The Story Archive

Orlando Innamorato

Matteo Maria Boiardo · 1483 CE · Poem · Italian · Renaissance

Angelica rides into Charlemagne's Pentecost court at Paris with a brother, a challenge and a ring that can turn her invisible, and Orlando — the one paladin the old chansons never permitted to be in love — goes east after her while the Saracen host masses against France. Merlin's two fountains keep reversing who wants whom, enchanted gardens hold knights who have forgotten their errands, and a young Saracen champion is being kept from the war his lineage says he will decide. Boiardo grafted the Arthurian love-quest onto the Carolingian war matter for the Este court at Ferrara and broke off in mid-canto at his death, at the point Ariosto's continuation begins.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
EpicRomanceFantasy
Theme
LoveJourney & QuestWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorObsessionFame & Glory
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Knight-ErrantSorceressHeroineLoverMagician
Plot structure
EpisodicThe QuestThe ChaseIn Medias Res
Symbol / motif
The ForestThe SwordTalisman / CharmThe Garden
Conflict
vs Personvs Selfvs Supernatural
Mode / tone
EpicRomanticMythic
Culture / tradition
Italian

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