The poem reiterates the campaigns of Fernán González against the
Moors, his wars against the
Kingdom of Navarre, his debates with the
King of León, and his protection of San Pedro de Arlanza, where he was eventually buried. Fernán's ability to keep Castile out of the reach of the Moors, however, is most heavily stressed. The poem is designed to present Fernán as the legitimate ruler of all Spain and thus justify Castilian supremacy in the poet's own day. The opening lines express the poet's own desire:
En el nonbre del Padre que fizo toda cosa,
el que quiso nasçer de la Virgen preçiossa,
del Spiritu Santo que es ygual de la espossa,
del conde de Castilla quiero façer vna prossa.
In the name of the Father who made everything,
[of] he who wished to be born of the precious Virgin,
[and] of the Holy Ghost who is equal those already mentioned,
about the count of Castile I wish to make a prose song.
Despite this strong ideological bent, the author was not well aware of the historical details. Very little about Fernán González has been conserved in writing and most of the stories about him were transmitted orally, developing into legend in the process. The Poema itself is conserved in only one fifteenth-century
manuscript, where the mentality and language of the work attest to its thirteenth-century origins.
Text
Complete text at La Manticora: Revista de Textos Medievales.
Bibliography
Avalle-Arce, Juan B. "El Poema de Fernan González: Clerecía y juglaría." Philological Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 51 (Jan., 1972), pp. 60–74.
Chalon, Louis. "L'effondrement de l'Epagne visigothique et l'invasion musulmane selon le Poema de Fernán González." Anuario de estudios medievales, Vol. 9 (1974–79), pp. 351–362.
Duque, Adriano. Política y memoria en el Poema de Fernán González. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 2017.
García de la Fuente, O. "Estudio del léxico bíblico del Poema de Fernán González." Analecta Malacitana, Vol. 1 (1978), pp. 5–68.
Garrido Moraga, A. M. "Ensayo de ordenación conceptual del léxico en el Poema de Fernán González," parts I–III. Analecta Malacitana, Vol. 8–9 (1985–86).
Garrido Moraga, A. M. "El Poema de Fernán González como objeto semiótico." Analecta Malacitana, Vol. 9 (1986), pp. 265–280.
Gimeno Casalduero, Joaquín. "Sobre la composición del Poema de Fernán González." Anuario de estudios medievales, Vol. 5 (1968), pp. 181–207.