The Cid and the Five Moorish Kings
With fire and desolation the Moors are in Castile Five Moorish kings together, and all their vassals leal; They've passed in front of Burgos, through the Oca-Hills they’ve run, They've…
From: 1043 C.E. To: 1099 C.E.
Location: Castile and León, Spain
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Ancient Spanish Ballads by J. G. Lockhart.
The Cid and the Five Moorish Kings
The reader will find the story of this ballad in Mr. Southey's Chronicle (Book 1., Sect. 4.) 'And the Moors entered Castile in great power, for there came with them five kings &c.
With fire and desolation the Moors are in Castile
Five Moorish kings together, and all their vassals leal;
They've passed in front of Burgos, through the Oca-Hills they’ve run,
They've plundered Belforado, San Domingo's harm is done.
In Najara and Logrono there's waste and disarray:
And now with Christian captives, a very heavy prey,
With many men and women, and boys and girls beside.
In joy and exultation to their own realms they ride.
For neither king nor noble would dare their path to cross
Until the good Rodrigo heard of this skaith and loss;
In old Bivar the castle he heard the tidings told
(He was as yet a stripling, not twenty summers old.)
He mounted Bavieca, his friends he with him took,
He raised the country round him, no more such scorn to brook;
He rode to the hills of Oca, where then the Moormen lay,
He conquered all the Moormen, and took from them their prey.
To every man had mounted he gave his part of gain.
Dispersing the much treasure the Saracens had ta'en;
The kings were all the booty himself had from the war.
Them led he to the castle, his stronghold of Bivar.
He brought them to his mother, proud dame that day was she:
They owned him for their Signior, and then he set them free;
Home went they, much commending Rodrigo of Bivar,
And sent him lordly tribute, from their Moorish realms afar.
Lockhart, J. G. Ancient Spanish Ballads. Wiley and Putnam, 1842.
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