The critical reception of the Cantarde mio Cr'dmust be studied in two parts: first, the evolution of the epic itself, and how the story was retold in the Middle Ages and in later literary periods, and second, the reception of the epic by modern critics.

The Cid's heroic deeds were recorded in a Latin poem, entitled the Carmen Campidoctoris, around 1093, and in a shorter Latin chronicle, or historical document, the Historia Roderici, around 1110. Although other fragments of the story of the Cid exist in several chronicles, including the prose Primera Crdnica General, the Cantarde mio Cid is the only Spanish (Castilian) epic to have survived in near-entirety. A later text, written around 1250, bridges the gap between the epic and the romance tradition of literature: the Mocedades del Cid tells of the deeds of the Cid during his youth. This text is full of fanciful and romantic...