I. El destierro
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«, . . , . , . . , .»
An A2 adaptation of the medieval epic
Cantar de mio Cid El Cantar de mio Cid
Anonymous epic poem
This is a MovaReader retelling in simple Spanish, not the original poem: an adaptation for readers who already know the past tenses and want the whole story of the Cid. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,150 words, 10 words per sentence on average. Ten chapters follow the three parts of the epic, composed around 1200 and copied by Per Abbat in 1207: from the exile from Burgos to the Cortes of Toledo and the last marriages.
- A2
- 5 151 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses will stop you: the narration runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (salió, dijo, miraba, tenía), at 10 words per sentence on average.
A1A2
This text
You can manage it at A2: sentences are short, the story stays in the past tenses you know, and medieval words like destierro or lagar are explained by the text itself.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 the retelling reads with room to spare, almost without translation: in about an hour you get through the whole story before turning to the B1 shelf, where the adaptations run at 11-12 words per sentence.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words: the story is told in the past, with events in the pretérito indefinido and background in the imperfecto, and almost a quarter of the words are the characters’ lines in quotation marks. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 32 words, and the commonest are desterrado, cristianos and destierro. The medieval words the story cannot do without are explained by the text itself: un lagar, una gran máquina de madera donde se hace el vino. The difficulty is even: each of the 10 chapters has 9-11 words per sentence. The catalog’s A1 stories run at 5-7 words per sentence and its B1 adaptations at 11-12, while the other A2 books stand at 8-10, such as Don Quijote and Lazarillo de Tormes at 10. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 151
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid, is sent into exile by King Alfonso after false accusations. In Burgos nobody dares open a door to him except a girl of nine, who tells him to go on his way, and he camps on the sand by the river with about sixty men. His friend Martín Antolínez finds a way to raise money with two chests full of sand, and the Cid leaves his wife Jimena and his daughters Elvira and Sol in the convent of San Pedro de Cardeña. Castejón, Alcocer and the count of Barcelona fall to his men, then comes Valencia, a pardon from the king and marriages for the daughters with the infantes de Carrión. A lion, a battle and a night in an oak wood put the family’s honor to the test. How the story ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
El Cantar de mio Cid
III. Castejón y Alcocer
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«¡ !», . «¡ ! ¡ !»
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Choose an underlined word.
A door nobody opens
The Cid reaches Burgos and finds the inn closed: Estaba cerrada, y aunque llamó con fuerza, nadie contestó. Estaba is the imperfecto, a state that goes on, and llamó is the pretérito indefinido, one action: “it was closed” and “he knocked”. The girl speaks to the Cid with tú: escúchame, ayudarte, sigue tu camino. Escúchame is “listen to me”, a command with the pronoun me. Que Dios te ayude is a set phrase, “may God help you”. In perdemos nuestras casas y hasta los ojos, hasta means “even”: “and even our eyes”.
Pretending to leave
The Cid tricks the Moors of Alcocer: fingió que se iba, “he pretended to leave”, with the imperfecto, because he never really goes. Dio órdenes de recoger las tiendas y marcharse: after órdenes de the verbs stay in the infinitive, “orders to pack up the tents and leave”. Los cristianos se retiraban: the imperfecto shows what the Moors saw while it was happening. ¡Vamos tras ellos! is “let’s go after them”. Había planeado todo: había + participle is the pluperfect, “had planned”, an action that came before the others.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates whole sentences, and here that helps most where the poem plays with a contrast, as when the people of Burgos watch the Cid ride by: ¡Qué buen vasallo es, y qué mal señor tiene!
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold in simple Spanish the anonymous Cantar de mio Cid, an epic poem composed around 1200 and known from a manuscript copied by Per Abbat in 1207. The language and form have changed: the poem’s verses became prose in modern Spanish, in the past tenses, at 10 words per sentence on average, in 10 chapters and about 5,150 words. The order of the three parts is kept: the exile, the weddings and the affront of Corpes. The Cid’s smaller raids and embassies are shortened, and some scenes are merged. The catalog does not have the complete poem.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears next to it; here that will mostly be words from the Middle Ages, such as juglar, vasallo, destierro or lagar.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. Here they are short, 10 words on average, so you will seldom need one translated: mostly the characters’ own turns of speech, like ¡Qué buen vasallo es, y qué mal señor tiene! or Esto es por lo del león. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes about 1 hour at the pace of someone who still translates new words. A chapter averages about 515 words, or 5-9 minutes of reading, so one evening easily covers the whole story.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is fairly even: the chapters run at 9-11 words per sentence. Long words vary more: in chapters I, V and VI about one word in 44 has 9 letters or more, while in chapters III and IV, about the first battles and the count of Barcelona, it is one in 22, with words like cristianos, desterrado and Barcelona.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader remembers where you stopped, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say VIII, “El león”, where the third part of the poem begins.