This objection applies equally to Charles V. Aubrun's recent speculations in «Le PMC, alors et à jamais», PQ, LI (1972), 12-22. Von Richthofen is, on the other hand, aware of the problem, and distinguishes between the reworking of a poem and the use of sources (94).

For example: the Gormaz poet's tiradas are short, therefore a very long tirada early in the poem must be a reworking by the Medinaceli poet.

It will be noted that Myers, who began by believing in the dual-authorship theory (83), has concluded after more detailed investigation that PMC is probably the work of only one poet.

We must, of course, remember that if Lord and others are right in thinking that PMC was orally composed, the debate over dual authorship becomes meaningless, since composition and performance would, as with the modern Yugoslav singers, have been a single act; dual authorship would thus imply either a duet or antiphonal chant.

Cf. the attribution of PMC to Diego García de Campos, Chancellor of Castile and author of the Latin Planeta (1218), in M. Alonso's edition of Planeta (Madrid, 1943).

Some recent investigators, e. g. Michael, 77, have modified this conclusion by querying Menéndez Pidal's date of 1307 for the MS, and regarding Per Abbat as the scribe of the 1207 MS from which the extant MS was copied.

This is not the only section of PMC which owes something to the liturgy: Ximena's prayer as the Cid goes into exile belongs to a tradition of narrative prayers which derive from the Ordo commendations animae; see also 30 p. 60n.

A close examination of the Cid's instructions to his lieutenant on these two occasions suggests that the cathedral may have been more important, in the poet's view, than the monastery. It is remarkable that -as Horrent, 55 pp. 609-10, emphasizes- the extant text of the poem does not mention the Cid's burial at Cardeña. A possible explanation is offered by Russell, 100 pp. 73-6. For further support for composition in the Burgos area, see Michael, 76.

Russell, «Where Was Alcocer? (CMC, 1. 553-861)», in 1930-1955. Homenaje a J. A. van Praag (Amsterdam: Plus Ultra, 1956), pp. 101-7, concludes -mistakenly, as one can now see- that Alcocer is unlikely to have been where the poet says.

Cf. Rhys Carpenter, Folk Tale, Fiction and Saga in the Homeric Epics (Sather Classical Lectures, XX, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1946; repr. 1962), pp. 34-8. Rubio García also deals with geography, 98 pp. 13-22. This section of the present article is based on observations made during a visit to Cidian sites in 1971, to which the Central Research Fund of the University of London made a financial contribution.