El Cid

History and myth of a warlord

(David Porrinas Gonzalez)

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador, is one of the historical figures most rooted in the collective imagination of the Spanish, from the Cantar de Mío Cid to the Anthony Mann film starring Charlton Heston and Sofía Loren.

But was the Cid a hero, a symbol of crusader Christianity, as he has often been portrayed? What precisely distinguishes the historical Cid is his antihero quality, a warlord capable of forging his destiny with iron and carving out his own kingdom. 

David Porrinas, one of the greatest experts on the subject, as evidenced by his numerous publications, captures in "El Cid. History and myth of a warlord » everything that historical research has illuminated about the Campeador, focusing in particular on the man himself of flesh and blood, the historical Cid, Rodrigo Díaz, called in life Campeador ("Campidoctor") and perhaps also Cid ("Sidi") .

Both epithets will be born from his warrior prowess, from a military talent shown in life and that will become the main argument for centuries to turn the man into a legendary hero. Because the historical figure and the subsequent myth cannot be dissociated from that warrior practice that he developed throughout his fifty years of life; activity, in some aspects exceptional, from which the necessary argument for the transmutation of the person into myth will germinate.

The book therefore places the character in his time, his mentality and his circumstances: the setting for the Campeador epic is an Iberian peninsula where the Christian kingdoms begin to expand at the expense of the weak Andalusian taifas, with mutable and permeable borders, and where Almoravid fanatics burst in on one side and the idea of ​​a crusade on the other.

"El Cid. History and myth of a warlord » is a worthy successor of The Spain of the Cid by Ramón Menéndez Pidal. A work, furthermore, beautifully illustrated and to which Desperta Ferro Ediciones has added more than twenty signature maps, essential to understand this turbulent period.

A book that, as always, you can - and should - acquire by clicking on the following link or on the cover image.