ABSTRACT
The earliest literary work in Spanish, which is probably at the same time the earliest existing document in the language, is the Poema de Myo Cid, a short epic or chanson de geste of about four thousand lines. The language of the poem is rude and uncouth, a language struggling into existence. The Latin Chronicle is written in most barbarous language, and in verses of irregular length; its contents are of little interest, nor does it properly come under the heading of Spanish literature. As Spanish literature begins appropriately with a poem celebrating heroic deeds, so it continues with a body of religious verse, thus giving, as it were, a clue to the two sides of the national character. The Arabic and Spanish literature ran parallel for a time, but in distinctly separate channels, and it is only in rare translations or adaptations that their currents mingle.
