The Stories and Plots

        The scripts for the Sicilian marionette performances came from works of literature and from folktales. Because marionette performances are in the oral tradition as well as part of the visual arts, liberties have been taken over the years with some aspects of the stories. But the main tradition of Sicilian marionette theater are the tales of the legendary Charlemagne and his foremost warriors, the Paladins.

        Charlemagne was King Charles I, an eighth century King and the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled over much of Western Europe. His driving motivation was the unification and Christianization of all those he ruled. To do this, much warfare was required and he was noted for his ruthlessness. His rule did not extend to the region now known as Sicily, though his armies did battle in parts of Italy. But that has nothing to do with why tales of Charlemagne became a staple of Sicilian marionette theater.

        In 1516, an Italian named Ludovico Ariosto published an epic called Orlando Furioso, which roughly translates to the madness of Roland, or the frenzy of Roland. It was a continuation of Orlando Innamoroto, or Roland in love, which had been written earlier by his countryman, Matteo Boirardo.  Both works took the Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland) as a basis and inspiration. Roland was the nephew of Charlemagne, and the Song of Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature.

        Orlando Furioso is not a work of historical accuracy. It takes great liberty with geographic locations and introduces fantastic monsters and sorcerers and a creature called a hippogriff, which was a horse with wings and the head of an eagle. It had talons instead of forelegs. But the human characters are the same as those in the Song of Roland, and there are similarities in the plots.

Although this illustration from Orlando Furioso looks like Batman riding an eagle, it actually shows a warrior named Ruggiero riding a hippogriff through a mythical landscape.

These Italian epics, based on the earlier French epic, became the basis for nineteenth century Sicilian marionette theater. Why? Perhaps the violent history of Sicily plays a role. Sicily has been ruled by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Germans, and French, according to an article by Buffalonian Angelo Coniglio, found in a back issue issue of Per Niente newsletter. The history of Sicily is one of battle, where the skills of the warrior are prized along with the qualities of bravery and loyalty. This may have made it easy for the Sicilians to relate to the tales of the fighting Paladins.

Another factor is that at the time that the marionette theaters were growing in popularity, the ruling powers were becoming uneasy about crowds gathering among their subjects. Marionette performances featuring satires or contemporary political themes would have been particularly discouraged. But the tales of Charlemagne and the paladins satisfied both the Sicilian taste for drama and adventure and the ruling class requirement of 'safe' subjects.