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517....there was a sound which had never before been heard in the armies of Europe: drums. The drummers of Africa built up a thunderous roar, and the sound was not without effect on the Christians; some of them thought the earth was shaking. ...They were disastrously defeated, and King Alfonso himself barely escaped. That same night Yusuf had all the Christian corpses beheaded and the heads piled up into hills, from whose tops at dawn his muezzins summoned the troops to prayer.
Poem of the Cid, Texto Espanol de R.M. Pidal, trans. by W.S. Merwin, A Mentor Classic, The New American Library, New York, 1962, p. 16-17.
PLACE: Spain
TIME: Eleventh century
CIRCUMSTANCE: A battle between Moors and Christians on October 23, 1055 near Badajoz, Spain.
They laid a great banquet for the good Campeador.
They clanged and pealed the bells of San Pedro.
Through all Castile the cry goes:
"He is leaving the land, My Cid the Campeador."
Poem of the Cid, Texto Espanol de R.M. Pidal, trans. by W.S. Merwin, A Mentor Classic, The New American Library, New York, 1962, p. 59.
PLACE: Spain
TIME: Eleventh century
CIRCUMSTANCE: A hundred Castilians gather in Burgos to join Cid. Church bells signal the occasion of a big banquet.
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