Romances de la frontera, 1

The border romances, developed during the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, expose the prolonged coexistence of Moors and Christians in Andalusia at that time, facing each other again and again in different types of conflicts and with diverse results. In many cases, the wording of the ballads clearly shows how close these events were, since frequently the events disclosed were still very recent. A good part of the border romances are thus considered news romances, in such a way that, being literature, this poetry is also history, to the point that quite a few of them are of interest to historians, and at that time they informed the chroniclers of the events that occurred. . For the people, the romances served to know what was happening or had happened, and they were spread in song because the vast majority of people did not know how to read.