Though not to be confused with a work of historiography, the hero protagonist of the Cantar de mio Cid was indeed a historical figure. Rodrigo Díaz was likely born in Vivar around 1043 (Fletcher 107). El Cid is an unofficial title gained in his later years, which stems from the Arabic sayyid and can be translated to señor or lord (3). He came from an aristocratic family, eventually serving King Sancho II of Castile (and later León and Galicia). Upon Sancho’s assassination in 1072, the Cid became the vassal of the slain king’s brother, Alfonso VI, with whom he fell out of favor on more than one occasion (116, 118-20). He was banished by Alfonso in 1081, which led him to serve the Muslim ruler of Zaragoza; after recovering the King’s favor, he was banished a second time in 1089 (125). After numerous military campaigns in the Levante in the 1090s, he besieged Valencia in 1093, which surrendered in 1094 (163-64). He held the city until his death in 1099. His wife, Jimena, remained there until 1102, at which point the city was evacuated after a lengthy siege by Almoravid forces (186). Jimena, who would live at least another decade, returned Rodrigo’s body to Castile, where it was reinterred at the monastery of Cardeña (187).

With respect to his family life, Rodrigo Díaz married Jimena in 1074 or 1075 (121-23). They had three children who survived to adulthood: Cristina, María, and Diego, though the order of their birth is unknown. Cristina married Ramiro, the grandson of King García III of Navarre and María married Ramón Berenguer III of Barcelona; little is known about Diego, who does not feature in the Cantar de mio Cid; Rodrigo’s daughters, called Elvira and Sol in the Cantar, are central figures of the second half of the work.

The tremendous successes and challenges experienced by Rodrigo Díaz have led to many retellings of his life and deeds. The work now known as the Cantar (or Poema) de mio Cid is one of the earliest of such retellings, having likely been composed in the final years of the twelfth century or beginning of the thirteenth (Smith 18; Michael 16). The last three lines of the colophon provide the terminus ante quem: “May God grant his paradise to the man who wrote this book! / Per Abbat wrote it down, in the month of May, / in the year 1207” (The Poem of the Cid, lines 3731-33).^[1] The use of escrivir—to write—in the colophon refers to the act of copying. As such, Per Abbat was likely a scribe who copied an extant poem in the year 1207. The Cantar survives in one fourteenth-century manuscript, currently housed in Spain’s Biblioteca Nacional. It is also available digitally through the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica and Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. The manuscript itself is incomplete, missing four folios, including the first.

While circumstantial, the initial lacuna does lead to one of the most striking images of the Cantar, as Rodrigo experiences one of his darkest moments: weeping, having lost everything, he contemplates his deserted hometown as he prepares to leave for exile. Over three cantares, the audience walks with the hero as he works tirelessly in the name of honor. Unlike many heroic counterparts—which include other depictions of the Cid himself—our Rodrigo is calculated in every decision he makes, with every action further characterizing him as an ideal vassal and lord. He perseveres through professional and personal hardship, eventually establishing himself as lord of Valencia, recovering favor with Alfonso VI, and marrying his daughters to royalty. For medieval audiences, he would have been an inspirational model for soldiers to follow. For the 21^st-century student, he is a sympathetic, admirable figure, though at times his character-defining mesura does prove frustrating. Beyond the characterization of the Cid himself, the Cantar de mio Cid is an accessible epic poem that leads to rich conversations on the nature of honor, vassal-lord relationships, inter-religious dynamics, and medieval frontiers, among many other possibilities.

^[1] The manuscript references “en era de mill e .cc xlv años,” (Poema de mio Cid, lines 3731-32) or 1245 in the Era [de Julio César]—a dating system 38 years ahead of the Christian era (Michael 242).