Legend Of Charles The Great, A Story About Love
The legend of Charles the Great is one of the smartest and most interesting stories in Italo Calvino. This magnificent Cuban-born writer for Italian parents left behind a convincing testimony of his sharp sensitivity and clear intelligence in this short story.
Calvino always fought between radical realism and unlimited imagination. The legend of Charles the Great is a good example of this. Starting with a fantastic and almost unlikely story, he manages to capture a profound and analytical view of passionate love.
Many of Calvino’s works have a fabulous tone. The legend of Charles the Great could be classified in this group. In this case, however, its purpose goes beyond morality. This story is an impressive revelation of romantic love. Italo Calvino’s position on this subject is really close to the psychoanalysis of the time.
The legend of Charles the Great and love as a passion
The legend of Charles the Great begins like this: “Later in life, Emperor Charles the Great fell in love with a German girl. The barons in his court were concerned when they saw that this ruler, in full passion for love and without regard for his royal dignity, was neglecting the actions of the state. ”
It is interesting that Italo Calvino took on the main character of an old and influential man. It is obviously the opposite of the position of youth where love transcends everything. No matter who the emperor was, falling in love made him blind to everything else.
Power and love are not two compatible realities, although sometimes they go hand in hand. In this case, love wins power, and this is a problem that puts the whole kingdom in jeopardy. This is just the beginning of the next great events.
Love, betrayal and spell
After Charles the Great had fallen in love so strongly, something incomprehensible happened. His loved one died unexpectedly. But the legend of Charles the Great says that his love did not die with this. Blinded by pain, the emperor embalmed the body of his beloved to keep it in his room. He did not want to be separated from this solid body for a moment.
The story goes on, ” Archbishop Turpin, worried about Charles’s macabre passion, suspected of conjuring, and therefore demanded an examination of the body. Under the tongue of the dead girl, she found a ring with a precious stone. ”
It then became clear to them that there was a spell behind this love. So Charles the Great was not in love with this young German. What this had been all about was not true love but magic.
At this point, Italo Calvino begins to reveal the true nature of love. A person falls in love with what the other has, not that other person himself. In psychological terms, we could say that magical elements bring about love. Not in a poetic sense, but literally. When we fall in love, we let go of the rules of logic and begin to love the impossible.
Love – a ring with a precious stone
The end of Charles the Great’s legend could not be any more surprising and overwhelming. After the archbishop found the ring, the following happened: “As soon as the ring was in the hands of the archbishop, Charles the Great was passionately in love with the archbishop, and he arranged for the girl to be buried immediately. In order for the archbishop to avoid an embarrassing situation, he threw a ring on Lake Constance. Thus Charles the Great fell in love with the lake, and he never left the shore of this lake. ”
At the end of the story, the nature of this senseless and passionate love is revealed. In the end, Charles the Great didn’t care what the object of his love was. That’s why he also fell in love with the archbishop and then the lake he loved forever. The secret of everything was in that split ring.
A ring is a character with boundaries, but there is nothing in the middle of it. It is a circle that defines emptiness. But it has a precious stone, something that shimmers, attracts, something that dazzles. In the end, love is like this, or at least some define it that way. The attempt to define emptiness defines nothing. But despite this, love exists in people and it determines people’s lives. Passionate love is born, it grows and dies in the imagination.
