Monday, 19 March 2012

There Goes Another Illusion.

As a kid I loved historical epic films, and my stand-out favourite was El Cid.

‘If you cannot help me live, Jimena, you must help me die.’

Yeah! Great stuff. (Actually, I remember disliking that bit, but it’s the one quotation I remember so it must have had some sort of impact. I also remember finding the evil, scheming Queen Urraca infinitely more beautiful than the saintly heroine, Jimena, but that’s just me.)

So, anyway...

Tonight, all these years on and all those battles of my own fought in the interim, I finally got around to googling El Cid to get the real story. And do you know what? His full title was El Cid Campeador, which is Spanish for ‘Sidney the gay bullfighter.’

Bit of a let down, that.

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