TALES OF CHARLEMAGNE: RUGGIERO AND PRINCESS ANGELICA MEET

These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 

FOR MY FIRST CHAPTER ON CHARLEMAGNE’S PALADINS CLICK HERE.

During the post-Christmas period through at least Twelfth Night in January Balladeer’s Blog covers tales of Charlemagne and his Paladins.

RUGGIERO MEETS PRINCESS ANGELICA – When we last saw Bradamante, the Paladin in White Armor, she was continuing her quest to find her beloved Ruggiero. He was a Muslim warrior who was allied with the Saracens who had invaded the realm of Emperor Charlemagne from colonized Spain. 

Muslim sorcerers had been throwing menaces in their way to keep them separated because of the prophecy that said Ruggiero would convert to Christianity over his love of a woman. That woman was obviously the skilled and courageous Bradamante of the White Armor. 

After having freed many noble fighters held captive by the Sorceress Alcina in our last installment, Ruggiero mounted his winged hippogriff and flew off eastward toward Continental Europe from the island realm of the good Queen Logestilla.

Meanwhile, Angelica the beautiful but evil Princess of Cathay was still on her own trying to return to her father’s kingdom in the east. In her travels she had already used her wiles to pit Roland and Reinold, two of Emperor Charlemagne’s greatest Paladins, against each other over her.

NOTE: In the context of Charlemagne legends Cathay does not refer to the very real location in China but to an idealized exotic kingdom somewhere north of the Middle East.

She had been taken in by a seeming hermit who was really the disguised enchanter Atlantes, one of the Muslim sorcerers working against Charlemagne and his forces. After Atlantes had won Angelica’s trust he caused a demon to possess Angelica’s horse and mystically transport her to the island of Ebuda.

Like Logestilla’s island, Ebuda was one of the enchanted isles to the west of Ireland. The Ebudans had displeased Mananaan the Irish Sea God, who set one of his sea-monsters called an Orc to terrorize the land. NOTE: These legends from well over 1,000 years ago were using the word Orc for various sea-monsters long before Tolkien used the name for a different species of monsters in his tales. 

In addition to preventing all communication and commerce between the Ebudans and the outside world, the Orc required a human sacrifice periodically to spare the lives of those people still living on the island. 

As a brand-new figure on Ebuda, Princess Angelica was chosen to be the next sacrifice and she was chained to a rock on the waves to await her death in the jaws of the Orc. At this exact time, Ruggiero flew by on his winged hippogriff and spotted Angelica’s plight.

Ruggerio had his steed fly down so that he could battle the nearing Orc. After a lengthy clash, Ruggiero had managed to knock out the armored, serpentlike sea-beast but not kill it. While it was lying on its back, the warrior cut Angelica free from her chains and flew off with her on his winged mount.

And so the pair journeyed eastward and at last landed in Brittany on the Continent of Europe. There they made to rest for the night.

Little did Ruggiero know that his beloved Bradamante had been ordered by Emperor Charlemagne to temporarily abandon her search for Ruggiero. With the Emperor and his armies still hard-pressed by the Saracen invaders AND the Muslim invaders from North Africa, he could no longer spare his niece Bradamante from the field.

While Ruggiero and Angelica made their camp in Brittany, Bradamante was in charge of Charlemagne’s garrison at Marseille.

I’ll be examining more tales of Charlemagne soon, picking up from this one.   

FOR LINKS TO ALL THE PREVIOUS CHARLEMAGNE INSTALLMENTS CLICK HERE.