Mocedades de Rodrigo
| Mocedades de Rodrigo | |
|---|---|
| The youthful deeds of Rodrigo, the Cid | |
| Also known as | Cantar de Rodrigo y el Rey Fernando (The lay of Rodrigo and King Fernando) |
| Author(s) | unknown |
| Language | Old Spanish |
| Date | composed around 1360 |
| Manuscript(s) | unique manuscript. Bibliotèque Royale, Paris, nº 12, olim Cod. 9988. |
| Genre | epic poetry |
| Verse form | anisosyllabic with assonant rhyme |
| Length | 1164 verses |
The Mocedades de Rodrigo is an anonymous Castilian cantar de gesta, composed around 1360, that relates the origins and exploits of the youth of the legendary hero El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar).
There are 1,164 surviving verses, preceded by an initial prose fragment. The only codex that contains the work is a manuscript from 1400 that is kept in the National Library of Paris. The text that has reached us lacks a title, and critics have variously titled the work Mocedades de Rodrigo or del Cid ("The youthful deeds of Rodrigo, the Cid"), Refundición de las Mocedades de Rodrigo ("A Recasting of the Youthful Deeds of Rodrigo"), Cantar de Rodrigo y el Rey Fernando ("Song of Rodrigo and King Fernando") and Crónica rimada del Cid ("The Rhyming Chronicle of El Cid").
Traditionally, the Mocedades has been valued more for its role in the history of literature that as literature itself. It generated a tradition of romances about the youth of El Cid that culminated in the French drama Le Cid by Pierre Corneille and the ensuing "Quarrel of the Cid".