A Companion to the Poema de mio Cid

This volume brings together the knowledge of a number of distinguished scholars whose contributions to the field of Poema de mio Cid studies have been widely recognized. It provides an informed introduction to the poem and presents the most recent findings and interpretations. The Poema de mio Cid (PMC) has long been regarded as one of the major works of Spanish medieval literature due to its linguistic and literary value, its historical influence, and its foundational role in Castilian epic poetry. It stands side by side with Homeric poems, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, the Old French Chanson de Roland, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and other such contributions from the epic genre to the Weltliteratur pantheon. It is significant that the PMC is the only Spanish epic text that has survived almost in its entirety in a manuscript devoted solely to the poem. Though the extant manuscript was produced sometime in the first decades of the 14th century, the poem was previously copied in 1207 as indicated in the colophon. Regarding the relatively late date of the surviving manuscript, it can best be explained by the growing interest in its hero. In fact, by the end of the 13th century the poem began to be utilized as a historical document in several vernacular chronicles, a historiographical practice that continued uninterrupted until the end of the 15th century. During this period, alongside its acceptance as part of the official history of Spain, the work underwent a series of rewritings, revisions, and amplifications, generating new fictional narratives as it moved into other literary genres. Until today, students and scholars who wanted to embark on a critical reading of the poem were faced with a massive collection of scholarly works without the guide of a reliable and up-to-date handbook on the PMC. Such an aid simply did not exist either in English or in any other language. In order to meet this need, our volume brings together the critical knowledge of a number of distinguished scholars, whose undisputed contributions to the field of PMC studies have been widely recognized. Our aim is to provide an informed introduction to key literary aspects of the poem (codicological and textual problems, authorship, reception, language, rhyme and versification, formulaic style, themes, narrative devices, structure), as well as presenting essential aspects and issues for a more comprehensive understanding of the work (historical context, ideological motivations, prosification in medieval chronicles, the poem’s place in the canon of Spanish literature). Equally important is to present new critical interpretations that have been put forward since the 1970s, when scholars started to challenge Ramón Menéndez Pidal’s theories that had dominated the philological discourse since the beginning of the last century. Despite the shortcomings of Menéndez Pidal’s assumptions, some of his contributions are still valid and have rightfully been integrated in the latest analytical approaches. The volume starts with a synoptic introduction that offers an overview of the poem’s key aspects such as its plot, structure and sources, authorship and dating, historical context, prosodic features, language and style, performative traits, and the poem’s place within the discursive spectrum of oral and written literature. This prelude gives way to sixteen chapters that analyze crucial features of the poem, including a critical overview of the most significant studies on the subject. The essays are organized around five areas of inquiry: the codex and its author, the poem’s language, poetic features, historical dimensions, and the poem’s reception from the late Middle Ages through the present. In the first chapter, Alberto Montaner offers a description of the sole manuscript and an overview of competing editorial criteria. In the second, Irene Zaderenko makes a synoptic review of the authorship debate. The chapters by Roger Wright, Federico Corriente, and Javier Rodríguez Molina present an up-to-date overview of the linguistic features of the poem: where and why was it written, a diachronic and synchronic analysis of its distinctive linguistic traits, and the role of the Andalusian Arabic linguistic and cultural background. Juan Carlos Bayo, Salvatore Luongo, Matthew Bailey, and Leonardo Funes review the central problems in the literary appreciation of the poem as a work of art: poetic technique, narrative voice, oral aesthetic, and structure. Simon Barton, Georges Martin, and Eukene Lacarra build upon the massive body of historical scholarship on the Cid and his times to provide an overview of the poem’s historical background, social values, and legal aspects. The final four chapters by Mercedes Vaquero, Francisco Bautista, Fernando Gómez Redondo, and Luis Galván give a detailed account of the poem’s fate as documented by the historiographical treatment of the Cid’s legend in Old Spanish chronicles, reelaborations of Cidian texts (including the 14th-century poem Mocedades de Rodrigo), the poem’s echoes in 15th-century literature, and the ideological interpretations inspired by its 18th-century rediscovery at the dawn of modern Hispanic studies. Given the diversity of views presented in this body of work, the reader will discover very soon that there are conflicting opinions on almost every aspect of Cidian scholarship. We, as editors, did not want to create the false sense of a consensus that does not exist and have allowed each author to expose his or her own point of view. This does not mean that we believe that anything goes, but ultimately it is the reader who must evaluate the data and reasoning of each author and decide who offers the most appropriate solution. Thus, the volume presents competing views on the prosodic features of the poem and how such assumptions guide the way the poem is edited (Bayo’s and Montaner’s chapters); debates about the balance between oral and written traditions in the composition and performance of the poem as the work of a learned author versus a popular jongleur (Zaderenko’s chapter on authorship versus Bailey’s and Vaquero’s); or how linguistic arguments stand out vis-a-vis other criteria to ascertain questions of authorship, geographic provenance, etc. (for example, Rodríguez Molina’s argument – in line with Menéndez Pidal, Rafael Lapesa, and Diego Catalán – that the language of the author is more likely from Castilian Extremadura than from Burgos, which contravenes Zaderenko’s argument about the author as a Benedictine monk from Cardeña). As a matter of fact, the authors often challenge each other on specific issues in explicit cross-references to the pertinent chapters: for example, Montaner challenges Bayo’s concept of deictic dissonance; Rodríguez Molina disagrees with Wright as to where the copyist of the Cid manuscript was trained and with Zaderenko on the region of Burgos as the place of origin of the author; Corriente ends his essay distancing himself from the characterization of the poem as a “frontier song”, which happens to be advocated by Montaner; and so on. Such a range of opinions can be confusing at first, but we considered it necessary to bring together the leading scholars in the field who may agree on some aspects, yet have discrepant views that embody major trends in modern Cidian scholarship. Given the wide range of issues that are presented, we believe this volume will be a useful guide for both scholars and students who are interested in the PMC, and a helpful tool for making this Castilian poem better known by an international readership of medievalists and literature students eager to embark on a critical reading of this classic of European belles lettres.