A partir del decorum y el ethos heroico, se analiza la figura del Cid, heroe "objective and human, not supernatural" (p. 41), por oposicion al personaje de la Chanson de Roland, y se pone en relacion con la etica caballeresca impulsada en las Partidas. Desde este punto de vista, "Rather than heroic, we might call the Cantar's ethos proto-chivalric" (p. 50). A favor de esta hipotesis, se comentan la investidura en el poema, las mujeres como espectadoras de la toma de Valencia, representacion de la idea de que el amor aumenta el valor del heroe, etc. en cuya configuracion se siente la deuda "of chivalry in France from the mid-twelfth century. The part of this argument that has to do with dating is not very significant, except for one corollary; if the version preserved in Per Abbat's copy was composed or compiled c. 1200 but drew on an earlier poetic tradition going back to 1148 or earlier, then this hypothetical original must have differed in significant respects from the extant Cantar —not only in the passages discussed above, but its whole ethos and denouement" (p. 56)

Lugar de publicacion original: London