SOURCE: Miletich, John S. “Folk Literature, Related Forms, and the Making of the Poema de mio Cid.” La Corónica 15, no. 2 (spring 1987): 186-96.

In the following excerpt, Miletich critiques Colin Smith's seminal study of the Cantar de mio Cid, pointing out that more attention needs to be paid to the folk traditions that may have influenced the poem.

There is a great deal to applaud in Colin Smith's The Making of the Poema de Mio Cid¹ (not the least of which is his vast erudition), particularly if one has argued for the written composition of the Poema de Mio Cid. However, that it was, as Smith states, “the first epic to be composed in Castilian … and that it did not depend on any precedents or existing tradition of epic verse in Castilian or other Peninsular language or dialect” makes his recent book, as he himself states, a bold...