Spain produced a rich store of epic narratives presented orally before eager audiences for centuries. Yet most of the evidence is found in prose chronicles and not in verse manuscripts. The earliest example is a brief passage in Latin detailing some of the protagonists of an epic tale that would appear later in manuscript form as theChanson de Roland. Known to scholars as theNota Emilianense, the passage dates from 1075 and is an early indicator of the popularity of epic narratives in northern Spain (Alonso 1954, 9). Carolingian themes continue to appear prominently in historical chronicles and ballads...

1Pelayo. The semi-legendary Christian chieftain who, in the eighth century, started the Reconquest, the wars against the Moors, which would eventually end, nearly eight centuries later, with the surrender of the last Moorish kingdom of Granada. Pelayo’s first victory was at Covadonga in Asturias, and his descendants became rulers of León, the dominant Christian kingdom in the first centuries of the Reconquest. The text begins with Pelayo to trace the ancestry of its two youthful protagonists Fernando and Rodrigo. Fernando was first count of Castile (1029–65) and later won for himself the kingdom of León (1037–65), while...