Spanish Medieval Epic Poetry and the Song of My Cid

The Medieval Epic in Spain

The Mester of Minstrelsy: The Mester de Juglaría (Mester of Minstrelsy) is the art or craft of the minstrels. Minstrels traveled from place to place reciting epic poems. They intended to entertain and amuse their audience. To do so, the recitation was enlivened with music and dance. These poems narrated facts in which history and legend are mixed. The most important epics are epic poems and romances.

Characteristics of Epic Poems

Epic poems (Cantares de Gesta) are narrative poems recounting the exploits of a heroic character. This is oral and anonymous literature. The plot is centered on the confrontation between two characters or groups of characters on religious, legal, or moral grounds. The style is characterized by realism in the description of places and the historical veracity of events. They are formed by sets of verses with a varying number of syllables and assonance rhyme. An example is the Cantar de Mio Cid.

The Song of My Cid

The Cantar de Mio Cid recounts the adventures of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a historical figure. It was composed around 1140.

Structure and Plot

The poem is divided into three parts:

• The Song of Exile: Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called the Cid, is unjustly banished from his lands. He leaves with his loyal subjects to fight the Muslims and regain the King's favor.
• The Song of the Wedding: The Cid completes the reconquest of Valencia and regains the King's favor. Alfonso VI himself arranges the wedding of Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, the Cid's daughters, to the Infantes of Carrión.
• The Song of the Affront of Corpes: The sons-in-law of the Cid are accused of cowardice for fleeing from a lion. To get revenge, they whip their wives and leave them abandoned in a pine forest in Corpes. The offense is avenged, and the Cid's daughters are remarried to the Princes of Navarre and Aragon.

Literary Style

This is a text of great realism. The oral character of the song leads to the appearance of fixed formulas and epithets (adjectives that express a characteristic feature of the noun they accompany), such as "the one with the flowing beard," "the good and honest one," or "he who was born in a good hour and girded his sword."

The Spanish Romance

At the end of the 13th century, the chanson de geste began to fragment. The public asked the juggler to repeat the most interesting episodes. Those episodes, rewritten with a new style, resulted in the epic romance. A romance is an anonymous composition consisting of an indefinite run of octosyllabic verses with assonant rhyme in the even lines, while the odd lines are free. The set of these ballads is called the Romancero.

• Old Romances: These consist of anonymous ballads composed from the 14th century until the 16th century.
• New Romances: These are romances written by known authors from the second half of the 16th century onwards.

Classification of Epic Romances

• Historical: These tell of the latest battles between Christians and Muslims, generally based on Spanish medieval history.
• Romantic: These recapture the adventures of epic poems or tell stories invented by the bard.