Orlando Furioso by Italian Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto is a highly influential chivalric romance originally published in 1532. Ariosto’s 46-canto poem details the life of Sir Roland, one of the heroes of Arthurian legend. Orlando Furioso is based on an earlier Italian work, Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Boiardo, and the French poem La Chanson de Roland, as well as other classic Arthurian tales (such as those written by Chretien de Troyes). As an epic poem, it also follows in the tradition of Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. To the Arthurian canon, Ariosto introduced the character of Ruggiero, the mythic ancestor of the d’Este family of southern Italy, one of Ariosto’s patrons.   

This guide cites the prose translation by Guido Waldman, published by Oxford World’s Classics in 2008.

Plot Summary

The poem takes place during a war between the Christian Emperor Charlemagne of France and the Moorish King Agramant. Its main story follows the knight Orlando, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, goes mad as a result of love; however, there are also many other interwoven stories, and countless asides by the narrator.

While Agramant besieges Charlemagne in Paris, Orlando falls in love with the pagan princess Angelica. His rival for her affections is Rinaldo, another Christian paladin. Angelica escapes Orlando and Rinaldo, getting captured and rescued by a series of knights.

Rinaldo’s sister, the female Christian knight Bradamant, seeks her love, the Moorish warrior Ruggiero, who is imprisoned in the magic castle of the wizard Atlas. Bradamant finds a secret altar where the ghost of Merlin foretells that she will marry Ruggiero. The sorceress Melissa tells Bradamant how to get a magic ring to defeat Atlas. After Bradamant defeats Atlas, Atlas releases his prisoners. But before Bradamant can get to Ruggiero, he is abducted by Atlas’s hippogryph.

Charlemagne sends Rinaldo to England. Rinaldo lands in Scotland, where he rescues several maidens and kills their kidnapper Polynex.

Ruggiero flies the hippogryph to the island where the evil sorceress Alcina has imprisoned the enchanted Astolfo, cousin of Rinaldo and Orlando. Ruggiero fights Alcina, but she seduces him with magic. Luckily, Melissa uses her magic to free Ruggiero and breaks the spells on all Alcina’s other victims, including Astolfo.

Rinaldo meets the Scottish king, who agrees to join the war against King Agramant. Rinaldo sails onward to England, where the prince of England also agrees to join them.

A magician knocks Angelica out, but he is impotent and unable to rape her. A scavenger kidnaps her from the magician to sacrifice her to an orc—a sea monster.

In Paris, Orlando leaves his post in the middle of the night to chase after Angelica. Orlando looks for her in vain all over France.

As Alcina’s army is defeated, Ruggiero flies off on the hippogryph, eventually landing on the island where Angelica is naked and tied to be sacrificed. Ruggiero cannot kill the orc, so he and Angelica flee to Brittany. Ruggiero plans to have sex with Angelica, but she uses her magic ring to escape.

After several rescue quests and monster-killing missions, Orlando decides to search for Angelica in Ireland. Along the way, he meets Irish warriors who vow to join the French cause. At one point, Orlando thinks he sees Angelica abducted into a castle. However, in the castle, are only knights-errant, including Ruggiero and Bradamant: It is again Atlas’s magic castle.

Angelica enters the castle, but is immune to its magic; she ends up freeing all of the trapped knights. The knights pursue Angelica, who steals Orlando’s helmet, but as soon as they capture her, she disappears.

Orlando finds a new helmet and returns to Paris, where he kills a king and a huge number of knights who intended to join the Moorish cause. Nevertheless, when the Spanish and African armies arrive, the French are in trouble. The Moorish forces reorganize, and the French prepare for battle by praying, causing the Archangel Michael to help them by sending Discord into the Moorish camp. The Moors almost succeed in conquering Paris, but the French push back the Moorish forces. Rinaldo arrives in Paris with English and Scottish reinforcements. King Agramant joins the battle, personally dueling Rinaldo.

Astolfo, armed with a magic book and magic horn, travels to Persia, Egypt, and then Jerusalem with his friend Grifon and others, capturing a giant along the way. After a lover betrays Grifon at a tournament, stealing the prize magic armor Grifon won, Astolfo rescues Grifon and punishes the betrayer. Astolfo, Grifon, and their allies head to France.

In Paris, Rinaldo kills the African necromancer Dardinel. After the battle, two Moors sneak into the Christian camp to steal Dardinel’s body for burial. Angelica, who is passing by, falls in love with one of the Moors, Medor.

After getting captured in an all-female warrior town that enslaves or kills all men, Astolfo escapes and heads to France. He falls for the magic castle trap, but uses the horn to break the castle’s spells. He rides off on Atlas’s hippogryph.

Just as Ruggiero promises Bradamant to convert to Christianity, they are separated again.

When Orlando encounters evidence of Angelica and Medor’s love, he goes crazy. Berserk, Orlando strips, tears trees out of the ground, murders many peasants, and starts killing bears and boars.

The Moorish camp in Paris calls for aid, summoning the Moorish knights in the countryside to Paris. Ignoring this order, Ruggiero frees a prisoner who looks like Bradamant—this turns out to be Bradamant’s twin brother Richardet. They travel together and help another member of Bradamant’s family.

Back in Paris, Charlemagne is losing without Rinaldo or Orlando. However, in the pagan camp, Discord is still causing trouble. King Agramant tries to stop the chaos, but only succeeds in scattering his best knights. One of them, the vicious Rodomont, exiles himself to a bridge where he imprisons Christians.

In Africa, a violent, rabid, and naked Orlando tears peasants in half and kills horses. Angelica and Medor encounter him, but do not recognize him. Orlando pursues Angelica, and she and Medor barely get away. Angelica takes Medor to her home in Cathay.

Rinaldo convinces several other knights he meets on the road to join the Christian forces in Paris. On the way, he learns about Orlando. Rinaldo’s knights attack the Moorish camp, causing Agramant and the wounded Ruggiero to retreat.

Hearing a rumor that Ruggiero will marry someone else, Bradamant tries to kill herself, but fails. She heads for Paris, besting the strange gender rules of a castle on the way.

Meanwhile, Astolfo flies off to a mountaintop, where John the Evangelist is waiting. St. John tells Astolfo that the only way to save Orlando (and the French cause) is to go to the moon for a potion to cure his madness. They head to the moon in a chariot. They locate Orlando’s wits, and see a palace where Time, the Fates, and famous verses of poetry determine the length and reputation of all people.

Bradamant takes up the challenge to defeat Rodomont. She succeeds, forcing him to release his Christian prisoners, and heads for the Moorish camp to fight for Ruggiero’s love. Bradamant kills hundreds of Moorish knights before calming down enough to talk to Ruggiero about rumors that he will marry someone else. Ruggiero wants to stop fighting, but cannot dispense with his honor, and so he decides to fight for King Agramant until the war is over.

Ruggiero, Bradamant, and Ruggiero’s sister Marfisa, another female knight, go to a castle full of misogynists. They beat the misogynist king, and help the peasants rise up and make new laws. Ruggiero and Bradamant part again as they head to their respective war camps.

Astolfo returns from the moon with Orlando’s wits. He then creates thousands of horses out of rocks to conquer Africa. Hearing about Astolfo’s actions, Agramant is pressured to retreat, leaving a champion to battle against Charlemagne’s champion to settle the war. Agramant chooses Ruggiero, while Charlemagne chooses Rinaldo. Bradamant cries over the thought of her brother and lover fighting. Ruggiero is not fighting to win, which angers Agramant. Agramant breaks the truce, ending the duel; the Moorish camp falls into disarray.

In Africa, Astolfo’s conquest is proceeding apace, as Astolfo creates thousands of boats from leaves. Orlando appears, still violent and naked, but Astolfo uses the moon potion to restore his wits.

Back in the battle, Agramant flees before Bradamant and Marfisa can capture him. Agramant challenges the now sane Orlando. Orlando accepts, but needs new weapons to fight. Ruggiero discovers that Agramant was the one who broke the truce. He chases after Agramant, but finds Astolfo’s fleet returning to France with captured African kings. Ruggiero frees them and sails off, only to be forced to abandon ship in a storm. Ruggiero survives by praying, and a hermit baptizes him.

Orlando finds Ruggiero’s ship, arms, and armor, and heads to Agramant’s challenge. In a duel, Orlando beheads Agramant.

A wizard tells Rinaldo that Angelica and Medor left for Cathay. Rinaldo is distraught, and goes into the woods, where he is attacked by a monster. Wrath saves him from the monster, freeing him from his love of Angelica. Rinaldo spends time in an opulent palace, thinking about his wife, before heading to where Orlando is fighting. The knights, all together now, celebrate their victory over Agramant.

Astolfo’s magic wears off, the horses and ships becoming rocks and leaves again. Astolfo rides the hippogryph to Provence, and all the knights gather in Marseilles. Bradamant and Marfisa learn that Ruggiero has converted to Christianity, but as Bradamant’s parents wish her to marry the son of the king of Greece, Ruggiero asks for a year to conquer Greece. Ruggiero fails and unwillingly promises to win Bradamant’s hand for the Greek prince.

Ruggiero and Bradamant are heartbroken. Marfisa says that she can prove Bradamant is Ruggiero’s wife. Upon finding out that Ruggiero and Bradamant were meant to be married, the Greek prince agrees to a scheme to work the situation out, leaving the two knights married and Ruggiero the king of the Bulgars.

Rodomont challenges Ruggiero, who agrees to fight despite it being his honeymoon. Ruggiero defeats Rodomont, first offering him mercy, but finally killing the villain when he refuses to surrender.