Posted
on July 10, 2015
It
always seems odd to me to celebrate the anniversary of the death of a
hero, but that is what can happen when people don't know the exact
birthday of the hero – but they DO know the date of death.
That
may be what happened in this case – but, to be honest, I am
surprised that historians know the day of his death! For one thing,
it was a truly long time ago – 1099 – and for another thing, the
cause of death is a bit iffy; we think he died from lack of
food and other hardships caused by a Muslim Berber siege of the city
where El Cid was living, at the time, Valencia, Spain.
El
Cid means “the Lord” in the language of the Moors. El Cid was
called “El Campeador (“the Champion”) by Christians, and his
real name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. Diaz was born to the lower
echelon of nobility in Castile, and he became a famous military
leader. From what I could tell, he fought against Muslims and
Christians alike; he fought against the brothers of his own ruler
(because people did that then, the history seems to suggest) in order
to make the Castilian lands larger; later he fought FOR Moorish
rulers in Zaragoza; he fought a lot a lot a lot.
He
wouldn't have been a great hero if he hadn't won almost all of those
fights. But win he did!
Even
though Diaz was a real person, El Cid became a legend as well as a hero of Castile. Romanticized
versions of his life have been told and retold in plays and movies,
folk tales and books, songs and video games.
Isn't it nice that, these days, most of us have heroes who are sports stars and artists, actors and musicians, rather than soldiers and military leaders?
Also
on this date:
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Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
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here are my Pinterest boards for:
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