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Thomas Montgomery
Everybody knew exactly what I was talking
about.
-Paul Simon
Nobody believes the claim made in our epigraph. Even if the speaker's assertions were trivial, and especially if they were not, each listener's interpretation was inevitably different from all others, de-
1 The concept of ritual adapted here is in accord with Cazeneuve 42-45. Ritual in
performance of the Poema del Cid is touched on by Gilman 11, clearly implied by
Castro, and mentioned by Miletich, "Oral" 184. Early religious functions of the
minstrel are noted by Men6ndez Pidal, Poesia 341, by Lord 66-67, 220-22, and in preChristian Northern Europe, by Faulhaber 97.
MLN, 108 (1993): 199-213 ? 1993 by The Johns Hopkins University Press
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characters are on display, perceived and known through their actions, externally-as performers-and they know each other in the
same way. The skillful presenter then has the opportunity to devise a
the text.
sented by the Poema del Cid, which, though largely fictional, takes on
in the text itself. The method, since we cannot share the experience
or the assumptions of the medieval audience, is to compare the text
with others, those most apt for the purpose-the few epic or quasi2 Jean Rychner has maintained that some French epics later than the Roland are
more oral than it in character, citing their lack of coherence (14, 17, 55) and of
originality (126) as evidence. But readings of La Chanson de Guillaume, Le Couronnement de Louis, and Doon de Mayence, all of the mid-twelfth century, some fifty years after
the Roland, can lead to another interpretation. Decadent touches in these chansons,
which prefigure the chivalresque novel, include, along with the defects noted by
Rychner, references by the jongleur to himself, sermons on the attributes of a good
king and on the good old days, court intrigues, a deal offered by the Pope to
Guillaume by which, if victorious, he can have all the wives he wants (Coronation
390-91), and a lengthy prayer begun by this same hero in the middle of a pitched
battle. Ong and Zumthor provide abundant criteria for identifying these elements as
post-oral.
3 Some clarification as to the orientation of this study may be in order. It is taken as
stance that would deny or downplay the effects of written adaptation of the poem. I
do maintain, though, that the written versions, except for the latest and least original
ones, were made by poets intimately familiar with oral tradition.
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201
4 An expertly researched recent article by Walsh brings out another kind of omission to be observed in the poem, that of significant information, which was undoubtedly supplied through gesture as the minstrel performed. Walsh also attributes certain of the poem's geographical inaccuracies to the matching of symmetries of content
Its effectiveness would depend on the size, make-up, and mood of the audience, on
poem have been De Chasca, Grieve, Gwara, and most ingeniously, Burshatin ("Docile," "Moor"). More metonymically slanted, without making the distinction explicit,
are Castro, Smith & Morris, Bly, Deyermond & Hook, while Darbord deals particularly with the metonym. Symbolic overtones are undoubtedly present in the poem,
but it is risky to turn essential and pressing realities of existence, such as buildings,
horses, or Moors, into something else-symbols or abstractions that begin to take on a
disembodied existence of their own. The argument here is that things are above all
what they are, that transferred meanings remain secondary, and that the poem itself
compels this kind of reading by its own avoidance of interpretative elaboration. Its
aim is to duplicate an (idealized) experience, rather than develop images or concepts
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Jakobson has implied that all verbal (and mental) associations are
either metaphorical, by resemblance, or metonymic, by nearness or
contact in space or time (or, in each case, by the opposite relation).
This powerful assumption provides a key to the peculiar idiom of
the Poema del Cid. Obviously, no narrative composition can be without both dimensions, though in some cases a strong bias toward one
or the other may be identifiable. Here it is taken as principle that all
verbal constructs may be analyzed in terms of metaphor and metonymy, operating together or separately.
Apt, original, colorful metaphor is of course a most effective tool
of expression, but it draws attention to itself and to the individual
who uses it, and it brings new problems to the task of judging the
truth value of an assertion. By presenting experience as conceived
through resemblances, it can easily make the author appear as the
creator or victim of ironies, caught in a network of discrepant selfimages-another distraction that can lead to unpredictable consequences (Bauml 95). Such interference between audience and textual message may not appear important to the self-conscious writer
or to the showy entertainer, but they may be avoided by the presenter intent upon conveying the concentrated, unequivocal message of
the anonymous though propagandistic epic. The few metaphors of
the Poema del Cid are unobtrusive, including cliches such as "treacherous dogs" applied to villains or "white as the sun" applied to women, and occasional expressions combining metaphor and metonymy
such as "my right arm" referring to a valued second in command, in
which the synechdoche (a class of metonym) "arm" is understood
through both tropes as a source of power, authority, and so on, and
pre-empts any need to introduce words denoting those abstractions.
Similarly, calling a man a "valiant sword" personifies (a metaphor)
the metonym "sword," contiguous to (not resembling) the man.
Again, the celebrated simile "like the nail from the flesh," glossing
the separation of family members, builds metaphoric sense on a
metonymic base. The poem's many uses of metonymy, from simple
tropes to the organization of scenes to larger narrative structure,
appear as authentic representations of habits of thinking (Montattending that experience. Its language thus supports "performance, [which] figures
experience, but at the same time it is experience [and] does not call for interpretation"
(Zumthor 187-88; emphasis his). For the interdependent realities of economics and
war, which would surely occupy an audience's mind much more than possible symbol-
ic values, see Vincens Vives 118, Lacarra 165-66, and the excellent treatment by
Duggan 16-42.
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203
like the poem's intended audience, accept the interpretation supinely. They even follow his recommendation to go to sleep for the
rest of the night. The technique is directly opposed to that of the Cid,
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back to give him a chill, which will recur later in battle as a token of
invincibility. So, in this rather decadent text, symbol and magic are
confused. As a further distraction, in the battle, when the chill is
urgently desired, its tardiness in arriving creates suspense. The Roland (which portrays "a social order whose matrix is literary" according to Vance 62), provides another kind of contrast, this time with
the direct, metonymic signifier (as the lance for the knight), when
enemy emissaries carry olive branches, an act that, we are informed,
"signifies ('senefiet') peace and humility" (line 73). The author obtrudes gently to read the arbitrary sign for us, displaying his bent for
abstractions and definitions.
the other epic works. While less clearly distinctive exclusions, they
also, if used, would interfere with the integrity of perception. Ferndn
Gonzalez and the Mocedades both begin with summaries of background history that supply a context of information but introduce
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205
perspectives other than those proper to the main story. Another less
disturbing source of diffuseness appears in shifts of attention to
characters who are not on the scene. Thus, Fernan Gonzalez comes
in for some unfavorable comment on the part of his vassals when
they are unable to locate him on the eve of a battle. In the Roland,
knights riding to battle think of the women at home. The prohibition against such distractions is partially relaxed in the Cid on occasions when messages travel between present and absent figures, and
in one instance when the poet listens in briefly on the king of Morocco (2499). Here integrity of stance is maintained by treating the alien
figure ironically, thereby holding to the viewpoint shared by the Cid,
audience-what we might call, recalling Dunn (111) and with deliberate geometrical imprecision, the circle of four.
Up to this point the elements found lacking in the text would have
belonged to the poet's voice: the language, style, and content. Other
"Rhetoric."
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delivers a rousing pre-battle harangue that meets with silent inaction on the part of all those present, until Rodrigo appears on the
scene. A primitive, impulsively reckless bravery marks the Infantes
de Lara and carries them to their destruction, but the virtue of
prudence is offered as an alternative in the person of a wise counselor whose warnings they scorn. In the Cid, prudence and valor are
not in conflict, and while well-justified doubts may arise as to future
the group. Still, the cautionary stances of the other poems are transcended by the Cid, in which the poem gains authority by bringing to
drawn with the two misfits, the Infantes de Carri6n. When faced
with danger they express fear plainly enough, but by indirection:
" jNon vere Carri6n!" (2289, also 2322), in an ironic metonym alluding to their property and accordingly to their social class. The divisive effects of fear now infect the narrative. The two relatives by
marriage of the Cid become objects of scorn among his followers.
His authority is thereby threatened and duplicities are generated,
producing ruptures in the group's cohesiveness that must be healed.
The developing situation recalls the Roland, in which the emperor
cannot control private disputes and feuds that lead to tragic destruction and failure. A symptom of the contentious atmosphere of this
poem is the number of insulting words, culvert 'ignoble man,' bricun
'rogue,' malvais hor de put aire 'evil man of vile origin,'fols 'foolish',
fels, felun 'villain,' vil 'vile.' The reader who comes to the Roland
already knowing the Cid is surprised to find words like these in an
epic. Traditional expressions of insult are used in the Cid as part of
formal challenges, but there is only one denigrating word comparable to those cited. As a curious reflection of French influence in
Spain and in Spanish epic, with the mixed reactions it provoked, the
word follon 'foolish braggart' is applied to a "franco," the foppish
Count of Barcelona (see also West). It has a French ring, with its
resemblance to fol and felun. With this exception, the Cid presents
personal defects through appearance and action, not by means of
descriptive adjectives.
The Cid and his men appear immune not only to the fear of battle,
but to its harsh effects: the terrible fatigue that overcomes combat-
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207
ants in other poems, the heat, and of course the injuries. The few
members of the Cid's force who become casualties are not given
names. The Roland provides the sharpest contrast, with its thousands who weep and swoon in the midst of battle, and its heroes who
are grotesquely mauled before finally being dispatched. The Infantes de Lara legend shows vivid appreciation of some of the cruel
realities of war. When the first of the seven brothers has been killed
in a battle, the survivors have to clean the dust off their faces before
they can identify each other and know who was lost. They succumb
to the enemy when they become too weary to lift their swords. The
Cid speaks graphically of blows and wounds suffered by the enemy,
even literally. Enemy blood drips from the heroic swordsman's elbow, but the verb used is destellar, applied in other early medieval
sources to honey from the comb, to myrrh, and to thejuice of leaves
(Menendez Pidal, Cantar 2:625), hardly comparable to the sticky,
dirty gore of the battlefield. Physical suffering is recounted in poign-
ant detail only when the hero's daughters are beaten and left for
dead in a wild place by their wretched husbands. Here the language
remains restrained, reflecting the sober fortitude of the women, and
But scenes of brutality, like those of the terror and butchery of war,
performer and his ego, and away from the message, the poem holds
to an exceptional integrity of view to create a powerful presence.8
7 Comparable warlike action in the Cid and Ferndn Gonzalez, for instance, or the
presence of the church, or shared verbal cliches, indicate that the two authors lived in
the same world, not that they took the same view of it.
8 "View" is an unsatisfactory term, but "viewpoint," which its implication of person-
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But the poem goes a step further along the same path. The presenter not only develops a special understanding with his audience
and a close identification with his hero. As will be shown below, he
makes the hero another performer, with his own set of collaborators,
strel's hearers.
threatening army of Moors. Their situation may be considered desperate, calling for a desperate solution. But it is not so presented. A
meeting is held to publicize a decision already known, since it was
inevitable under the circumstances, and for another purpose not
openly stated, to build morale and common agreement. Everyone is
free to form his own opinion, which, not paradoxically, will be that of
the poem, and especially prone to inaccuracy when aimed at essentializing a remote
complex of perceptions. As can happen in scientific investigation, the instrument of
observation or act of observation distorts the observed object.
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209
the group, for here as always the Cid's followers concur in his decisions. As they are free to agree, so is the minstrel's audience. The
circumstances will be reviewed in two complementary speeches, in
summary form, and with some overlap in content, as a ritual enactment would review representationally the essential conditions leading to the next action. The audience will take part.
A cabo de tres semanas, la quarta querie entrar,
Mio Cid con los sos torn6s' a acordar:
So ends the conference; the "first" rejoinder is also the last. The
two performers have said what any of their company would say, the
second echoing the first line by line. Only in his last remark does
the Cid give any sign that he is directing the ritual. As to freedom of
consider best." The original says more. Plazme is the normal formula
of assent to a request: 'it pleases me,' therefore 'I am pleased to do
so.' Its opposite, the formula of refusal, is "no quiero." The Cid
correctly expects his men's desires and acts to be one. The minstrel's
expectations of his audience are analogous.
Speaking and acting are again conceived as a unity in a memorable negative example. The Infantes face trial for their crime against
the Cid's daughters. The accusation and the defense rest on the
opposing values of two social groups. The Infantes claim their act
was justified by a difference in rank. The poem's value system reasserts itself in the set of challenges, culminating when Pero Bermudez, who has kept secret the cowardly flight of the elder Infante
before Valencia, now breaks his silence and concludes: "lengua sin
manos, ~cuemo osas fablar?" (3328) Truth is in action; the meto-
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a dramatic scene, the Cid and his group would have to be amazed
and outraged by this revelation of a well-kept secret, and a distractingly complex set of interactions within the group would be implied. The audience, too, would disintegrate into a number of indi-
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211
cultures, an artifact that reduces some aspects of reality to accentuate other aspects, that embodies a power handed down across generations, that assimilates the identities of audience, performer, and
narrative personages, the ruling metaphor that controls all others.9
As an artifact, it carries truth that transcends the need to convince.
9 "[In] traditional civilizations the figurations of the mask introduce the wearer
[and] its spectators at once into the mythical universe to which they aspire" (Zumthor
157). It would be tempting to quote Zumthor in extenso, given the remarkable sweep of
hisjudgments. The perspectives advanced in this paper are probably more in accord
with his than with those of any other critic. Still, this study is quite independent of
him, and is offered as essentially different in its use of the text as a point of departure,
in its comparative method, in its aim of concreteness, and in conclusions on points
such as the stylized mode of expression and its effects, the distillation of language, the
characters as performers, and the nature of performance.
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