The Poem of the Cid

One of the greatest works of Spanish literature, this eight-hundred-year-old saga narrates the legendary exploits of the soldier-adventurer Ruy Daz of Bivar, known as El Cidthe Lordand his part in the long struggle between Christianity and Islam. The poem recounts the adventures of a broad cast of characters: the Cid; his peerless steed, Babieca, and his two famous swords, Colada and Tizn; his wife, Doa Ximena, and his two daughters, Doa Elvira and Doa Sol, who found sanctuary with Abbot Don Sancho in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardea during the Cids exile; and the black-hearted princes of Carrin, Diego and Fernando Gonzlez. This powerful epic sings of universal human values and failures, loyalty and betrayal.