In medieval Castile, where honor burns hotter than sword steel, a young warrior named Rodrigo Díaz falls impossibly in love with Ximena, daughter of his father's bitter enemy. Antonio de Trueba weaves their forbidden affection against the blood-feud between the houses of Lainez and Gormaz into a tapestry of tender longing and violent consequence. The Cid Campeador, Spain's most legendary hero, must navigate not just the battlefield renown that will earn him his name, but the far more treacherous terrain of the heart. At the glittering court of King Fernando I, where victory feasts mask deadly intrigue, young Rodrigo and Ximena cling to a childhood sweetness now poisoned by their fathers' ancient grudge. Trueba, writing in the romantic fervor of 1852 Spain, renders medieval legend with passionate immediacy, giving us a hero who conquers armies but cannot conquer his own desire. This is historical romance at its most evocative: a tale of love that defies family, honor that demands sacrifice, and the making of a legend from the furnace of forbidden passion.
