Medieval Spanish Literature: El Cid, Courtly Love, and Lyric Poetry
El Poema de Mio Cid
El Poema de Mio Cid is a masterpiece of epic Castilian literature from the medieval period, comprising 3730 verses. It is incomplete, and Menéndez Pidal defends the idea of double authorship. The poem is structured into three cantos: Cantar del Destierro, Cantar de las Bodas, and Cantar de la Afrenta de Corpes.
Argument
The poem has two basic storylines:
- The first follows the exile of the Cid, which leads to the conquest and recovery of Valencia, and the restoration of his lost honor.
- The second relates the marriage of the Cid’s daughters, the affront at Corpes, and the subsequent achievement of glory by the protagonist after his daughters marry two future kings of Spain.
Meter
The poem is written in narrative verse, following the style of minstrelsy, with irregular verses (14-16 syllables), assonant rhyme, and caesura.
Language and Style
The poem is characterized by a scarcity of adjectives, verbal movement, juxtaposition and coordination of sentences, concrete lexicon, improvisation, sobriety, formulaic expressions, epic epithets, parallelism, exclamations, antithesis, and dialogue.
Themes
The main themes are unjust exile, the good soldier, vassalage, and especially the recovery of lost honor.
Characters
Characters are clustered in groups (enemies, adversaries, etc.). The Cid, a member of the lower nobility (Infanzón), has a great personality and cements his reputation through the exercise of his virtues and his heroic conduct. He is moved by loyalty to the king, religiosity, and is depicted as a sensible and tender warrior.
Provençal Courtly Love and Poetry
In 1100, two cultural creations of enormous significance emerged in the south of France: a new ideal of love and a new lyric that expresses it, known as Provençal poetry. This lyrical poetry was written to be sung together with instruments and melodies. It was aimed at an audience that listened, and it was a fine art that required a solid literary and musical foundation. This type of poetry is called troubadour love poetry, and the poets who composed it cultivated this art in the courts. This courtly literature exerted influence across Europe.
Galician-Portuguese Lyric
Preserved in manuscript form through the Cancioneiros, Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry is a collection of songbooks called ballads. There are three types:
- Love ballads: Courtly love expressed from a male perspective, in imitation of Provençal lyric.
- Maldizer ballads: Ingenious satires.
- Friend ballads: Love poems or poems of absence expressed from a female perspective, with some elements of Provençal lyric and a parallel structure.
Traditional Castilian Lyric
The production of popular lyric poetry in Castile spans five centuries. The preservation of folk songs is due to their collection in songbooks. The most important collections are the Cancionero Musical de Palacio, the Cancionero de la Colombina, and the Cancionero de Upsala. The themes are very similar to the jarchas: absent love, the young nun, and the power of love. The environments that serve as a framework are often related to work (mowing, milling, etc.).
Sephardic Lyric
Older than Galician-Portuguese or Castilian lyric poetry is the popular lyric of Judeo-Spanish communities. After their expulsion from Spain, they continued to cultivate traditional songs for weddings and other ceremonies.
Cultured Poetry in Medieval Catalonia
Romantic themes and poetic forms were imported from Provence to meet the tastes of the nobility. There was a slow replacement of Provençal by Catalan. Poets included here are Ramon Llull and Ausias March.