The epic poem called "The Song of My Cid" is the first extensive narrative work in Spanish literature penned in a Romance language. It is composed of 3,735 anisosyllabic verses that relate heroic exploits freely adapted from the later years in the life of the Castilian nobleman Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar.
The poem is written in mediaeval Castilian and was composed around the year 1200 (between 1195 and 1207). The original title is not known, though it was probably called epic poem or song, terms the author uses to describe his work in verses 1085 and 2276 respectively.
The Narrative
The Song of My Cid addresses the subject of honor, a quality of prime importance to the people of that period. The need to restore lost honor is what drives the exploits undertaken by the hero.
The poem begins with the Cid's exile, the primary cause for dishonor, after an accusation of theft. This dishonor also means being deprived not only of his estate or possessions in Vivar but also of the custody of his family.
After concluding the conquest of Valencia, achieved by his good judgment and shrewdness, the hero receives the royal pardon and a new estate, the fiefdom of Valencia. In order to ratify his new status as lord over vassals, marriages are arranged for his daughters with lineages of the greatest prestige, such as those of the princes of Carrión.
Fortune, however, is fickle and this moment of happiness is turned into a new fall from honor for the Cid by reason of the grave offense caused by the princes against his daughters, who are humiliated, badly wounded and left abandoned in the oak forest of Corpes, an incident that under mediaeval law meant the de facto repudiation of the daughters by the Carrión household.
This leads the Cid to allege nullity of the marriages in a trial presided by the king. The princes of Carrion are publicly disgraced and despoiled of the privileges that they previously possessed as members of the royal entourage. El Cid's daughters on the other hand enter into arranged marriages with Spanish kings, thereby rising to the top of the social ladder.