Orlando Furioso

The narrator compares Orlando with Ceres searching for her daughter.

As he ponders where to search next, Orlando hears the cry in the woods. A knight holds a lady who looks like Angelica on his horse, and Orlando pursues them until they come to a palace. Inside the palace gate, the knight and lady disappear. Orlando discovers that other knights, including Sacripant, Gradasso, Brandimart, and Ferrau are also searching the palace for missing loved ones.

The narrator switches to Ruggiero searching for the lady that looked like Bradamant carried off by giant. It turns out that Ruggiero and Orlando are in Atlas’s magic castle; the different voices calling to everyone here is one magic spell. To protect Ruggiero from the prophecy about his early death, the spell calls not only Ruggiero, but also his potential rivals. They are provided with food, shelter, and other amenities while they search the palace for people they will never find.

Meanwhile, Angelica is searching for a guide to help her return to her Asiatic kingdom. She also ends up at Atlas’s magic palace, but is immune to the spell because of her magic ring. While invisible, she looks over the enchanted knights and decides to help Sacripant because she can dismiss him after he helps her. She takes the ring out of her mouth and leads Sacripant, Orlando, and Ferrau out of the palace and far enough away that the spell is broken. Then, she uses the ring to disappear again, choosing it over any of the potential male guides.

Sacripant rides off in search of Angelica, while Ferrau challenges Orlando for his helmet. They fight for the helmet, which is placed on a nearby tree. They are both protected by spells so they cannot hurt each other. Meanwhile, Angelica decides to take the helmet, though Ferrau recovers it soon after. Angelica regrets depriving Orlando of his helmet and heads eastwards, eventually reaching a wood.

Orlando disguises himself with a new beaver helmet while he goes on various quests. Near Paris, he kills a large number of knights who are on their way to help Agramant take over Paris. After this, Orlando comes to a mountain with a hidden cave where a teenage girl and an old woman are arguing.

The narrator discusses the luck of knights in his introduction.

Love has caused trouble for Isabel, the daughter of Galicia’s King. She tells Orlando that Zerbin, the Prince of Scotland, won her over in a tournament, but religious differences kept them from marrying, so he planned to consensually abduct her. However, Zerbin’s chosen kidnapper Odoric was overcome with lust for Isabel, and tried to rape her. However, he was interrupted by the arrival of a mob, and fled. The mob, hoping to sell Isabel as a virgin, left her in this cave.

As she finishes her story, the mob enters the cave. After Orlando ties them up in a mountain-ash tree to be eaten by crows, the old woman runs off and Isobel asks to follow Orlando. They journey together for a few days, and meet a knight being held captive.

Meanwhile, Bradamant is fighting pagans in Marseilles, waiting for Ruggiero. Melissa appears, tells her about Atlas’s new magic castle, repeatedly emphasizing that Bradamant should kill the person who appears to be Ruggiero at the castle (because it is just Atlas’s illusion). As they travel to the castle, they talk about some female descendants of Bradamant and Ruggiero, including many mothers of famous Italian families—this is Ariosto’s way of creating a mythical origin story for his patron’s family, the d’Este family of Ferrara.

At Atlas’s palace, when Bradamant sees someone who looks like Ruggiero fighting giants, she doubts Melissa, goes after the Ruggiero-illusion, and gets trapped in the castle. The real Ruggiero is also still in the castle, but the spell keeps them from recognizing each other.

The narrator changes focus to Agramant gathering forces against Charlemagne.

The Africans and Spanish are aligned against the French in battle. The Captain of the French is dead, so King Louis will have to send more commanders, while Agramant reorganizes his troops.

Mandricard, who seeks revenge on Orlando, rides past the corpses created by Orlando, and winds up in a meadow filled with knights escorting a princess from Granada to the King of Sarthia. Mandricard fights the knights, killing many of them, and others flee. He eventually sees the princess, Doralice, whose beauty causes Mandricard to lust after her. He tells her sweet lies, which she believes, and they sleep together.

Back in France, Agramant plans his assault on Paris. The day before this battle, as Charlemagne prays, his angel sends the prayer to God. God tells the Archangel Michael to fetch Silence to help the French with stealth, and to enlist Discord to cause their opponents to quarrel internally. In monasteries, Michael can only find Discord there. She resembles a lawyer, and is surrounded by lawyers. Michael asks her to cause trouble among the pagans. Fraud tells Michael that Silence is currently with Murder and other crimes, at the house of Slumber. When night falls, Michael finds Slumber, Sloth, Scatterbrained Oblivion, and Silence in a cave. Michael asks Silence to aid Rinaldo in reaching Paris unnoticed by the pagans.

Agramant’s large army will attack from the west, so Charlemagne puts up his defense there. The Moors launch the first attack, but the French defense keeps the attackers behind the wall. During the second attack, the narrator focuses on the pagan warrior Rodomont, whose beloved Doralice was abducted by Mandricard. After pagan forces get ladders on the French walls, Rodomont, in armor made by the builder of the tower of Babel, kills many men and gets on the wall. The Parisians retreat to the second layer of defense: a trench that can be set on fire between outer and inner ramparts of the wall. Rodomont climbs a ladder and leaps over the trench before the French fire the trench, killing other pagans who were on the ladder behind Rodomont.

The narrator’s introduction is about honor in victory. Rodomont is not honorable because he selfishly allowed thousands to be killed in the trench fire for personal glory. Meanwhile, Agramant attacks the gates.

The narrator returns to the Christian knight Astolfo. Good sorceress Logistilla helps him sail from her island with her fleet, a book of antidotes to magic, a horn that makes a terrible noise, and some prophesies about Hernando Cortez colonizing the new world, Alfonso’s victory over pirates, and the victories of Charles V.

Astolfo goes ashore in the gulf of the Persian sea, and uses his horn gift to ward off beasts as he travels to the Nile. Here, a boatman warns him about a giant ahead. Astolfo finds the giant’s house, marked by skulls and other bones, uses his horn, and traps the giant in a net. Thus bound, the giant calmly carries Astolfo’s things, working as his squire as they travel to Cairo.

Astolfo follows a lead about Orrilo, the offspring of a gnome and a fairy, who cannot be killed in combat. Astolfo finds Orrilo in battle with the brothers Grifon the White and Aquilant the Black. As the knights attack, Orrilo reattaches his head and limbs when they are severed. Astolfo’s magic book says Orrilo must be scalped to be killed. The next day, Astolfo fights against Orrilo, eventually beheading him. When Astolfo shaves off all of Orrilo’s hair with his sword, Orrilo dies.

Astolfo invites Grifon and Aquilant to France, and they travel through Jerusalem, where they visit the shrines shared by Christians and Moors in the Holy Lands.

The narrator begins with an introduction about love as the cause of bad decisions. Grifon secretly slips away to pursue his beloved, Orrigilla. He meets her and another knight near Damascus. Orrigilla tells Grifon the knight is her brother, but the narrator tells readers he is actually her lover. Grifon believes her lie. Orrigilla has a history of betraying many lovers.

Meanwhile, in Paris, as the brutal Rodomont is killing combatants and non-combatants indiscriminately, Rinaldo arrives with Silence and the Archangel Michael to help the troops from England and Scotland. Rinaldo gives an inspiring speech to the commanders of the army and kills a bunch of kings and knights. The Scottish forces are winning against the pagans. The narrator includes sensory descriptions of the battle. Zerbin, the Scottish prince, kills a bunch of knights, and many pagans die. Finally, Rinaldo fights Agramant, while Charlemagne goes after Rodomont for killing indiscriminately inside Paris’ walls.

The narrator’s introduction is about God empowering terrible men because of sin; sometimes good people need bad people, like Rodomont, to keep them in line.

Charlemagne finds Rodomont in front of the palace. Charlemagne rallies his men and attacks Rodomont.

The narrator returns to Grifon, Orrigilla, and Martano (Orrigilla’s lover who is disguised as her brother). There, a knight takes them to a mansion to bathe and eat before a tournament. The tournament celebrates King Norandin, escaping a monster named Orcus, who ate or imprisoned Norandin’s wedding party in his goat-pen. The matron monster, Orcus’s wife, helped the king disguise himself as a goat. When Orcus opened the goat-pen to eat some of the king’s men, the king slipped in, reunited with his bride, and everyone how to use the animal disguise to escape.

The narrator discusses Syrians wearing western armor and gets distracted by Italian politics from his era.

In the tournament, the prize is special armor. Grifon wins the tournament, but while he is sleeping, Martano disguises himself as Grifon and is named winner of the tournament. When Grifon wakes up, he goes after them wearing Martano’s armor, which causes him to be mistaken for Martano. Martano (in disguise) and Orrigilla convince the king to lock up the disguised Grifon. While Grifon is imprisoned, Martano leaves the city, but the narrator assures the reader he will get his comeuppance. Grifon is brought to the public square and paraded around in a cart, as mobs abuse and insult him. They eventually set him free outside the city.

The narrator’s introduction includes praise for an audience member, a Lord, for taking time to investigate cases, unlike King Norandin. Imprisoning and putting Grifon in the cart without investigating his claims caused Grifon to go berserk and kill a large number of Norandin’s people, in large groups and individually.

Charlemagne and seven of his men attack Rodomont, but Rodomont’s dragon-scale armor protects him. After killing thousands, Rodomont swims across the river. Someone approaches him when he reaches the other bank.

The narrator returns to Discord after Michael sends her to Agramant’s forces. Discord, along with Pride and Jealousy, join Rodomont as he encounters a dwarf sent by Rodomont’s beloved Doralice (whom Mandricard kidnapped). With the help of the vices, Rodomont goes crazy with rage. Discord facilitates his rampage.

Meanwhile, Charlemagne rallies his people against the remaining enemies while pagan leaders rally the knights on their side. The narrator includes a long list of victims.

Enraged, Grifon fights Norandin’s troops, killing and injuring enough men that Norandin calls back his men and apologizes. Grifon accepts Norandin’s truce.

Then, the narrator turns to Aquilant and Astolfo in Palestine, who are searching for Grifon. On his way to Damascus, Aquilant meets Martano in Grifon’s armor, but quickly realizes it is not his brother. Martano tries to convince Aquilant that Orrigilla is his sister, and that he rescued her from Grifon. Aquilant does not believe Martano, binds the arms of both Orrigilla and Martano, and drags them back to Damascus. The king imprisons Martano and Orrigilla. Aquilant and Grifon are reunited, and Grifon heals from his injuries.

The narrator believes Norandin learned his lesson about temperance. He holds another tournament, and Astolfo decides to participate. On the way, he meets the virgin female knight Marfisa, who will also fight in the tournament. Some of the tournament prizes are Marfisa’s stolen weapons; when she retrieves them from the display, Norandin’s people fight her. Eventually, Norandin realizes the person who started the fight is the famous Marfisa, calls off his people, and gets a new prize for the tournament. Marfisa, Astolfo, Aquilent, and Grifon don’t enter the tournament after all and decide to sail for France, though a tempest blows them off course.

In France, Rinaldo faces the pagan necromancer Dardinel, who raises the dead to fight. When Rinaldo kills Dardinel, the Africans flee and Agramant orders his army to retreat. Two Moors, named Cloridan and Medor, who loved Dardinel want to steal his body so they can give it a proper burial. They slip into the Christian camp and Medor prays. Moonlight allows them to find Dardinel’s corpse. As they head back to their camp, Christian knights discover them. Cloridan runs off alone. Medor carries the corpse, followed by Zerbin.

The narrator includes an introduction about friends who stick by you when Fortune has not.

Cloridan goes back for Medor, who is surrounded by Zerbin and his men. Cloridan kills some of the Scottish knights from a distance with arrows. Zerbin is about to pity Medor, but another knight knocks him unconscious. Then, Cloridan jumps into the fight and is killed.

After the fight, Angelica comes by. Cupid takes revenge on her for using Rinaldo and rejecting Orlando by making her fall for Medor, who is seriously injured. She heals Medor, and they have a romantic and sexual affair that lasts a month, during which time Angelica carves their names in many trees, rocks, and walls. After this, Angelica decides to take Medor to her kingdom (Cathay in the Indies).

The narrator returns to Marfisa, Astolfo, Aquilant, and Grifon in the tempest. Their ship is nearly destroyed when they end up in the gulf of Alexandretta near Syria, near a coastal town that is inhabited by warrior women who require every man who comes to their town to beat ten men in combat and please ten women in bed. If a man does not meet these requirements, he is enslaved or killed. The knights agree that Marfisa will take on the challenge. As nine men attack her, her magic armored breastplate protects her as she kills them all. A knight in black waits to meet her in one-on-one combat. They are evenly matched, so he offers to let her and her companions stay with him and continue their fight in the morning. At his castle, they take off their helmets to reveal the knight in black’s youth and Marfisa’s gender.

The narrator’s introduction is about warrior women like Camilla and poets like Sappho; he asserts that women should be lauded.

Marfisa’s youthful opponent, Guidone Selvaggio, tells the knights the history of the town. After the Trojan War, the 20-year journey home resulted in many bastard sons, who were then exiled and causing trouble. Orontea, the lover of one of them, led other women in killing any men who came to their home until a descendant of Hercules arrived in their town, and Orontea’s daughter Alexandra liked him. Challenged to fight ten men and please ten women, the man succeeded. Now, the town’s laws dictate that ten women must share one husband, and each woman is only allowed to have one male child to limit the male population. Guidone wants to leave, but cannot.

Marfisa tells Guidone to fight with her instead of against her for his freedom. The next day, Guidone and Marfisa start fighting together against everyone else at the arena. In the chaos, Astolfo uses his magic horn, and everyone runs away, including Astolfo’s friends Marfisa, Guidone, Aquilant, and Grifon, who sail off. Once out of range of the horn’s terrible sound, they feel bad for leaving Astolfo behind. Marfisa leaves them in France, and the others end up captured in an evil castle.

Marfisa crosses the Saone and into the mountains. Here, she meets an old woman (Gabrina, the old woman with Isabel, who Orlando saved from robbers in the cave). The old woman and Marfisa meet another knight (Pinabello, who pushed Bradamant into the pit and was subsequently trapped in Atlas’s castle). Marfisa challenges Pinabello. They joust, and she wins. For her prize, she claims one of his horses and gives it to Gabrina. After three uneventful days of riding together, they meet Zerbin. He laughs at the old woman and Marfisa teases him. They joust. Marfisa wins and, as her prize, makes Zerbin take Gabrina wherever she wants to go. After Marfisa rides off, Gabrina tells Zerbin the armored knight who just beat him is a woman, and he’s embarrassed. When Zerbin laments losing Isabel, Gabrina tells him Isabel is still alive, but will not say where she is.