Search results for " Charlemagne"

From Emperor to Pawn: Charlemagne in the Orlando Furioso

2023

In Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516, 1521, 1532), Charlemagne is mentioned in the very first stanza of the poem (line 8) and gives the historical background to the poem’s matter. The carolingian context of the poem’s paladins has always been given for granted and related to the matter of arms as opposed to the connection between the matter of Britain and loves: therefore, Charlemagne’s name is chiefly associated to the most epic and official moments in the narrative – he takes action to solve the contest between Orlando and Rinaldo (1.7), giving birth to the narrative machine of the poem, prays the Christian God before the battle (14.69), fights valorously at the siege of Paris (15-…