Spanish Epic Poetry: The Legacy of Cantar de Mio Cid

Origins of Spanish Epic Poetry

Spanish Epic Poetry originated from cantares de gesta, which recount the exploits of the greatest medieval heroes. Its main characteristic is oral tradition. Many of these important works have unfortunately disappeared.

These poems were spread by juglares (minstrels). The cantares de gesta present the following characteristics:

• They are anonymous poems.
• They were widely circulated, often in irregular series, maintaining a consistent assonance or rhyme scheme, which could vary with different versions due to oral transmission.
• The lines are long (between 10 and 16 irregular syllables), with assonance rhyme, divided into two hemistichs.
• They were destined to be recited and sung.

These works are more like sung poems, recounting actual events.

The Cantar de Mio Cid

Date and Authorship

The Cantar de Mio Cid is the most important cantar de gesta in Spanish literature, and the only one that, with its nearly 4,000 verses, has almost completely reached us.

The composition of the work belongs to the 12th century and was written by two anonymous minstrels from Soria.

Content and Structure

It recounts the exploits of the Castilian hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. It is not a work of purely artistic literary inspiration; it blends reality with popular legends. After his death, his legend became literary.

Structure of the Work

• Cantar del Destierro (Song of Exile): El Cid is unjustly exiled by King Alfonso VI. After his departure, he is accompanied by loyal Castilians and achieves his first conquests.
• Cantar de las Bodas (Song of Weddings): El Cid conquers Valencia, where his wife, Jimena, and their daughters, Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, join him. The greedy Infantes de Carrión marry the daughters of the Castilian hero.
• Cantar de la Afrenta de Corpes (Song of the Affront of Corpes): The Infantes de Carrión, due to the jokes they suffer for their cowardice, decide to take revenge by abusing their wives in the Oakwood of Corpes. They are vanquished by El Cid's men, and his daughters are avenged. Their subsequent marriages to the more powerful Infantes of Navarre and Aragon signify the final glorification of the hero.

Metrics

The poem is formed by series or tiradas of varying numbers of verses that share the same assonant rhyme. The lines are irregular (between 10 and 20 syllables), with a predominance of alexandrine verses (14 syllables), usually divided into two hemistichs by a pause or caesura.

Language and Style

The language and style adapt to the needs of a minstrel who frequently recited his story before an audience, needing to maintain their interest and attention. The language is sober and austere, endowed with great strength and expressiveness in both the descriptions of characters and in the narrative of events, utilizing various linguistic resources typical of epic poems.