The deeds of such a man naturally appealed to popular imagination, and it is not wonderful that there were substantial accretions that less than a hundred years later found their way into the Epic. Within an astonishingly short time the purely traditional elements of the marriage of the Cid's daughters and the Parliament at Toledo became its central theme. It is probable that such a vital change was not entirely due to conscious art in a poet whose distinguishing characteristic is his very unconsciousness. From his minute familiarity with the topography of the country about Medina and Gormaz, his affection for St. Stephen's, his utter lack of accuracy in his description of the siege of Valencia and from the disproportionate prominence given to such really insignificant episodes as the sieges of Castejón and Alcocer, Pidal has inferred that the unknown poet was himself a native of this region and that his story of the life of the Cid is the product of local tradition. [3] Moreover there is abundant evidence to prove that before the composition of the poem as it has come down to us, the compelling figure of the Cid had inspired other chants of an heroic if not epic nature. [3] Cid, 1, 72-73. From this vigorous plant patriotic fervor and sympathetic imagination caused to spring a perennial growth of popular legends. The "General Chronicle of Alphonso the Wise," begun in 1270, reflects the national affection for the very chattels of the Cid. it relates that Babiéca passed the evening of his life in ease and luxury and that his seed flourished in the land.