ABSTRACT
Now that the long war had at last come to an end, the Cid had an opportunity to send for his wife and three children, Diego, Christina and Maria. History relates that Jimena and her children accompanied the Cid on his second exile, when he fought in the regions of Denia and Valencia; and there is no doubt that Jimena resided in Valencia itself after the conquest. Thus, bearing in mind that the Spanish jongleurs are to a great extent historians, we may readily accept the early poet’s account of the journey Doña Jimena now made to join her husband. Only in the Poem are we privileged to hear an echo of the private life of the men of those days and discover precise details of the country through which the journey was made and in which the Cid of history was operating. We propose, therefore, to give a summary of verses 1308 to 1600 of the Poema del Cid and would remind our readers that the ancient minstrels wrote to entertain as well as to instruct the public (“ad recreationem et forte ad informationem”).
