Bernardo del Carpio (also spelled Bernaldo del Carpio) is a legendary hero of the medieval Spain. Until the end of the nineteenth century and the labors of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, he, not El Cid, was considered to have been the chief hero of medieval Christian Spain and was believed to be a historical person. His factual existence has been defended in the later 20th century, although the Spanish government has not designated him to be historical.

thumb|Bernardo del Carpio

The story

The earliest form of the legend of Bernardo is found in the Chronicon mundi of Lucas of Tuy (1236), followed closely by the Historia Gothica of Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada (1243) and the Primera Crónica General (1270).

According to the form of the legend found in the 13th-century chronicles, Bernardo was the son of the secret marriage of Sancho Díaz, count of Saldaña, and Jimena, daughter of King Alfonso II of Asturias (), although rumour had it that his mother was Timbor, sister of the Frankish king Charlemagne. He was born early in his grandfather Alfonso's reign, but when the king learned of the illicit marriage he had Sancho imprisoned and Jimena placed in a convent. Bernardo was raised in the royal court.

In the opening of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes has the protagonist especially admiring Bernardo because he crushed Roland with his arms alone, although the context is clear that Quixote is placing too much credence in the fantastic stories of romance.

Cervantes referred to one of his works as "the Bernardo". This uncompleted work is lost, as are almost all of Cervantes's manuscripts. Daniel Eisenberg has proposed that in Cervantes's Spain a book about a " Bernardo" must have been about Bernardo del Carpio. In contrast with Roland/Orlando, Bernardo was a Spanish hero, a national hero, and Cervantes was much in favor of celebrating Spanish heroes, or celebrating them more.

References

Further reading

  • Burton, David. The Legend of Bernardo del Carpio: From Chronicle to Drama.
  • Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James. Chapters on Spanish Literature. Glasgow: Good Press, 2019, at pp. 49–56.
  • Asociación cultural Bernardo del Carpio
  • Bernardo Del Carpio at heritage-history.com