Medieval Spanish Epic Poetry: Jarchas and Cantar del Mio Cid
Jarchas and the Dawn of Spanish Epic Poetry
Jarchas are short poems written in Mozarabic dialect, interspersed with words of Arabic and Hebrew. Their period of splendor is located between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The jarcha was the ending of an extensive stanza composition of a cult character and theme of love: the muwassaha. The muwassaha was written in Arabic or Hebrew and in Mozarabic. The jarcha’s structure is very simple, because the poems are brief and generally use parallel verses. Their content usually revolves around the game or the absence of a friend or loved one, and the pain of the maid, who is directed to his mother or his sisters, lamenting her loneliness and heartbreak. The expressive resources are equally simple, with plenty of questions and vocative mood.
Epic Poetry
From the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, a series of epic poems of great extent were composed. The disclosure was made by the minstrels, who recited and sang in the streets of towns and cities or in the halls of castles. These epics are called Songs of Gesta. Almost all the works of the medieval Castilian epic have been lost. Only El Cantar de Mio Cid has been preserved almost entirely. The growth of these long poems declined in the late fourteenth century, but its themes and many of its features remained in the compositions that replaced them: the romances. The epics are usually grouped into 3 cycles according to topic and players:
- French Cycle: Drawn from the Chanson de Roland and deals with Charlemagne and the hero Roland. A fragment of the Song of Roncesvalles belongs to this cycle.
- Cycle of the Counts of Castile: Deals with the origins of the Castilian kingdom achieving independence as the Kingdom of Leon. Example: The Seven Infants of Lara.
- Cid Cycle: It is about the Cid.
Cantar del Mio Cid: A National Epic
Cantar del Mio Cid is the only nearly complete epic poem that has come down to us. It is preserved in a manuscript dated with 3730 verses. This manuscript was signed by Per Abbat in 1207. (Date given by the study: late twelfth century or early thirteenth century.) It is said that the author might be a cultured poet.
Plot Summary
The book is divided into 3 parts:
- Song of Exile: King Alfonso VI exiled the Cid, who left with his friends and vassals into exile. The Cid and his followers engaged in land grabs from the Moors.
- Wedding Song: El Cid conquered Valencia two years after the king pardoned him. This means victory to the troops of the Emir of Morocco. They ask for the daughters’ hands in marriage to the King and, although the Cid resists due to his distrust of the infants, the king decides to hold the weddings.
- Song of the Shame of Corpes: The Infants of Carrion show their cowardice. El Cid demands justice in the courts. They show the contempt felt by the Leonese nobles for the Cid, but the Cid triumphs in the application and, in the challenge, his men defeated the infantes. The process of recovery of honor by the hero is completed by agreeing to new marriages of his daughters to the heirs of Navarre and Aragon.
Theme and Structure
The main theme is the honor of the Cid. The entire structure is organized around the final triumph of the hero.
Techniques and Styles
The poem is written in irregular verses, around 16 syllables, and assonant rhyme. The number of verses that make up each roll is very variable.
Narrative Art
- Uses various stylistic perspectives.
- Alternates between direct and indirect speech.
- Humorous elements to lighten the moments of transition.
Main Stylistic Features
- The archaic attitude in the use of language.
- Dignifying the abundance of epithets or epic epithets that exalt characters and places.
- The prevalence of conjoined and coordinated sentences over subordinated ones.
- Adjustment of the lexicon to the different situations that appear in the poem.
- The use of rhetorical figures.