The rise of heroic poetry

The earliest surviving monument of Spanish literature, and one of its most distinctive masterpieces, is
the Cantar de mío Cid (“Song of My Cid”; also called Poema de mío Cid), an epic poem of the mid-12th
century (the existing manuscript is an imperfect copy of 1307). It tells of the fall from and restoration to
royal favour of a Castilian noble, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as the Cid (derived from the Arabic title
sidi, “lord”). Because of the poem’s setting, personages, topographical detail, and realistic tone and
treatment and because the poet wrote soon after the Cid’s death, this poem has been accepted as
historically authentic, a conclusion extended to the Castilian epic generally. The second and third
sections of Cantar de mío Cid, however, appear to be imaginative, and the mere six lines accorded the
Cid’s conquest of Valencia, taking it from the Muslims, show that the poet’s approach is subjective.
Nevertheless, the Cid’s adventures lived on in epic, chronicle, ballad, and drama, reputedly embodying
Castilian character.