70- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Bard behaviour: the poetry of themester de juglaría
The heroics of Spain’s grindingReconquistaprovided
rich subject matter for balladeers roaming the peninsula
in the Middle Ages.These troubadours andjuglares
(minstrels) sang or recitedcantares de gesta(epic tales
like the Frenchchansons de geste) in a form known as
mester de juglaría, splicing the stories into catchy verse.
The historical foundations of a story were often lost
along the way, but unlike other troubadours around
Europe the Spanish composers rarely let fantasyput
them off their taste for social reality. By the 12th
century, themester de juglaríaformat was being written
down.The most important surviving Castilian example
isEl Poema de Mío Cid.Moral support: the poetry of themester de clerecía
Whilejuglaresroamed the land with tales of heroism,
a second, more spiritual strand of Spanish poetry took
shape.Themester de clerecíaform of verse was
recorded, as the name suggests, by clerics.They began
writing in the 13thcentury in the monasteries of Castile,
using a regimented structure absent from troubadour
poetry, arranging Alexandrine lines (14 syllables) in four
rhyming verses at a time to form consistent blocks of
text.Mester de clerecíaoften mirrored thejuglares’
depiction of Spanish society and was often performed
in the same public environs, although its gist was
usually godlier.The first Castilian poet known to us by
name, Gonzalo de Berceo, wroteMilagros de Nuestra
Señora(1252), a reasonably punchy biog of the Virgin.
Another,El Libro de Buen Amor(c.1330), written by the
priest Juan Ruiz with a good deal of humour and insight,
became famous for its exploration of carnal
misdemeanours.The first masterpiece of
Spanish literature:El Cid
The epic poem ofEl Cid
had been doing the
rounds orally since the
mid 12thcentury before a
Christian monk, Per Abbat,
committed the tale to
parchment in Castilian in
- Its real life hero,
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, was
namedsayyidi(my lord)
by the Arabs, from which
the Spanish took the
name El Cid. In a life of
heroism, the Cid’s most
celebrated act of courage
was to capture and then
rule Valencia for the
Christians. In the poem,
he’s portrayed as an
all-round lionheart, a
veritable beacon of
Christian values (even
though in truth the real
Cid of the 11thcentury
fought for hire on both
sides). Brilliant in its
use of drama and for
rendering the politics and
chivalry of medieval Spain
in such detail,El Poema
de Mío Cidcan be seen
as the first great work of
Spanish literature. It
stretches to 3,730 lines,
divided into three parts.
In the years after the
Spanish Civil War, Franco
employed the legend of
El Cidto boost his self-
proclaimed role as moral
protector of the nation,
fighting a holy crusade
against the infidels.