Urganda is a mythological witch, the Portuguese equivalent of Circe, the witch that Odysseus is said to have encountered on his journey home from Troy.[1] She is an enchantress in the romances belonging to the Amadis and Palmerin series, in the Spanish school of romance.[2]

Urganda is one of the Fates who appear in Matteo Maria Boiardo's epic poem Orlando in Love (1495). In the poem she is the protector of Amadigi along with fellow fate Oriana.[3]

The Spanish poet Miguel Cervantes mentions her in the preliminary Poems of Don Quixote (1605).[4] The part she plays in the poem is more like that of Merlin. She derives her title from the faculty which, like Merlin, she possessed of changing her form and appearance at will.[5]

A hermitage folly designed in 1750 by Thomas Wright in the grounds of Badminton House, in Gloucestershire, England, and known as the Root House is dedicated to her.[1][6]

References

  1. 1 2 The Book of Trespass. Nick Hayes. Bloomsbury Circus (20 Aug 2020). ISBN 1526604698 Chapter Fox
  2. ↑ Cobham Brewer, E. (1894). "The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" (PDF). p. 2838.
  3. ↑ Bane, Theresa (2013). ncyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology. McFarland. p. 334. ISBN 1476612420.
  4. ↑ "#34 Urganda la Desconocida | MusiChess". Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  5. ↑ Cervantes, Miguel de, "Commendatory Verses", The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha 1, retrieved 2024-01-07
  6. ↑ "HERMIT'S CELL THE ROOT HOUSE, Badminton - 1320851 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-12-31.


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