Orlando Furioso is an Italian poem written in the 1500s. Yes, I'm aware it's a weird flex to try to sell Classics on a fandom blog, but if Arthuriana fans can still be thriving in this holy year of 2024 then damn it I'm gonna get people to care about my obscure myths as well.
But first, some context on Carolingian myths
So you know Arthurian myths, right? A bunch of stories loosely centered around King Arthur and/or his knights. These myths have no true "canon" as these stories have often been written at completely different time periods, gratuitously contradicting each other depending on what value the author was trying to promote at the time.
As with Arthurian myths, explaining what Carolingian myths are about is tricky, as none of them really agree on anything at all. Generally speaking though, these myths often center either Charlemagne or his paladins (he has twelve of them, though who exactly those twelve lads are change from myth to myth.)
Carolingian myths, unlike Arthurian myths, are pretty hard to find nowadays, because despite their massive influence on European culture, they've fallen out of sight in modern days, and it is stupidly hard to find any info on them. That being said there are still a couple well-known ones. The Song of Roland is the oldest I have found, and it's still somewhat known nowadays. And the other big one is, you guessed it, Orlando Furioso. A classic in Italy.
And now, some Orlando Furioso context
Orlando Furioso (The Raging of Roland in English) is technically the sequel of another poem, Orlando Innamorato (Roland in Love.) The author of Orlando Innamorato died before he could finish his story, so Ludicovo Ariosto decided to take it upon himself to finish it, and wrote Orlando Furioso.
Honestly, you don't need to read the Innamorato to enjoy the Furioso. It will give you extra context and I recommend it, but it's not in any way necessary.
And now, even more context- no I'm joking. Here's the actual premise.
Orlando Furioso is a typical exemple of a literary technique called entrelacement: the act of making multiple plot threads that entertwine and cross over each other. Which is really cool and worthy of praise, but that also means that explaining the plot of the Furioso is a bit like trying to explain Homestuck. There is a lot going on here. Pretty much every single character who shows up (and there are dozens of them) have their own sideplots, and they ALL impact each other.
That being said, there are still two "main" plot lines that take the biggest space in the poem:
- Bradamante and Ruggiero's storyline. Bradamante is a knight of Charlemagne. Ruggiero serves a Sarrasin king. That technically means they are on opposite side of a war. Unfortunately, they are in love. To be together, they will face many hardship, including overprotective fathers, rumors working against them, and most importantly: in a world with no cellphone and no gps, meeting up is a lot harder than you'd think.
- Angelica. Angelica is the princess of Cathay, and she is very pretty. So pretty, in fact, that her father initially sent her to France hoping her beauty would bring discord to Charlemagne's court. It did work btw, but it eventually lead to her brother getting killed, and Angelica is kinda not happy with that. She is now desperately trying to escape France, running through plains and woods and villages, which is tough especially for her as her beauty will not let her go unnoticed anywhere.
And now, why you SHOULD read it
- It is, genuinely, a really cool story. It's a fantasy adventure/comedy story with epic anime battles, magic rife everywhere, and moments that genuinely cracked me up. As I said previously, the multiple storylines crossing over without losing track of any of them is a masterful work. The scene of Astolfo going to the Moon where everything lost lay lives rent-free in my head. It fucking owns.
- It is a huge source of inspiration for other works. The names of Astolfo, Roland, Argalia or Ogier might be familiar to you (on top of my head, these bitches show up in Vanitas no Carte, in the Fate serie, in some early Fire Emblem works, and in Library of Ruina.) These are all characters from Orlando Furioso, and from Carolingian tales in general. Likewise, you might know of the hippogryff as a mythological creature, but did you know that the first ever myth to bring that animal up was Orlando Furioso? The Furioso is rife with concepts, characters, or words that have been used by later fantasy stories from all around the world. Getting aquainted to the source material will give you priceless hindsight on these works, and if you're a story-weaver yourself, might get some good inspiration from it.
- It is a very cool insight on the culture back then. What did people think of guns in the 1500s? (the author hated them.) What literary tools and conventions were of use? (it was okay for the rules of magic to be inconsistent as hell, however having coherent plotlines was valued.) What were the standards of beauty of the time? (White, blonde and fat.) How were women perceived at the time? (That poem was surprisingly progressive about it actually.) It's a unique window to the way of thinking of the time, and it's really fucking cool in my opinion.
I'm gonna be real. Orlando Furioso isn't what I'd call an easy read. Depending on the translation you use, it can be tough to understand at times, and some of the writing choices are puzzling at best. But I do absolutely believe it's a must-read at least once in your life. It's good for the health to read about utterly different perspectives every once in a while.
Trigger warnings heads-up
Trigger warnings for multiple attempted sexual assaults. Angelica's life sucks, my dude.
Where to read it?
It's free real domain babe!! You can find it easily on Project Guttenberg. One of my friends also swears by this english translation. If you're looking for something easier to read and don't mind a couple innacuracies, my own rewrite is also available.