The Epic of the Cid, with Related Texts (review)

Many a student of medieval history or romance literature have had the pleasure of reading El Cid, but few have been given the opportunity to engage other sources which complement and, at times, contradict the story found in this epic. Michael Harney, an expert in medieval and Renaissance Spanish literature, seeks to rectify such an imbalance with a volume comprising an excellent prose translation of not only the lay of El Cid but also excerpts taken from seven additional texts redacted from as early as the late eleventh century to as late as the early sixteenth century. This book merits serious consideration for inclusion in a course syllabus—so long as students are provided with sufficient relevant historical and textual background. Academics desiring a thoroughly edited and annotated English translation, however, would be better served by consulting other works. The volume contains the following eight texts—all of which have been translated into English prose: El Cid; a letter of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin al-Ṭāhir (rendered in Harney’s translation as Abu Tahir) as preserved by Ibn Bassām of Santarém (translated from R. Dozy’s French translation); an excerpt from the Historia Roderici; the complete fragment of the Carmen Campidoctoris; an excerpt from the Estoria de España (also known as the Primera Crónica General); an excerpt from the Crónica de Veinte Reyes; an excerpt from the Mocedades de Rodrigo; and an excerpt from an anonymous turn-of-the-sixteenth-century ballad of the Cid. The book opens with an introduction which discusses the history of the Cid’s persona and memory during the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, and it closes with a Compendium of Names (an appendix which would more accurately be called a glossary, as it defines places and phenomena in addition to individuals). Each of the seven “relevant texts” is accompanied by additional, brief introductions. Bibliographic information is provided for the critical editions of each text, in addition to a number of English translations of El Cid. Two of the texts—the letter of Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin al-Ṭāhir and the excerpt from the Estoria de España—appear in English for the first time. Curiously, the book provides no bibliographic information for the complete English translations of the remaining textual selections.

Harney has succeeded in crafting remarkably engaging and accessible prose translations of the aforementioned romance works—more so than any other translations which this reviewer has encountered to date. Enthusiasm for this work, however, is somewhat tempered by the volume’s relative paucity of editorial footnotes and sometimes too-brief textual introductions, a decision which at times jeopardizes the reader’s contextual comprehension. For example, it is not explained that a retaliatory raid led by the Cid into al-Andalus (as recounted in the Historia Roderici) would have incurred the wrath of King Alfonso VI because it imperiled a fragile peace accord between Castile and Muslim-ruled Toledo. The substantial Compendium of Names seeks to compensate for the limited footnotes, but the reader is often not made aware when the interpretation of a particular passage could be enriched by consulting said appendix. For example, if a student were to see no need to confirm whether the characters Raquel and Vidas merited discussion in the Compendium, it might remain unknown that much ink has been spilled about these moneylenders’ ethnicity and gender. Finally, some of the additional texts accompanying the epic of El Cid could have benefited from more in-depth introductions. For example, the reader is given no indication of the monumental sociopolitical and literary shifts which were occurring during the redaction of Los Mocedades de Rodrigo in late fourteenth-century Castile. These caveats can be easily remedied by judicious lectures or additional readings intended to bolster the reader’s relevant historical and textual background. And it would be very worthwhile for instructors to make such an effort on behalf of this volume, for when students only read the epic...