1.1.18
Don Quixote 1.1.18 · The Cid and the Knight of the Burning Sword1.1.18The Cid and the Knight of the Burning Sword
He ranks the heroes he has read about. A real Spanish hero comes second to an invented one.
· · ·
Decía1
de·CÍ·a
saidused to say
él2
él
he
que3
que
that
el4
el
the
Cid5
cid
Cidlord
Ruy6
ruy
Ruy
Díaz7
DÍ·az
Díaz
había8
ha·BÍ·a
had
sido9
SI·do
been
muy10
muy
a very
buen11
buen
good
caballero12
ca·ba·LLE·ro
knight
, pero13
PE·ro
but
que14
que
that
no15
no
nonot
tenía16
te·NÍ·a
washad
que17
que
(a)that
ver18
ver
matchto see
con19
con
forwith
el20
el
the
Caballero21
ca·ba·LLE·ro
Knight
de22
de
of
la23
la
the
Ardiente24
ar·DIEN·te
Burning
Espada25
es·PA·da
Sword
, que26
que
who
de27
de
with
sólo28
SÓ·lo
justonly
un29
un
one
revés30
re·VÉS
backstrokereverse
había31
ha·BÍ·a
had
partido32
par·TI·do
cutsplit
por33
por
downthrough
medio34
ME·dio
the middle
dos35
dos
two
fieros36
FIE·ros
fierce
y37
y
and
descomunales38
des·co·mu·NA·les
monstrousenormous
gigantes39
gi·GAN·tes
giants
. He used to say that the Cid Ruy Díaz had been a very good knight, but that he was no match for the Knight of the Burning Sword, who with one backstroke had cut down the middle two fierce and monstrous giants.
He used to say that the Cid Ruy Díaz had been a very good knight, but that he was no match for the Knight of the Burning Sword, who with one backstroke had cut down the middle two fierce and monstrous giants.
Interpretation
He used to say that the Cid Ruy Díaz had been a very good knight, but that he could not compare with the Knight of the Burning Sword, who with a single backstroke had sliced two fierce, monstrous giants clean in half.
The Cid was real. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar fought for and against the kings of Castile in the eleventh century, took Valencia in 1094, and became the national hero of the oldest Spanish epic, the Cantar de mio Cid. His title comes from Arabic sayyid, "lord".
The Knight of the Burning Sword is Amadís de Grecia, a great-grandson of Amadís de Gaula, born with a red sword-shaped mark on his chest. He comes from Amadís de Grecia (1530) by Feliciano de Silva, the very author whose tangled sentences the gentleman loved a few passages back. So the madman puts a writer of invented giants above the history of his own country.
1.1.19
Don Quixote 1.1.19 · Bernardo, Roland and the giant Morgante1.1.19Bernardo, Roland and the giant Morgante
He goes on ranking the heroes of the romances and the old ballads, with his reasons.
· · ·
He was fonder of Bernardo del Carpio, because at Roncesvalles he had killed Roland the Enchanted, using the trick of Hercules when he strangled Antaeus, the son of the Earth, in his arms. He spoke very well of the giant Morgante, because, though he was of that race of giants, who are all proud and rude, he alone was friendly and well-mannered.