First Cantar

The unique manuscript of the Cantar de mio Cid is missing its first folio (manuscript page), and so the poem begins by describing the Cid's reaction to the news of his banishment. From contemporary Latin histories and from a note later in the poem (laisse 9), we discover that the reason for the Cid's banishment is the accusation by King Alfonso VI that the Cid had embezzled money collected from the Moors for the king. This is the second time that Alfonso banished the Cid, and the missing folio might have described this event. The manuscript text itself begins by showing the Cid weeping when he leaves his home village, Vivar, and enters Burgos, a town to the south. He sees crows flying and interprets them as an omen of his ill fortune. The townspeople of Burgos watch him ride by with his ally, Minaya Alvar Fanez...