96 THE DESCENT OF BALLADS

they have reproduced in their prose the matter of the epic poems.
The assurance is doubled by the copious traces of versification still
visible in the prose; it is almost always possible to pick out the
assonances. The kernel of the legend seems to have been a disaster
in which a Moorish frontier chieftain and his sons perished in 972.
The epic story concerns a Christian family, and presents other
points of difference from the historical facts; but the relations sup-
posed to be normal between Moors and Christians are such as were
terminated in 975, when Al-Mansur took over personally the con-
duct of the frontier wars. The original 'cantar de gesta' must have
arisen in the last quarter of the tenth or the first half of the eleventh
century; it is reproduced in the First General Chronicle (1289).
The conclusion of the tale is a work of imagination, however
historical the first part may be; it is a tale of revenge which invites
amplification. From one chapter in the First General Chronicle it
swelled to four in the Second (1344); and its aggrandizement con-
tinued until, in 1834, the revenge became the whole story.1 The
new details arise out of the old, but are not compatible with them.
They are a new conclusion, and a conclusion in verse, as we learn
from the numerous assonances in new series. It is clear, then, that
for the Infantes de Lara a new redaction arose between 1289 and
1344, more romanesque and circumstantial, less tragk and more
pathetic, with humorous touches and a greater geographical spread.
It is this epic which is represented in the ballads, probably by
immediate descent.

Lastly, the ballads of the Cid amount to more than two hundred
and cover the ground of three epic poems: the Mocedades or youth-
ful feats, of which the Rodrigo is a debased form, the Siege of
Zaniora (lost), and the Poem or feats of his maturity. For our
present purpose the Cid ballads prove disappointing. Only twice
is it possible to attempt a comparison, and the comparison reveals
differences which force the critic to take refuge in fresh hypotheses.
The theme was doubtless too popular. It invited improvisation,
since it could count on an interested acceptance; new ballads drove
out^the old, so that the whole cycle seems relatively modern and
arbitrary.

When we transfer our glance from Spain to the Germanic North,
we encounter more evidence that traditional epics have provoked
the rise of epical ballads. The contact is less intimate than in

1 Don Angel de Saavedra, Duque de Rivas, El Moro Expdsito, Paris, 1834.