Chivalry Book Club (April ’25)
The Song of the Cid
This month’s selection for the Chivalry Book Club is the Spanish national epic from the 12th or 13th century, The Song of the Cid.
El Cid is a surprisingly controversial figure—surprising because it should be a straightforward matter: he’s one of the great heroes of Christendom. In the words of Ramon Menéndez Pidal, “It was upon the Cid that the task devolved of resisting, unaided, the whole might of Islam,” and his victories marked a turning point in the history of Spain. Just don’t let self-impressed debunkers and Spanish leftists hear you say that. They’re committed to the narrative that El Cid was merely a mercenary who sometimes fought for the Christian forces, and sometimes for the Muslims. It doesn’t help that the 1961 epic starring Charlton Heston made him out to be a pluralist who wonders why Muslims and Christians can’t just get along. I’ll post more about this issue later, but for now let it suffice to say that El Cid actually was everything the Reconquista-enjoyers say he is.
(Note also: we will be discussing the historical Cid in a few months when we read Raymond Ibrahim’s Defenders of the West.)
The plan is to read and then discuss the song. I’m a little behind in getting things rolling, so the discussion will be on Tuesday May 6th. It is a short book, for what it’s worth. The Penguin Classics edition, translated by Burton Raffel, is what I’ll be using. It’s also available online. Please email me at sonofchivalry@protonmail.com (with CBC Apr ‘25 in the subject) if you’d like an invitation to the discussion. Space is limited and my patrons and backers will have top priority.
Reading Notes
Canto One—notes and questions:
El Cid inspires a tremendous amount of loyalty—with no fewer than sixty men volunteering to accompany him into the uncertainty and difficulty of exile. Imagine the pull a man must have. How does he do it? What is it about him that inspires such loyalty? Does this have anything to do with the repeated references to him as “my Cid”? (The Spanish title is El Cantar de mio Cid).
This book makes me think of the line from George Patton: “There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates.”
Great line from the text: “Knights and soldiers on foot, now all alike were rich: / You couldn't have found a poor man among them, / For those who serve a good master always live well" (pg 59).
Shortly after this, even the Moors of Alcocer mourn when El Cid departs!
The faith of El Cid is remarkable. In the opening lines he thanks God for being exiled. “I thank you, my Father, my Lord on high! / This is the vulture trap my enemies sent me” (page 3). And this isn't the only time he offers prayers of Thanksgiving in the face of great peril and uncertainty—there’s a more surprising prayer coming. What kind of man gives thanks for such trouble?
What do you make of El Cid’s “deal” with Raguel and Vidas, for the purpose of getting his hands on the money to pay his men? The song is so enthusiastically pro-Cid that the gambit seems to be offered as fair game? Near the end of the canto, we are told “In all his life he had never gone back on his word”—and we are to believe it. How are these to be reconciled?
More soon. I’ll post notes from Cantos Two and Three shortly. Stay tuned. Please post any comments or questions in the replies.