Poem of the Cid

Alternate Titles

• Cid (Epic cycle)

Description

Few works have shaped a national literature as thoroughly as the Poem of the Cid has shaped the Spanish literary tradition. Tracing the life of the eleventh-century military commander Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, called the Cid (from the Arabic Sayyidi, "My Lord"), this medieval epic describes a series of events surrounding his exile. The text of the poem survives in only one early thirteenth-century manuscript copied by a single scribe, yet centuries later the figure of the Cid still was celebrated in the Spanish popular ballad tradition. Today almost every theme that characterizes Spanish literature - honor, justice, loyalty, treachery, and jealousy - derives from the Poem of the Cid. Restored by poet and medievalist George Economou, this elegant and spirited translation by Paul Blackburn is judged by many the finest English translation of a great medieval poem.

Subjects

Genres

• Romances

Other Editions

• Poem of the Cid: a modern translation with notesUniversity Of Oklahoma Press1998-01-01
• Poem of the CidUniversity of Oklahoma Press1998-01-01
• Poem of the CidPaperbackUniversity of Oklahoma Press1998-04-01
• Poem of the CidHardcoverUniv of Oklahoma Pr1998-04-01