A Chivalric Anomaly? Tactical Deception in the Cantar de Mio Cid

The Cantar de Mio Cid is rightly considered to be one of the most noteworthy literary texts of medieval Spain. Despite the vast number of studies published on a myriad of subjects relating to the Cantar, the topic of military deception and ruses, as it appears in the text, has not received enough attention, especially considering its peculiarity when compared to other contemporary chivalric texts. This article attempts to address this issue by comparing the Cantar’s depictions of El Cid’s employment of deception and ruses to vanquish his enemies with similar incidents from twelfth and thirteenth century chansons de geste while considering their potential influence on the production and characteristics of the Cantar. The similarities and discrepancies are addressed through the prism of medieval chivalric literature and the social and cultural influence of a frontier society in medieval Iberia.