CANTAR DE MIO CID

The Cantar de mio Cid is an anonymous epic poem relating heroic deeds, freely inspired by the last years in the life of the Spanish knight Rodrigo Díaz el Campeador. It is the first long narrative of Spanish literature written in a romance language and is notable for the literary value of its style. It was composed – as is generally agreed by contemporary critics – around 1200. The Cantar de mio Cid is the only epic poem in Spanish literature to have survived in an almost complete form. The first page of the original and another two in the interior of the codex have been lost; however, the content of these gaps can be deduced from prose chronicles, in particular the Chronicle of the Twenty Kings. In addition to the Cantar de mio Cid, the four texts of the same genre to have survived are: the Mocedades de Rodrigo (The Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo).