The poem begins conventionally, with the poet confessing his unworthiness to sing of such a hero as El Cid, and moves quickly through his subject's youth, his early triumph over the champion from Navarre, and his loyal service to Sancho II of Castile and Alfonso VI of León.

[5] The Carmen also contains the earliest description of the Cid's ancestry, describing him as Nobiliori de genere ortus / Quod in Castello non est illo maius: "He sprung from a more noble family, there is none older than it in Castile."

The Carmen was probably written by supporters of Ramon to celebrate his brother's defeat at the hands of the Cid, on the eve of civil war in Catalonia.

3Tanti victoris nam si retexere ceperim cunta, non hec libri mille capere possent, Omero canente, sumo labore.

6Hoc fuit primum singulare bellum cum adolescens devicit Navarrum; hinc campi doctor dictus est maiorum ore virorum.

7Iam portendebat quid esset facturus, comitum lites nam superatus, regias opes pede calcaturus ense capturus.

Already he was foreshadowing what he was (later) to perform: for he would defeat the strivings of counts, trample beneath his feet and capture with his sword the wealth of kings.