Folk epics, known as cantares de gesta (“songs of deeds”) and recited by jongleurs, celebrated heroic

exploits such as the Cid’s. Medieval historiographers often incorporated prose versions of these
cantares in their chronicles, Latin and vernacular; it was by this process that the fanciful Cantar de
Rodrigo (“Song of Rodrigo”), chronicling the Cid’s early manhood with elements of the later legend,
was preserved. Fragments of the Cantar de Roncesvalles (“Song of Roncesvalles”) and Poema de
Fernán González (“Poem of Fernán González”) rework earlier epics. Vernacular chroniclers mention
many other heroic minstrel narratives, now lost, but, as a result of the incorporation of these
narratives into chronicles, themes and textual passages can be reconstructed. Heroic narratives
partially recovered include Los siete infantes de Lara (“The Seven Princes of Lara”), El cerco de Zamora
(“The Siege of Zamora”), Bernardo del Carpio, and other themes from Castile’s feudal history, subject
matter that echoes remote Visigothic origins rather than French epics.