One of my all-time favorite film epics is “El Cid,” perhaps because of the grand sweep of the story but also because it told of a great – and real – romance. Even after all these years, I remember crying at the end of it. Tons of tears, in fact.

When Lynn and I decided to go to Spain, I went running to my Atlas and history books. I bought a English/Spanish dictionary. I haunted the Internet. I’m a Capricorn, and I like to be prepared.

Because of the film,I already had a connection with Spain, and that was El Cid. I decided to renew my acquaintance with him and try to discover whether what I remembered had any relationship to reality.

To my delight, it did. Ed Cid is the national hero of Spain who, during the Middle Ages, reclaimed much of Spain from the Moors who had displaced the Goths who had defeated the Spaniards. It’s amazing to me that anyone is still alive in Europe after all the wars they endured.

According to El Cid’s real name was Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, but the Moors – the Saracens – called him El Cid,” or Lord. As a young man he lived in a time where many men spent their lives fighting and then it was between the Spaniards and the Moors who had been driven down to the middle of the country. El Cid was a subject of Fernando of Castile.

When Fernando had a dispute with the King of Aragon about a city they both claimed, they agreed to decide the matter by combat. Each was to choose a champion and the king whose champion won was to have the city. Fernando chose El Cid, and though the other champion was called the bravest knight in Spain, the youthful El Cid won. But Alphonzo, a son of Fernando, succeeded to the throne and because of jealousy banished him from Christian Spain.

Three hundred of his knights went with El Cid and they entered the land of the Moors. They reached the town of Alcocer and after a siege captured it and lived in it. The Moorish king of Valencia ordered two chiefs to take three thousand horseman, recapture the town and bring El Cid to him. El Cid and his 300 were besieged and famine threatened them. They decided the only way out was to cut their way through the army three thousand. Suddenly they poured from the gate of Alcocer and a terrible battle was fought. Two Moorish chiefs were taken prisoners and 1,300 of their men were killed in battle.

Alphonzo called El Cid from banishment and gave him seven castles and lands adjoining them. He needed the warrior’s help to defeat the Moors. El Cid attacked Toledo (one of the places Lynn and I will visit) and after a long siege the city fell and El Cid and his army marched across a great bridge built by the Moors.

The next objective was Valencia, one of the largest and richest cities in Moorish Spain. It was strongly fortified, but El Cid and his men besieged the city until the Governor went to El Cid and surrendered the keys. When the king of Morocco heard of this he raised an army of 50,000 men and laid siege to the city. But El Cid and his men routed them and pursued them for miles. It is aid that 15,ooo Moors drowned in the river which they tried to cross. El Cid was said to be kind and just to the Saracens who had become his subjects. They kept their mosques and were able to worship God as they thought right.

Then his health failed. He sent an army against the Moors but it was routed. And the Moors came after him.

There is a legend, portrayed in the film as well as historical accounts, that shortly before his death, he saw a vision of St. Peter who told him he would gain a victory over the Saracens after his death. He gave orders that after his death, his men would embalm him so he would appear alive. His body was clothed in a coat of mail and his sword placed in his hand. He was then mounted on his favorite horse and fastened in the saddle. At midnight, he was borne out of the gate of Valencia to where the Moorish army was camped. A guard of a thousand knights rode with him.

At daylight, the knights of El Cid attacked. The king awoke and, coming at him, were knights dressed in robs as white as snow and at their head rode a night, taller than all the rest, holding in his hand a snow white banner and in the other a sword which seemed of fire.

So afraid were the Moorish chief and his men that they fled into the sea and twenty thousand of them were drowned as they tried to reach their ships. There is Latin inscription near the tomb of El Cid which may be translated: Brave and unconquered, famous in triumphs of war, Enclosed in this tomb lies Roderick the Great of Bivar.”

The romance? He married the daughter of a man he killed. She was forced into the marriage by the king, but it turned into a love affair that lasted many years, and she was with him when he died.

I can’t wait to walk the some of the streets he once walked in Toledo. Medieval Toledo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of our trip includes a walking tour of the narrow cobbled streets of the city’s center with it Moorish-Mudejar-Jewish, Gothic and Renaissance architecture. I’ll have a complete report on our return.