A Celebration of Reason and Judgment
Song of the Cid is an epic poem about bravery, nobility and chivalry. Heroic epics are usually about heroes that must use great strength—perhaps even superhuman power—to overcome equally superhuman villains. El Cid is just a man…with a man’s courage and valor. His villains are as about as far from Ming the Merciless as they are from the Cyclops and the Sirens. In fact, one might even suggest that El Cid faces down a surprisingly weak and ineffectual sort of villain. Or, more appropriately, one might argue that El Cid faces down a more realistic sort of villain. Judgment and reason—mixed together with more than a fair helping of loyalty from trusted companions just when it is needed—mark the Cid’s song of celebration.
Loyalty as Nobility
The loyalty cuts both ways and when applied to El Cid, it heightens and intensifies the sense of nobility that drives his character. A predominant theme running throughout the story of the Cid’s path to Pentecostal redemption and honor in death is his loyalty to a Lord who really may not be entirely deserving of such devotion. The boundless faithfulness to this Lord and the Cid’s commitment to getting back into his good graces drives the entire narrative and in the process transforms his allegiance into something far nobler than mere loyalty.
The Purchase of Redemption
Economics drives everything and this is just as true during the Middle Ages in Spain as it is in the capitalist economy of 21st century America. If you want to gain favor for a President, you compliment and give him a pretty Faberge egg from Moscow. If you want are El Cid and want to gain favor with King Alfonso after being banished, you send back all the booty and spoils of war you can. This plan works out just as favorably for the Cid as it would for anyone happening to come across a Faberge egg in the 21t century. Redemption always comes at a high price and the cost for the Cid is more than just shows of bravery and loyalty. The redemption of the Cid that sending back the gains of victory gains him is not in the eyes of the Lord, of course, so much as it is in the eyes a Lord, His Lord Alfonso, King of Leon.
Courage
While it is true that for most of the narrative El Cid is not superhuman like so many other epic heroes, there is one particular moment that cements forever the theme that courage in the face of overwhelming odds is of huge significance. That courage should be a running theme in which this moment is realized with a bizarre and unlikely scene involving a lion may well have had some impact on The Wizard of Oz,: the Cid actually is able to physically intimidate a lion and catch and imprison the king of the beasts all by his lonesome. The moment sticks out like a sore thumb from the relative realism that permeates through the rest of the tale which only goes to highlight why it should be taken out of context and portrayed more as thematically relevant than narratively essential.
