The Poema de mio Cid and the Canon of the Spanish Epic
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The Poema de mio Cid and the Canon of the Spanish Epic
Mercedes Vaquero
La corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures, Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2005, pp. 209-230 (Article)
Published by La corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures,
and Cultures
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cor.2005.0010
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/430230/summary
[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ]THE POEMA DE MIO CID AND THE
CANON OF THE SPANISH EPIC
Mercedes Vaquero
Brown University
The Cid is undoubtedly the most impressive monument of the Spanish
Middle Ages, and mav well have been the best of all cantares de gesta. By the
mere fact of survival in verse form it has had a most powerful influence upon
later Spanish literature, whereas other cantares de gesta are influential only in
their shape as chronicles, ballads or drama. In this way the Cid has gained a
kind of priority over the other works of thejuglates. Yet it is commonly
admitted that the author's mature art implies a long previous elaboration in
other works, and belongs to the apogee, not the dawn of a style.
William J. Entwistle (1947-1948)
Since Tomás Antonio Sánchez published for the first time die Poema
de Mio Cid (PMC) in 1 779, this venerable text has defined the canon of
the Spanish medieval epic. It is a great cantar de gesta and therefore
not surprising that it has dominated the syllabi in American and
European schools, colleges and universities. However, as I will try to
explain below there are other much less studied epics that are as
extraordinary as the PMC and were better known in the Middle Ages.
I would like to question the Spanish medieval epic canon by asking
how representative the PMC was of diis genre. When we teach medieval
Spanish epic we present it as a 'popular' genre. Most of us agree that
this genre sprang from a popular oral tradition, and that die written
form in which it survives for us still bears the traces of performance.
When teaching the PMC, however, the question is how 'popular' was
it? And we use the term 'popular' in the sense of being for all the
people, of being widely liked and carried on by the people at large.
In a 1994 article Colin Smith cites Salvador Martinez in support
of his theory of the PMC's learned composition: "Veinte años de
pospidalismo nos han enseñado que un poema épico popular, como
puede ser el Cantar de mio Cid, de vulgar = popular, tiene sólo la
L.4 corónica 33.2 (Spring, 2005): 209-30210Mercedes VaqueroLa corónica 33.2, 2005
lengua; la estructura literaria, la técnica retórica, y hasta las fuentes
de muchos de sus pasajes son cultas" (1994b, 632).
Indeed today almost all Hispano-medievalists would agree with
this opinion.1 When comparing this text widi odier Spanish epics we
can affirm that the PMC is conventional in diction, genuinely popular
in tone, but nonedieless it is a very unusual text. The PMC is a rarity
for die main schools of die Spanish epic; for traditionalists like Francisco
Rico it is an oddity because it is the only case in die romance epic
where a chanson de geste has been transmitted orally for centuries (from
1140 until the beginning of the fourteenth century) almost widiout
alterations (1993, xxxvi-xxxvii).2 Why was it so stable? Rico does not
have the answer.3 For individualists, and even for some oralists, the
Cid is a rarity, because it "is indeed a learned work, but of the quasi-
folk style type, that is close or next to an authentic folk narrative
tradition".4
The issue that I would like to raise in diis article, however, has litde
to do with the composition; instead it has to do with the reception of
this and odier epic texts, particularly in comparison with die Song of
Sancho II (Sancho II). How well received were the PMC, die Siete infantes
de Lara (SIL), the Sancho II, die Song of Sancho II, and other Spanish
chansons de geste in the Middle Ages? How popular were these texts?
Did they create a school? The PMC, since its first edition in the
eighteenUi century, has been ver)' well received, in the last two decades
almost one new edition of it has come out per year, and there is no
need here to recount the extraordinary number of studies dedicated
regularly to the poem. My queries, however, have to do with its
reception throughout the Middle Ages, queries diat bring us to a very
1 For a different opinion see Catalán 200 1 .
- "En una amplia perspectiva de La epopeya, sin embargo, La vida tradicional del Cantar
del Cid, aun si nos limitamos al período atestiguado por las prosificaciones, Uania Li atención
por la estabilidad. Es, también, porque nos las habernos con una gesta tardía y anómala"
(Rico 1993. xxxvii).
3 "Podríamos pensar que la persistencia de la trama central en las prosificaciones se
debe a que para ellas se emplearon meras copias del códice de 1 207, pero esa eventualidad
sería tan insólita, que hemos de descartarla sin reparos: en todo el aludido corpus épico
de Li Romania, no se conoce ningún caso en que un manuscrito derive de otro; en cambio,
las prosificaciones introducen nuevos episodios, nuevos personajes llegados claramente de
refundiciones del Cantar, que, por tanto, aun acicalándolos y acrecentándolos, respetaban
los grandes datos arguméntales del prototipo" (Rico 1 993, xxxvi).
4 This is a quote from the oralist John Miletich, used by Colin Smith 1994a, 633 in
support of his own arguments. According to Smith, the PMC can be situated between folk
narrative traditions and works such as those of Camoens and Ercilla.The PMC and the Canon oftlie Spanish Epic211
important problem in my opinion. If die PMC has become the national
epic because it is considered the greatest of the medieval Spanish
chansons de geste by almost everyone, its anomalies instead of being
considered deviations from die epic genre are considered the paradigm
against which die rest of the Spanish epic is measured. The odier texts,
in this way, are more or less epic according to how much diey measure
up with the now-venerable poem. Undoubtedly, by not addressing this
problem, a large number of critics have fallen into a bias against die
rest ofthe Spanish medieval epic.
It is not unusual among medievalists who have worked extensively
on the PMC to describe the Spanish epic genre according to the
parameters of this text: it is a conservative genre, its subject has to do
widi die loss of honor of die hero, etc. In other words the canon of die
medieval epic genre in the Iberian Peninsula is modeled on die PMC?
How popular were die PMC, die SIL and die Sancho II in die Middle
Ages? Or to put the same question in a wider frame of reference: how
can we measure the dissemination of an epic poem? Or if we prefer,
what is die surviving evidence ofthe literary life of an epic text in the
Middle Ages?
In the case of the Spanish epics we have a few parameters to
measure their popularity:
1.The manuscripts themselves: How much were they used
and read; by whom and under which circumstances? In
particular, how were now-lost manuscripts used by historians,
mainly die team of Alfonso X in the last third ofthe thirteenth
century, when composing the Estoria de España} How did diese
historians refer to the text they prosified or copied in their
chronicles?
2.The refundiciones or reworkings of epic poems: in romance
epic, as critics have noticed, reworkings are one of our few
keys to the lost realms of medieval orali ty and memory. Are
refundiciones profoundly different works?
3.The ballads (romances viejos tradicionales) diat have survived
of the oral epic traditions, from the fourteendi and fifteendi
centuries onwards. Is there a direct and genetic connection
between epics and ballads?
5 See, for example, Sánchez Romei alo e Ibarra 1 972, 1 6, and to a lesser extent. Catalán
2001, 422-23. Cf. "?????? Cid rompe con los moldes épicos tradicionales, identificando Li
venganza [v. 37 14] con el proceso judicial que se abre con la convocatoria de las cortes de
Toledo..." (Catalán 2001, 482-83).212Mercedes VaqueroLa coránica 33.2, 2005
4. The use of motifs: the chaining or associative type of
composing is another strategy to detect die popularity of an
epic. Have these motifs been borrowed from one tradition to
another?
I shall examine die PMC and the Sancho II according to all four of
these parameters. I mean to prove, on die one hand, that die latter
was a ver)· popular song known to many people until the end of die
Middle Ages, and famous still in fragments, in ballads until die sixteendi
century, and beyond, and that the PMC, as an epic cantar, on the other
hand, was known to a very small group of people, for probably no
longer, and perhaps even less, than 50 years. In die Appendix I include
some of die results of my studies on the relationship of Sancho II to
other medieval epic texts (partially published in 1998).
1. The manuscripts themselves
Let us begin by examining how much the manuscripts were used
and read, by whom and under which circumstances, and how Alfonsine
historians used diem. In the case of the PMC there is one surviving
manuscript, the so-called Per Abbat manuscript of the fourteenth
century. It is commonly believed, however, that at least two more
manuscripts existed. For Smith the existence of three manuscripts is
clear: first, we had the original which was written either in Burgos or
near diis Castilian city; secondly, die manuscript diat contained a variant
regarding the military encounter of the Cid with the Muslim king
Bucar in Valencia, in which the Saracen monarch manages to escape
alive; and thirdly, the surviving manuscript which is preserved in die
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, and according to Smidi was produced
in or near Burgos, probably for somebody of the village of Vivar, the
native village of the Cid, very near Burgos (1980, 418).6
Eidier the original manuscript or a copy of it was used, according
to Smith (1980, 418-20) and others, by the team of historians working
for Alfonso X in the last third of the thirteenth century."
6 See Catalán 2001, 433-47.
' The Vivar manuscript is "una copia manuscrita del s. XIV avanzado heredero de una
cadena de textos escritos, como todo parece indicar ... el [MS] conocido por Alfonso X era
muy hermano del de Vivar" (Catalán 2001 , 454, n28). Catalán concludes: "el hecho de que
admitamos una tradición escrita con anterioridad al manuscrito de Vivar no excluve la
existencia anterior y también posiblemente simultánea de ejecuciones orales y de laThe PMC and the Canon ofthe Spanish Epic213
Fernando Gómez Redondo, after examining the ideology and the
expressions in the PMC, offers a new picture of the reception of the
text
Se podría pensar, y de hecho es ya una sólida corriente de
pensamiento, que el texto que entra en el códice de Vivar es
copia literal del de 1207 y sin embargo yo no lo creo así....
Resulta, así, que hay cambios muy llamativos en estos
procedimientos de recitación, ya por olvido o abandono de
unas fórmulas, ya por incorporación de nuevas expresiones,
como para pensar que, línea a línea, ese copista del s. XIV,
bien para un taller historiográfico, bien para el concejo de
Vivar, estuviera reproduciendo 3.730 versos escritos en 1207.
Ni mucho menos. No sólo lo demuestran las varias
contradicciones de sentido que menudean a lo largo del poema,
sino, sobre todo, la espectacular combinación de procedimientos
narrativos que se dan cita en el Cantar. Detrás de ellos hay
varios niveles de sentido, porque como es evidente el poema
ha cruzado circuios de recepción muy diferentes. (2002, 182)
Gómez Redondo concludes:
Creo, en resumen, que hay razones suficientes para señalar
que uno era el Cantar de 1 207, impulsado como una corrección
de otro anterior, y que otro es el texto que se fija por escrito a
mediados del s. XIV. Se conserva la primera de las tramas
narrativas, puramente épica, como apoyo de la segunda de
corte caballeresco. (204)8
Regarding the Sancho II, there is no surviving manuscript of this
text in poetic form, but the Alfonsine team of historians when putting
togedier their Estoria de España used at least one transcript of it.9
The Per Abbat manuscript and/or the PMC manuscript used by the
Alfonsine historians seem to have been produced in a clerical milieu.
transmisión del texto de memoria en memoria que el género al cual pertenece el poema
y la presencia en él de los rasgos estructurales propios del artejugLuesco nos hacen suponer"
(2001,441-42).
8 1 believe this hypothesis corresponds to that of Miguel Garci-Gómez 1975, 156-57,
who divides the poem into two parts: the first he calls "gesta", and the second "razón". I
also think that the PMC is "una corrección de otro anterior", where the hero was presented
as a rebellious vassal; see Vaquero 1 990.
9 Powell 1984; 1996, 148-49, argues that the historians had more than one source.214Mercedes VaqueroLa corónica 33.2, 2005
Regarding the composition of diis text, after years of envisaging a
single author, the old Pidalian theory of multiple authors has been
revived in the last decade and presendy (Catalán 2001, 393; 444). 10
Irene Zaderenko (1998) suggests die hypothesis of diree audiors, one
for each cantar
La hipótesis de los tres autores, uno distinto para cada cantar,
permite explicar numerosos aspectos del poema: el incipit y el
explicit del segundo cantar y las diferencias en la utilización de
fuentes, la versificación, el vocabulario, el tono y los temas de
los tres cantares. (192)
Zaderenko concludes diat
el PMC tal corno nos ha llegado a nosotros, tuvo una génesis
bastante peculiar.... [E]n el proceso de composición del texto
se escribió primeramente el segundo cantar, como un poema
dedicado a exaltar la mayor hazaña de Rodrigo, es decir, la
conquista de Valencia.... A principios del siglo XIII, un autor
culto con muy buenos conocimientos de latín y de la épica
francesa habría utilizado como fuente principal la H[istoria]
R[oderici] para componer un poema en romance (al que hoy
designamos segundo cantar del PMC). (171)
As we see, there seems to be a common agreement among the
critics, lately, that die PMC is really a rifacimento.'1 Which was die original
intended audience of this poem? There are answers for all kinds of
taste, and all of them present plausible evidence. For Joseph Duggan,
a leading expert on French and Spanish epic belonging to the so-
called oralist school, the Cid was copied in 1 199 or 1200 by a learned
man, a man of die church, perhaps the abbot of die Castilian monastery
of Santa María de la Huerta, and its intended audience was the king of
10CataLui says: "No es pues, imposible que el poema por nosotros conocido en forma
poética fiieia ya, a su vez, reelaboración de otro anterior" (2001 , 443), but he concludes:
"En fin, mientras no se aporten pruebas más convincentes, no parece necesario suponer
narraciones poéticas en lengua vulgar sobre los hechos del Cid anteriores al Mio Cid' (200 1 ,
445-46).
11Deyermond points out some ofthe paradoxes we find when dealing with
iefundiciones: "Vale la pena notar que Armistead [in 1 978, 32 1 -22] no aplica el mismo criterio
al Cantar de Mio Cid: aunque cree que el poema existente, el del manuscrito de Per Abat, es
sólo una versión entre muchas no lo llama Refundición delpoema de mío Cid, sino que dice, por
ejemplo, 'It will not do to isolate the Poema de mio Cid and the Refundición de las Mocedades as
if they were unique literary phenomena' (Armistead 1978, 324)" (Deyermond 1999, 12).The PMC and the Canon ofthe Spanish Epic215
Castile, Alfonso VIII, and his court (1989, 143). For traditionalists,
such as Diego Catalán (1985; 1995; 2001, 477-91), and Francisco Rico
(1993, xix-xxii), perhaps it was composed for the townfolk (caballeros
ciudadanos or villanos), the newly created urban militia of die frontier
society of Castile in the twelfdi century, ofthe "extremadura castellana"
bordering Aragón (Rico 1993, xxviii), the "Extremadura castellano-
navarra del Duero" (Catalán 2001, 472; 495-96). 12 For some British
scholars like Peter Russell (1958), Colin Smith (1983, 207), and Alan
Deyermond (1973, 59; 1987, 19-20) the PMC was intended for an
audience in Burgos and its vicinity. For Francisco Hernández (1988), it
was directed at an early tiiirteenth century audience in Toledo.
Edward Friedman (1990), developing further die hypodiesis ofthe
learned origin ofthe text asserted by Russell, Smith and odiers, argues
that the PMC was composed not to be sung, not even to be recited, but
to be read to a highly literate audience. His argument is based on die
incapacity of a listening public to grasp die subtleties of die text, and,
of course, on the now famous explicit of die text, found in the Biblioteca
Nacional manuscript, in a fourteendi-century handwriting, different
from that of the main copyist. This explicit reads
E el rom an ? es leído,
datnos del vino;
si non tenedes dineros;
echad allá unos peños,
que bien nos lo darán sobr'ellos. (Montaner 1993a, 316)
The explicit is written in a different meter from the PMC. And
curiously enough the poetic text, the PMC, is referred here as romanz
not as cantar. Colin Smith (1994a) has sought to rebut Friedman's
hypothesis of a private reading to a literate audience, claiming a larger
audience for the original poem. However, for a traditionalist such as
Catalán, the idiosincracies ofthe PMC's manuscript, being just one
link in a tradition of written texts, "no excluye la existencia anterior y
también posiblemente simultánea de ejecuciones orales y de la
transmisión del texto de memoria en memoria que el género al cual
pertenece el poema y la presencia en él de los rasgos estructurales
propios del arte juglaresco nos hacen suponer" (2001, 441-42).13
lc See also Georges Martin 1992, 570-80.
13 See note 7 above. "[P]ero el modelo de apócope presente en la copia de Vivar,
inusitado en la lengua del s. XIV, no es de creer que llegara a ella por ese camino [por vía
oral], sino como herencia del prototipo escrito" (Catalán 2001, 439).216Mercedes VaquenLa corónica 33.2, 2005
Let us attempt to delineate die trajectory of the reception of the
poem. More and more critics are inclined to date the Per Abbat's PMC
at around 1207 these days.14 Undoubtedly this text was sung in die
diirteendi century. Line 2276, which closes die second cantar, die second
part of the poem, confirms it: "¡Las coplas d'esté cantar aquí s' van
acabando...!" (Las tiradas de este cantar -o parte del poema- aquí se
van acabando; ed. of Montaner 1993a).15 I doubt, however, that this
text was sung during the reign of Alfonso X, that is, from 1252 until
1284, and I doubt even more diat it was sung at all after 1284. While
the Estorta de España was being elaborated from around 1270 until
1284 the chroniclers that used the PMC story never refer to it as a
cantar, or gesta, or as "the story according to the minstrels" (Powell
1983, 168, n21; 1996, 151). The text they are using is usually referred
to as estoria. .
I believe die text was still being transmitted orally in the fourteenth
century, but not sung. Obviously die final annotation ofthe explicit in
the Biblioteca Nacional manuscript reveals that in the fourteenth
century diis text was not sung, but read or recited.10
The Sancho II, in contrast, although only a small part of it has
survived in poetic form (in ballads), was probably sung during the
reign of Alfonso X. Alfonsine historians refer to it as "el cantar del rev
don Sancho", "la estoria del rey don Sancho assi como Ia cuentan los
juglares" (Powell 1983, 168, ii21), etc. There are references to the
Cantar de Sancho Il according to the way the minstrels "tell it" (they
use die present tense), in all three parts or cantares, into which the
poem clearly can be divided.1'
14Traditionalists such a Rico 1993 and Catalán 2001, 496-97 still date it around 1 140.
15According to Irene Zaderenko, "Un examen cuidadoso del PMC revela que el
segundo cantar es el más propiamente épico de los tres. No es casualidad que esta parte
del poema sea la única que es llamada gesta (y. 1085) y cantar (\. 2276), términos que indican
una mayor conciencia por parte de su autor del género y de los modelos literarios en que
se inspiraba su obra" (1998, 175).
16"La difusión escrita [...] delMío Cid a lo largo de la Edad Media, que hizo posible
la utilización de la vieja gesta por Alfonso X (c. 1270 y en 1282/84), la consenació? hasta
el s. XIV del prototipo de manuscrito de Vivar y el empleo de esta copia tardía en
recitaciones públicas, si bien no favorece la hipótesis de que Li gesta continuara siendo
cantada en refundiciones épicas, tampoco, en principio, la desautorizan" (Catalán 2001 ,
500 ii3).
17Comparing the popularity ofthe PMC with the Sancho II, Catalán affirms: "En
contraste, de la gesta de Las particiones del rey don Fernando [ = Sandio //] no sabemos que
fuera puesta por escrito en fonila métrica, y, en cambio, nos consta que ya a fines del s. XI I
circulaba con variantes narrativas de importancia y que en el último tercio del s. XIII era
cantada por los juglares en una versión que, si bien conservaba con gran fidelidad no sóloThe PMC and the Canon ofthe Spanish Epic217
How old is the Sancho H't We do not know for sure. Its date of
composition is hard to establish. The most likely hypothesis is that
there was an early vernacular version before the second half of the
twelfth century (Fraker 1974; Deyermond 1976; 1995, 64-67). This
version, which would have had similar features to die early epic poems
of Castile, such as Siete infantes de Lara, and Romanz del infant Garcia,
(see Appendixes II and III), may have been used in die Cronica, najereuse
ofthe twelfth century (Catalán 2001, 497-99), but other critics believe
that is possible that the Najerense drew its material from a Latin literary
epic, the Carmen de morte Sanctii Regis, which was probably composed
at the monastery of San Salvador de Oña, nordi of Burgos (Enfwistle
1928; Powell 1996, 147, and n3). Up to the present some critics,
including Charles Fraker (1974), Carlos and Manuel Alvar (1991, 271),
Alan Deyermond (1995, 65-67), Fernando Gómez Redondo (1996,
95), Catalán (2001, 497-99), and myself, find it very probable that in
the second half of die twelfth century there existed a vernacular version
of the Sancho II. This version could be included in the primitive cycle
of the Counts of Castile,18 while the second version of the Sancho II,
which the Alfonsine chronicles of the last third of diirteendi century
contain, could be included in the Cidian epic cycle, as Deyermond
noticed (1976). My analysis (see die chart in Appendix III) seems to
corroborate this: SIL and Romanz del infant Garcia, first and third
columns, are songs ofthe primitive cycle, and die last two columns are
poems ofthe Cidian cycle, the PMC and die Mocedades de Rodrigo (MR).
The Sancho Il —in the second column- shares motifs with both cycles.19
Ia trama sino muchas de las escenas de la primitiva versión anterior a e. 1 1 85/90, en otros
episodios innovaba la herencia tradicional" (2001, 500).
18Deyermond 1 995, 66 is not so sure about about this primitive Sancho II, although
he still finds probable its existence.
19Catalán believes that the PMC and the Sancho Il were coetaneous: "Desde muy
pronto, pues, la biografía épica de Rodrigo Díaz abarcó dos periodos de su vida, el de 108 1
a 1 099 (o, a lo menos, a 1098)yelde 1065a 1072.... El alto valoriserai io de las dos creaciones
juglarescas que inauguran el tratamiento de Li vida de Rodrigo, el Mio Cid y Las particiones
del re\ don Fernando [ = Sancho 11], fríe, sin duda, una de las causas que contribuyeron a que
una y otra gesta siguieran siendo recordadas más acá de mediados del s. XII en que su
contenido político tenía actualidad. Pero, si nos atenemos a los testimonios conservados,
el "éxito" de una y otra no se habría reflejado de una forma paralela en su transmisión
literaria: El viejo Mio Cid de c. 1 144, cantado, c. 1 147, tuvo el privilegio de ser puesto por
escrito y de generar una tradición textual manuscrita que dio lugar, posiblemente, a una
copia de 1 207, a otra u otras utilizadas por Alfonso Xc. 1 270 y en 1 282/84. a la que por
esos mismos tiempos conoció el monje caradignense creador de Li *Estoria del 6'tdenprosa,
a la de Vivar en tiempo de Alfonso XI, y en 1596 a la de Juan Ruiz de Ulibarri, cuando
menos" (2001, 499-500).218Mercedes VaqueroLa corónica 33.2, 2005
The character of the Cid has a prominent role in this thirteenth
century Sancho II, and some critics argue that this character was
borrowed from the PMC (Entwisle 1947-48, 121).=° Others believe
diat the audior of the PMC and the author of the Sancho II could be
the same person (Martinez 1971, 169). Smidi, in 1983, does not discard
entirely the hypodiesis diat the Sancho Il in vernacular epic form could
predate the PMC (165). The same critic in 1986, reviewing his 1983
suggestion that Per Abbat, or the author of the PMC, was the first in
his field and created the Spanish epic meter, says: "If a substantial
fragment, or better, a complete text of the Cantar de Sancho II should
appear, of a date manifestly earlier than that of the Poema de mio Cid,
and showing total metrical perfection, I will naturally eat my words"
(1986, 9). Powell, exploring whether the thirteenth-century Sancho II
had been influenced by the PMC, concludes diat neidier poem is direcdy
influenced by the odier, "it is not possible to identify direct influences
of one work upon another" (1996, 157). Catalán, however, reaches
another conclusion:
Toda esta indudable ampliación del ya notable componente
cidiano existente desde antiguo en Las particiones del rey don
Fernando no puede deberse sino a la coexistencia en los
repertorios de juglares de la gesta de Las particiones con la del
Mio Cid, en la cual Rodrigo no era solamente el mejor de los
mejores caballeros sino el más grande de los vasallos. (2001,
503)
2. The refundiciones or reworkings of epic poems
Let us move now to the second parameter: the refundiciones or
reworkings of epic poems: in romance epic, as critics have noticed,
reworkings are one of our few keys to the lost realms of medieval
orality and memory. Refundiciones at times are obviously profoundly
different works. Yet their relationship, though distant and indirect, is
nonedieless essential to trace and understand diese oral epic traditions.
In France, Northern Italy, and in the Iberian Peninsula we have
plenty of examples that show that the same epic tradition has survived
in different documentary evidence. In the Iberian Peninsula this
-° "Desde mediados del s. XII a los tiempos alfonsíes, la gesta de Las particiones del rey
don Fernando alterò substancialmente el papel que en eUa tenía Rodrigo DLiz" (Catalán 200 1 ,
500).The PMC and the Canon ofthe Spanish Epic219
phenomenon is well documented ranging from well before 1300 up to
the first years ofthe 1500s and, through the Romancero, on up into die
twenty-first century.51 The Roldan tradition is a good example, the
deeds of die young Cid (Mocedades de Rodrigo) is another good example.
Variants, reworkings or refundiciones exist, diey do not depend on written
transmission, and they are an excellent proof of die popularity of an
epic.
I believe Samuel Armistead summarizes this phenomenon well:
How are we to explain the multiple agreements of each of
these narratives, now widi one, now widi anodier of die various
components in the traditional chain? How again are we to
reconcile their profound disagreements? In view ofthe latter,
it is manifest that no one of these narratives was copied direcdy
from any ofthe others. (1978, 319).
Regarding the existence of refundiciones ofthe PMC, Louis Chalón
(1976, 234; 242-43), David Pattison (1983, 124-25), Colin Smith
(1983, 415-16; 1987, 874-75, ? 10), and Alberto Montaner (1993a,
81-83) discard the existence of reworkings ofthe PMC. Rico (1993),
as I mentioned, argues that the PMC was very stable, so stable that it
was highly unusual.
Diego Catalán, although reluctant to accept the variants found in
chronicles as reworkings of epic texts (1963, 294-301, 1969), recently
affirms that the *Estoria caiadignense del Cid from the Version mixta de
la Estoria de España, included a PMC, which was a *Refundición del Mio
Cid. (2001, 656-57)."" It seems that the only refundición die caiadignense
contains is die first cantar ofthe PMC, the Cantar del exdio. According
to Catalán, "no es un hecho seguro que los relatos dependientes de la
*Estoiia caiadignense del Cid hereden versiones de los cantares de "Las
-' For Samuel Armistead and other traditionalists there is no doubt ofthe existence
of reworkings, and a direct, genetic connection between epic and ballad in an oral
continuum that stretches from the high Middle Ages up to modern times. See, for
example, Armistead 1978 and Armistead & Silverman 1989, 133.
"2 Catalán affirms: "me parece ... que no todas las reformas narrativas introducidas por
la *Estotia caradignense en los pasajes en que sigue al Mio Cid son arreglos historiográficos y
que tanto la *Esloria como los dos textos del romance (o los dos romances) sobre las Cortes
de Toledo remontan a una *Refundición del mio Cid y no son meramente libres reelaboraciones
de lo narrado por el viejo poema" (2001, 657). See also Catalán 1992, 1 18). This critic
concludes: "Creo, sin embargo, posible afirmar que tanto el texto alfonsi como el caradignense
se conexionaban por vía escrita y no oral con el prototipo de Li tradición manuscrita del códice
poético conservado" (2001, 442, ni 5). This is not the first time Catalán changes his opinion
regarding reworkings, see Deyermond 1995, 86-87.220Mercedes VaqueroLa corónica 33.2, 2005
bodas" y de "Corpes" en los que el texto poético del Mio Cid hubiera
sufrido refundiciones" (2001, 635). It seems quite likely, then, that the
only "traditional" or "popular" part of the PMC is indeed the first one.
In my opinion, the PMC, particularly the first cantar, derives from a
song of the exile of the Cid, which was very different in tone, and
characterization of the hero, from the Per Abbat's manuscript. I base
my hypothesis mainly on the Cantar de la jura de Santa Gadea and the
very different rendition of the exile of the Cid in the late thirteendi-
century Crónica de Castilla, which even contains remnants of its poetic
form, and in a ballad recorded in a fifteendi century manuscript of
the British Librar)' (Vaquero 1990).
Two passages of the text are die most discussed when evaluating
the reworkings of die PMC tradition: die King Bucar incident, and the
beginning of the story, with die Cid's preparation to go into exile.
Regarding the first, Smith (1980, 418) and many others, including
Louis Chalón (1976, 234), believe diat die variant introduced in die
chronicles, where Bucar escapes alive, is a chronistic change. The
historians, knowing history better than the author of the Cid, they
claim, revised die outcome, with Bucar managing to flee Valencia alive.
Now let us turn to the odier famous passage, the initial verses of
die Cid's departure for exile, as preserved in die late thirteendi-century
Crónica de Castilla, and in a ballad recorded in a fifteendi century
manuscript of the British Library. According to Armistead (1984), it
represents a refundición ofthe PMC. Smidi (1987, 875 ? 10) admits
that those lines could well have come from a variant version of the
start of the PMC witiiout necessarily indicating a refundición of the
complete poem. In view of the popular poetic traditions of the Cid's
exile preserved in chronicles ofthe late thirteenth and early fourteendi
centuries, and in ballads dating back to die fifteendi century, I argued
in 1990 that it probably was the learned author of the PMC, who
altered the characterization of die hero, changing him from a defiant
vassal, very disrespectful of die king, into a "good guy", that is, an
obedient and reverential vassal of die king. I find extraordinary that
among all the epic poems ofthe Cidian cycle (PMC, second version of
die Sancho II, Jura de Santa Gadea, Mocedades de Rodrigo, and the Song
ofthe Exile ofthe Cid) the only one that presents die hero as a truly loyal
vassal, and not as a defiant character, is the PMCP My hypothesis,
"3 1 disagree with Catalán 2001, 516, 631 when he argues that the chai acters ofthe Cid
in PMC, and in the Sancho II are similar. Just a look at the behavior ofthe Cid when king
Ferdinand is dying in the first cantar ofthe Sancho II (the "Particiones de los reinos") indicatesThe PMC and the Canon of the Spanish Epic221
therefore, is that it was the audior of the PMC that changed the pattern
of the popular epic, and not die odier way around, particularly if it
was composed, as Duggan suspects (1989, 143), for Alfonso VIII of
Castile and his court.24 For the most part critics believe diat the odier
Cidian songs are the anomalies and atypical of die Cidian epic tradition;
some even call them "decadent".25
The evidence shows that all the Cidian epic material, with the
exception of the PMC, the thirteendi-century Sancho II, the different
versions of the MR,"6 the Cantar de la jura de Santa Gadea, and the
different ballads and some chronicle prosifications of epic songs on
the Exile ofthe Cid, portray die Cid as a defiant vassal.
a big difference. Catalan analyzes the scene ofthe encounter between King Alfonso and the
Cid, outside of Burgos, when the former orders him to leave his territories, in the Crónica
de Costala, and affirms: "No cabe duda de que este Cid es tempei amentalmente distinto, no
ya al delAíío Cid, sino al de Las particiones en sus versions viejas, es "el soberbio castellano" de
las Mocedades de Rodrigo, pero es muy posible que la evolución del carácter del Cid hubiera ya
afectado a Lis refundiciones tardías de los poemas épicos de más antigua solera" (2001, 631 ).
Gómez Redondo 1 999 and Vaquero 1 990 believe the opposite: chronologically, fust, was the
rebellious Cid, and then, as a correction of his characterization, came the "obedient" or
compliant Cid. Gómez Redondo says: "[el] primer C[antar de] M[io] C[id] tenía que construir
un modelo de héroe con la suficiente rebeldía como para estimular, de nuevo, los valores
esenciales de la conciencia castellana (y aquí es donde tiene pleno sentido Li escena de lajura
de Santa Gadea), y a la vez debía de poseer un repertorio de méritos y de virtudes que lo
convirtiera en un adalid merecedor de consumar hazañas como la conquista de Valencia"
(Gómez Redondo 1999, 152). 1 believe that the first * Cantar de Mio Cid was probably a Cantar
del exilio.
"4 Regardless ofthe objections María Eugenia Lacarra 1993, 312 raises concerning
Duggan's hypothesis, in view ofthe date of birth of Fernando III, his thesis is still valid,
in my opinion.
25 It is not clear how "decadent" Catalán thinks this characterization ofthe Castilian
hero is: "El carácter altanero, siempre desafiante, de "Rodrigo el Castellano", capaz de
someter a su voluntad a un rey pusilánime, después de humillar a los condes del reino, no
es, como se ha creído, una invención tardía del s. XV, sino la razón de ser de la gesta. Sin
ese personaje así diseñado, las enfances de Rodrigo carecerían de sentido. Es esta profunda
distorsión de Li caracterización liasta entonces dominante del héroe (creada conjuntamente
por el Mio Cid y Las particiones del rey don Fernando) la gran aportación al ciclo cidiano de
este poeta de la "decadencia" de la epopeya perteneciente al tránsito del s. XIII al s. XIV"
(2001,515-16).
"6 For Ai mislead 2000. there is no doubt the MR had refundiciones. Catalán, however,
is not so sure: "[A]I comparar el testimonio de la Crònica de Castilla con el del Mocedades de
Rodrigo [ = MR], el correctísimo comportamiento ante el rey deljoven Rodrigo, siempre
obediente y bien mandado, que en la crónica se nos cuenta, en modo alguno refleja otra
redacción de la gesta de las Mocedades, como Li crítica, desde Menéndez Pidal, ha venido
suponiendo, ya que sólo tiene origen en un modelo ideal de relaciones vasalláticas que el
historiador predica a sus lectores utilizando las figuras del Cid y del rey don Fernando y
que nada tenía que ver con el ideario del poema épico que le sirvió de fuente" (200 1 , 592).222Mercedes VaqueroLa coránica 33.2, 2005
This is one more example of the bias that the canonicity of the
PMC has caused when studying die epic: those epic texts that do not
present the Cid as a submissive vassal, diat is all except the PMC, are a
deviation; they represent according to a large number of critics a
decline, a degeneration or corruption of the Cidian epic cycle. As I
stated at die beginning of diis article, the anomalies of die PMC, instead
of being considered deviations within the epic genre, are considered
the paradigm against which die almost all the rest ofthe Spanish epic
is measured. Undoubtedly, there is a large bias against the other
Spanish medieval texts implicit here.
3. The ballads
Let us examine now to the third parameter. Let us move on to an
analysis of the surviving traditional ballads derived from these epics,
as a parameter to measure the popularity of the texts.27 In diis area
the Per Abbat's PMC has a very precarious -if not uncertain- tradition.
Regarding the supposed ballads descending from this text, one of the
leaders in Spanish balladry studies, Giuseppe Di Stefano, exclaims:
"Los triunfos del Cid: ¿qué, se hizo de ellos en el viejo romancero}"
(1986, 560). Since such a venerable poem could not go without ballads,
traditionally three romances (ballads) have been ascribed to it: "Tres
cortes armara el rey", "Yo me estando en Valencia", and "Helo, helo
por do viene". According to Smith, and the rest of the critics agree
with him, diese diree ballads "tienen origen remoto en el Poema, pero
no podemos precisar su filiación ni sabemos si hay por medio algún
texto cronístico" (1980, 421). Smiths concludes: "Estos romances nos
sirven en cierto modo para dar una prueba negativa acerca de la
difusión del Poema: mientras de Los Infantes de Lara, Sancho II, Mocedades
de Rodrigo, etcétera, tenemos romances que son a todas luces auténticos
fragmentos de épicas, con retoques y espíritu nuevo, del Poema no nos
quedan en el romancero sino recuerdos ya muy deformados" (42 1).28
Thomas Montgomery in a detailed study on die ballad "Helo, helo
por do viene", discards the remote relationship of this romance to die
-' Although I am not examining the Carolmgian tradition in this article we should
not forget that: "El Romancero referente a personajes que proceden de la Epopeya
carolingia fue, en el Siglo de Oro, tanto o más famoso que el que tomó sus temas y personajes
de la épica típicamente hispana. En la tradición moderna el componente 'carolingio' tiene
un peso mayor que el 'nacional'" (Catalán 2001, 786).
28 See Irene Zaderenko's article in this Critical Cluster for a similar conclusion.The PMC and the Canon of the Spanish Epic223
Cid's pursuit of die Moorish King Bucar as found in the PMC; instead
he finds conclusively that "Helo, helo" descends from the Sancho II,
from the episode of die Cid's pursuit of Vellido Dolfos, the murderer
of king Sancho (1995). Catalán vehemently disagrees widi Montgomery,
but also he finds it hard, if not impossible, to connect "Helo, helo" -
and "Yo me estando en Valencia"- direcdy to die PMC. According to
this critic, "[e]n favor de la existencia de una tradición épica in-
interrumpida del Mio Cid que enlace con el Romancero el más
importante testimonio lo constituye el romance viejo (o romances)
relativo a las Cortes de Toledo [= "Tres cortes armara el rey]" (2001,
649). Indeed, there is a slight connection between this ballad and lines
3129-3131 of die PMC, but die disparities between bodi texts are such,
that Di Stefano affirms: "[e]l R[omance] pudo formarse inspirándose a
puntos varios del Cantar según una versión tardía" (1993, 375 ni).
As Armistead and Silverman other critics have pointed out on
different occasions:
The exact relationship of medieval epic poetry to the Hispanic
Romancero is one of the most vexed questions of Hispano-
Medievalism. For revisionist neo-individualist criticism, the
relationship, if indeed exists, is argued to be dubious and ill-
defined. For neo-traditionalists, on the other hand, there can
be no doubt whatsoever about the direct, genetic connection
between epic and ballad in an oral traditional continuum diat
stretches from the high Middle Ages up to modern times.
(Armistead 1989, 133)
Epic ballads are difficult to study, not only because there are a
considerable number of diem, but also because almost each one has
variants, and while some of these variants are accessible to scholars,
some are not yet available. As any scholar studying the ballads knows,
"there will always be more work to be done before certainty can be
attained" (Deyermond 1996: 62). Even ifwe tried to make an inventory
of the relevant ballads and dieir available variants, die limitations and
dangers of such method to prove the traditional life of an epic poem
are obvious. However, Siete infantes de Lara, Sancho II, and MR seem to
be the epics from which more traditional ballads have survived.29
29 Regarding the surviving traditional ballads ofthe Sancho II, ifwe just make a quick
count ofthe ballads that modern editors include in their anthologies, and compare them
with the number ofballads they include as descending from the SIL and the MR traditions,
this is what we find: 1 . Paloma Díaz-Mas 1 994 includes: four for SIL, three for MR and six224Mercedes VaquenLa coránica 33.2, 2005
According to Catalán, Sancho II has one ofthe richest ballad traditions
in the Spanish epic:
La activa reelaboración de la gesta de Las particiones del rey don
Fernando que hemos podido detectar en la documentación
cronística durante los siglos XII y XIII hace bastante probable
que el tema siguiera siendo cantado por profesionales tardo-
medievales del canto épico. A favor de esa hipótesis hablan las
huellas que la gesta dejó en el canto romancístico, que son de
las más abundantes. (2001, 604)
Aldiough there is no exact method to verify this, it seems that Sancho
II is the epic text with the largest number of surviving traditional
ballads. The material is vast, but scholars are providing us with new
tools for its study. Manuel da Costa Fontes, an expert in the field of
Portuguese ballads, argues that "Afuera, afuera Rodrigo", which
traditionally has been recorded as a descendant ofMocedades de Rodrigo,
ultimately derives as well from the Sancho II (1996). Fontes has studied
the similarities between the Azorean and the Madeiran version of
"Afuera, afuera", and concludes that at one time "A morte do rei D.
Fernando", that is, the Portuguese version of the first cantar of the
Sancho II, consisted of "Silvana y Delgadina" plus "Doliente se siente
el rey", plus "Morir vos queredes padre", plus "Afuera, afuera Rodrigo"
in both archipelagos. The discovery of these combined insular versions
suggests that a similar poem may also have been traditional in the
Algarve, concludes Fontes (1996).:'°
Of the hundreds of Hispanic ballads, more are being made
accessible each year. In 1991, for example, Alan Soons published two
romances and three lines from the beginning of another ballad deriving
for Sancho II; 2. Giuseppe Di Stefano 1 993 includes: four for SIL, three for MR, twelve for
Sancho II; 3. Mercedes Diaz Roig 1988 includes: four for SIL, three for MR, and eight for
Sancho ¡I. I have excluded in my count the ballads of"Jura de Santa Gadea", and also "Helo,
helo", because it is not totally clear they belonged to the Sancho Il tradition, in my opinion.
30 "Joanne B. Purcell ( 1 976) demuestra que del Fernando [Cantar de la partición de los
reinos = primer cantar del Sancho II] desciende una vigorosa tradición de romances, que
rastrea en los romanceros impresos del siglo XVI, en los romances orales recogidos en la
primera mitad del siglo XX y conservados en el Archivo Menéndez Pidal, y en romances
de Madeira y los Azores, de su propLa cosecha. Sus investigaciones vienen confirmadas pol-
la recogida en Madeira en 1990, por Maria-Joáo Cámara Fontes, de un romance sobre la
muerte de Fernando I que combina tres romances antiguos, y que corresponde a pasajes
del Cantar de Sancho Il prosificado en la Crónica de veinte reyes y la Crónica de 1344 (Costa Fontes
1992)" (Deyermond 1995, 98). See Catalán 2001. 616 118O for his objections to Fontes's
hypothesis.The PMC and the Canon ofthe Spanish Epic225
from die Sancho II. They are found in die Cancionero de Peraza (Cancionero
de Wolfenbüttel) from the last diird of the sixteenth century. Also, Alan
Deyermond, in his first volume of La literatura perdida de la Edad Media
castellana (1995), includes the first lines of three more ballads that
could derive from die Sancho II: "En el adarve de Çamora grandes
alaridos se dan (BIO, p. 165), "Por el cerco de Samora andavan los
castellanos" (B27, p. 176), "Que aunque duermen en Çamora
R[odri]go estava belando" (B28, p. 176).
4. The use of motifs
Finally, let us move now to die fourth parameter. Let us review the
stock material of these epics and some of their motifs. Deyermond
(1969, 156-76), Smith (1980), and Cornali (1989) have pointed out
that the author of the Mocedades de Rodrigo knew die PMC: "El que
compuso la perdida Gesta de las Mocedades tenía delante de sí, o conocía
al dedillo, el viejo poema, hecho que en Burgos o en su región no es
sorprendente" (Smith 1980, 421). These critics argue that not only are
some of the characters identical in MR and in die PMC, but also that
odier characters and events, aldiough not identical to the MR, bear
similarities to odiers in the PMC. Some descriptions and enumerations
of the MR are supposed to have been borrowed from the PMC. In
Appendix I have included one ofthe examples, which is supposed tobe
closest to the PMC: the enumeration of the territories over which
Alfonso VI ruled according to the PMC, and the enumeration of
territories over which Fernando I ruled according to MR. Ifwe compare
this list widi the passage ofthe ballad included as well in Appendix I, we
see the same expressions. In the romance the deeds of Fernando I from
the MR's tradition have been reassigned to his son Sancho (Di Stefano
350, nnl, 5). While working in an edition and study ofthe Sancho II, I
have found that many ofthe verbal correspondences and parallel motifs
put forward by die critics to establish parallels between die PMC and
the MR, appear in the Sancho II, and also in other epic texts, which
evidently mean diat they are not exclusive to the Cidian material; diey
are stock material of the epic style.
For the motifs shared by the Sancho II, and other epic texts,
including the PMC, I have included a list of motifs in Appendix II, and
a chart in Appendix III. I have included SIL, Sancho II, Romanz del
infant Garcia, PMC and MR. These are motifs that several poems share,
motifs that clearly a one time one tradition has borrowed from another.226Mercedes VaqueroLa coránica 33.2, 2005
How does this work for our purposes here? If in one text a motif is
used in a coherent manner and in anodier text the same motif is used
un-felicitously it is likely diat one text borrowed from die odier, or in
other words, it seems obvious that one tradition influenced another.
This is die case for example widi motifs 12 and 13 of die list, which I
have analyzed in detail elsewhere (Vaquero 1997), and which prove
the Siete infantes de Lara borrowed motifs from Sancho //."
The list is not an exhaustive study. Let me give one example. It
has been pointed out by Deyermond (1969, 13) and Armistead (2000,
60-62) diat die structure of the gesta de las MR is determined by a
vow that the young hero, Rodrigo, makes before living with Ximena.
He vows to fight five pitched battles. Deyermond (1969, 161-63)
considers that die origin of diis motif may perhaps be found in the
Sancho II. In die final duels of the story, the Castilian Diego Ordóñez
is supposed to fight against five Zaniorans, five vassals of Urraca,
although in the end he only fights with diree. Deyermond believes
that the author of Sancho Il stressed the need for five duels while
giving only diree because he felt impelled to include an inherited epic
motif. Deyermond (1969, 162), and also Ian Michael (1976, 172-73),
think that diis motif may possibly have affected die extant manuscript
of the PMC. /Vivar Fáñez says of the Cid "e fizo cinco lides campales e
todas las arrancó (v. 1333, ed. Montaner), aldiough only two pitched
batdes have been narrated in the story when this line appears. Is this
one of the poet's lapses? I don't believe so. More plausible is
Deyermond's hypothesis; in my opinion, the Biblioteca Nacional
manuscript of the PMC was influenced by this motif, which probably
derives from the Sancho II.
In a later study on the close of the PMC, Deyermond (1982) has
analyzed die motif of the final duels in diis poem, and reaches a similar
conclusion: a possible direct influence of die Sancho II in die PMC. The
appearance of Asur González, die oldest brodier of die infantes, in the
court, and his participation in die final duels, is not required by die
necessities of the plot or of die character development in the Cid. As
Deyermond has demonstrated, Asur González seems to be introduced
merely in order to provide a third duel, because three is a favorite
number for narrative units in a traditional tale. And most probably it
was borrowed from the very popular Sancho II by die audior of the
PMC.32
31 This is the famous bloody cucumber incident ?? Siete infantes de Lara.
3- This motif ultimately derives from the Chanson de Roland, as has been pointed out
by critics, and as I have demonstrated in Vaquero 1989.The PMC and the Canon of the Spanish Epic227
I do not believe that a masterpiece like die PMC should be left out
of our syllabi, but its canonicity must be questioned. In my opinion,
and in die opinion of odier Hispanomedievalists, die Sancho II is as
good of a masterpiece as die PMC, and it is not only for diis reason
diat it should be studied more. I believe die Sancho II was, along widi
die Mocedades de Rodrigo, die best known epic text of die Cidian cycle
in Medieval Iberia, and die one diat probably had die greatest impact
on other texts.
Appendix I
rey es de Castiella e rey es de León
e de las Asturias bien a San Çalvador,
fasta dentro en Santi Yaguo de todo es señor,
e Uos condes gallizanos a él tienen por señor.
(PMC w. 2923-26), ed. Montaner (1993a: 275)
Por esso dixieron todos, vedes por qual rrazón:
el buen rrey don Fernando, par fue de emperador,
mandó a Castilla Vieja et mandó a León,
et mandó a las Esturias fasta en Sant Salvador,
mandó a Galicia, onde los cavalleros son,
mandó a Portogal, essa tierra jenzor.et ganó a Cohinbra de moros,
pobló a Montemayor,
pobló a Sorya, frontera de Aragón,
e corrió a Sevilla tres veces en una sazón:
a dárgela ovieron moros, que quesieron o que non,
et ganó s Sant Ysydro et adúxolo a León
ovo a Navarra en comienda, e vínole obedecer el rey de Aragón.
A pessar de françesses los puertos de Aspa passò,
a pessar del rrey e del emperador,
a pessar de rromanos, dentro de París entró,
con gentes honrradas que de Espanna sacó.
(Mocedades de Rodrigo, w. 788-803), ed. Victorio (66-68)
Rey don Sancho, rey don Sancho cuando en Castilla reinó
corrió a Castilla la Vieja de Burgos hasta León;
corrió todas las Asturias dentro hasta sant Salvador;
también corrió a Santillana y dentro en Navarra entró
y a pesar del rey de Francia los puertos de Aspa passò;228Mercedes VaqueroLa corónica 33.2, 2005
Luego le vinieron cartas d'esse padre de Aviñón,
que se vaya para Roma y Ie alearán emperador;
que lleve treinta de mula y de cavallo que non,
y que no lleve consigo esse Cid Campeador:
que las cortes están en paz, no las rebolviesse non.
El Cid cuando lo supo a las cortes se partió,
con trezientos de a cavallo, todos hijos dalgo son.
(11 1-5, 8-14), ed. Di Stefano (1993: 350-351)
Appendix II
Common epic motifs in Siete infantes de Lara = SIL, Sancho II = SII,
Romanz del infant Garcia = IG, Poema, de Mio Cid = PMC, and Mocedades
de Rodrigo = MR. Common motifs with Chanson de Roland are marked
as [CR]
1.While knights are attempting to pull down a wooden turret, a huge
fight ensues in which one or more deaths occur SIL, IG.
2.Blood thirsty and very powerful noble lady decides on the traitor's
punishment SIL, SII, IG.
3.Fight ends in a near-mortal or mortal blow SIL, SII.
4.To intervene in a huge fight so that even larger damage will not
occur SIL, SII.
5.Traitor/s deceive/s his/their victims with false words or gestures SIL,
SII, IG [CR].
6.A character asks another to help him in a dangerous enterprise in
exchange for future benefits SIL, SII, [CR].
7.In a moment of extreme anger the hero threatens his favorite
counselor widi death SIL, SII.
8.To be honorable in vouth and dishonorable in old age SIL, SII,
[CR].
9.Epic curses SIL, SII.
10.Offering one's sons to the service of a lord to establish peace SIL,
SII.
1 1.Traitor or hero, who has done wrong, on his death bed requests
that his vassals be forgiven SIL, SII.
12.While die hero is resting after a hunt near a river or stream an
incident occurs which could cost him his life SIL, SILThe PMC and the Canon of the Spanish Epic229
13.After crime traitor seeks shelter under the mantel of his lady SIL,
SII.
14.Ominous curse of a main character to his kin SIL, SII, [CR].
15.In the middle of a ferocious fight the hero/es rest/s and renew/s
his/their strength widi food and wine that is served to him/diem
SIL, SII.
16.Elderly father attempts without success to fight against his rival/s,
but it will be his son/s who will actually fight for him SIL, SIL
17.Traitor escapes rapidly on horseback SII, IG.
18.Traitor is finally caught (SIL, SII, IG, [CR].
19.Traitor/s receive/s a horrific death as punishment for his/dieir treason
SIL, SII, IG, [CR].
20.Traitor/s belong/s to a family of traitors SII, IG, [CR].
21.Son/s of a nobleman ask/s die ruling King in Castile that his/their
family lands be returned to him/them SII, IG.
22.Hero, following a death threat, promises to return the lands to his
powerful enemies SII, IG.
23.Three final duels SII, PMC, [CR] (only one duel in Chanson de
Roland).
24.King sends letters giving orders to his vassals, who are afraid to
incur his wrath if they disobey him SII, PMC.
25.A champion (Alvar Fáñez) loses his horse in battle; a new horse is
given to him and he fights splendidly with it SII, PMC.
26.The Cid is banished unjustly by his lord and goes to Moor territory
SII, PMC.
27.Islamic ruler helps a main Christian character SII, PMC. MR.
28.King damns the son that would go against his orders SII, MR.
29.Division by a king of one single sovereign territory into three lots
SII, MR.
30.Ill-advised king SII, PMC, MR, [CR].
31.Only one knight dares to joust for the king SII, MR, [CR].You can also read
