Cantar de mio Cid

Cantar de mio Cid
Poem of my Cid
Also known asPoema de mio Cid (Poem of my Cid)
Author(s)Unknown
LanguageOld Spanish
DateComposed sometime between 1140 and 1207
Manuscript(s)Unique manuscript. National Library of Spain, Vitr.7–17.[1]
GenreCantar de gesta
Verse formAnisosyllabic with assonant rhyme
Length3730 verses

El Cantar de mio Cid (lit.'The Song of my Cid', or 'The Song of my Sidi ('lord')'), or El Poema de mio Cid, also known in English as The Poem of the Cid, is the oldest preserved Castilian epic poem.[2] Based on a true story, it tells of the deeds of the Castilian hero and knight in medieval Spain Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar—known as El Cid—and takes place during the eleventh century, an era of conflicts in the Iberian Peninsula between the Kingdom of Castile and various Taifa principalities of Al-Andalus. It is considered a national epic of Spain.

The work survives in a medieval manuscript which is now in the Spanish National Library.[3]

  1. ^ "Biblioteca Nacional de España". Biblioteca Digital Hispánica. Retrieved 2024-01-07.
  2. ^ Penguin Classics, "The Poem of the Cid: A Bilingual Edition with Parallel Text", 1975, Translated by Rita Hamilton, "[1] Archived 2014-11-08 at the Wayback Machine", 1/5/2010
  3. ^ Dos Espanoles en la historia: el Cid y Ramon Menendez Pidal. Exhibition at the BNE 2019.