV-XL: Focus on the figure of his father.

Themes

The main themes are the contempt for worldly goods, life's transience, death's equalizing power, and the vagaries of fortune. Manrique approaches death with serenity and hope in the afterlife.

Ballads

Old ballads are anonymous, orally transmitted poems composed for singing. New ballads have known authors and are not subject to oral variations.

Features

• Enactment of scenes
• Direct address to the audience
• Repetitions, parallelism, and alliteration