Characters and plot

The story narrates the star-crossed love of King Perin of Gaula and Elisena of England, resulting in the
secret birth of Amads. Abandoned at birth on a barge in England, the child is raised by the knight
Gandales in Scotland and investigates his origins through fantastic adventures.

He is persecuted by the wizard Arcalas, but protected by Urganda la Desconocida (Urganda the
Unknown or Unrecognized), an ambiguous priestess with magical powers and a talent for prophecy.
Knighted by his father King Perin, Amads overcomes the challenges of the enchanted Insola Firme (a
sort of peninsula), including passing through the Arch of Faithful Lovers.

Despite Amads' celebrated fidelity, his childhood sweetheart, Oriana, heiress to the throne of Great
Britain, becomes jealous of a rival princess and sends a letter to chastise Amads. The knight (later
famously parodied in Don Quixote) changes his name to Beltenebros and indulges in a long period of
madness on the isolated Pea Pobre.

He recovers his senses only when Oriana sends her maid to retrieve him. He then helps Oriana's father,
Lisuarte, repel invaders. A short time later he and Oriana scandalously consummate their love. Their son
Esplandin is the result of this one illicit meeting.

Rodrguez de Montalvo asserts that in the "original" Amads, Esplandin eventually kills his father for
this offense against his mother's honor; however, Montalvo amends this defect and resolves their
conflict peaceably.

Oriana and Amads defer their marriage for many years due to enmity between Amads and Oriana's
father Lisuarte. Amads absents himself from Britain for at least ten years, masquerading as "The Knight
of the Green Sword". He travels as far as Constantinople and secures the favor of the child-princess
Leonorina, who will become Esplandin's wife. His most famous adventure during this time of exile is
the battle with the giant Endriago, a monster born of incest who exhales a poisonous reek and whose
body is covered in scales.

As a knight, Amads is courteous, gentle, sensitive and a Christian who dares to defend free love. Unlike
most literary heroes of his time (French and German, for example), Amads is a handsome man who
would cry if refused by his lady, but is invincible in battle and usually emerges drenched in his own and
his opponent's blood.

Literary significance[edit]

Called also Amads sin Tiempo (Amadis without Time) by his mother (in allusion to the fact that being
conceived outside marriage she would have to abandon him and he would probably die), he is the most
representative Iberian hero of chivalric romance. His adventures ran to four volumes, probably the most
popular such tales of their time. Franois de la Noue, one of the Huguenot captains of the 16th century,
affirmed that reading the romances of Amadis had caused a "spirit of vertigo"[2] even in his more
rationally-minded generation. The books show a complete idealization and simplification of knight-
errantry. Even servants are hardly heard of, but there are many princesses, ladies and kings. Knights
and damsels in distress are found everywhere. The book's style is reasonably modern, but lacks dialogue
and the character's impressions, mostly describing the action.

The book's style was praised by the usually demanding Juan de Valds, although he considered that
from time to time it was too low or too high a style. The language is characterized by a certain
"Latinizing" influence in its syntax, especially the tendency to place theverb at the end of the sentence;
as well as other such details, such as the use of the present participle, which bring Amads into line with
the allegorical style of the 15th century.

Nevertheless, there is a breach of style when Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo presents the fourth book. It
becomes dull and solemn, reflecting the nature of the intruding writer. The first three books are inspired
in deeds and feats by knights-errant, dating back to the 13th century, while the fourth book emerges as
a less brilliant attachment of the 15th century. The pristine style of "Amads" can be perceived in the
few original famous pages analyzed by Antonio Rodrguez Moino: It is lively and straight to the facts of
war and love, with brief dialogs, all quite elegant and amusing. Amads of Gaula is frequently referenced
in the humorous classic Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes in the early 17th century. The
character Don Quixote idolizes Amads, and often compares his hero's adventures to his own.

Historically, Amads was very influential amongst the Spanish conquistadores. Bernal Daz del
Castillo mentioned the wonders of Amads when he was marveled by his first site
of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) and such place names as California come directly from the work.

Origins[edit]

As mentioned above, the origin of Amads and his adventures is disputed. Garci Rodrguez de Montalvo,
a Spanish writer, is traditionially the author of the version whose earliest surviving edition is 1508. He
claimed sole ownership only of Book IV. The existence of a prior version of Books I to III has been
supported by Antonio Rodrguez Moino's identification of four 15th-century manuscript fragments (ca.
1420). The name "Esplandin" is clearly visible in one of these. The fragments belong to the collection of
the Bancroft Libraryat the University of California, Berkeley. They show that contrary to the usual view
that Montalvo expanded the first three books, they show that he abbreviated them.[citation needed]

In the Spanish translation of Egidio Colonna's De regimine principum, Amads is mentioned and also the
poet Enrico, who could well be Enrico de Castiglia. Egidio Colonna was in Rome 1267 when Henry of
Castile was elected Senator. The translation was made around 1350 under King Peter the Cruel. This is
the oldest mention of Amads.[citation needed]

The place called Gaula is a fictional kingdom within Brittany. It has in the past been identified with
Wales or France, but it is best understood as a completely legendary place.[3]

Recently, a new theory of the work's authorship has been proposed by Santiago Sevilla, claiming that
the Infante Enrique of Castile was the original writer of the epic. Enrique of Castille lived for four years at
the court of Edward I of England, who was married to his sister, queen Eleanor of Castile. According to
this theory, the character Lisuarte is Edward, Oriana is Eleanor of England, the maid of Denmark is in fact
the Maid of Norway, and Amadis is modelled after Simon de Montfort, the heroic Norman earl of
Leicester. Furthermore, Esplandian could be his infamous warrior son, Guy de Montfort, count of Mola,
Brian de Monjaste is in fact Enrique of Castile himself, and the battle against the Arabic king is the Battle
of Benevento against King Manfred of Sicily, who had a host of Arabian light cavalry and Arab archers.
The historical Enrique of Castile wandered, as knight-errant and poet, to wage wars in Tunis, Naple,s and
Sicily where he fought in those Battles of Benevento and Tagliacozzo, and became a prisoner of the Pope
and Charles d'Anjou in Canosa di Puglia, and Castel del Monte, from 1268 to 1291, where he would have
reputedly written a good part of Amadis, before returning to Spain to become Regent of Castile, before
his death in 1304. According to the author of this theory, it would have been inconvenient for Enrique of
Castille, due to his high office, to declare his authorship, but the work bears his marks as a poet and
troubadour. It appears that Henry of Castile handed the manuscript of Amadis to King Diniz of Portugal
in 1295, according to "O Romance de Amadis" by Afonso Lopes Vieira, and the account of the visit of
Henry of Castile in Portugal to his nephew, the king.[citation needed]

Despite the various theories of the work's origins, Rodrguez de Montalvo's Spanish version, as the only
complete edition known, is considered definitive, and it was the one which made the character widely
known on a European scale. Unfortunately Rodrguez de Montalvo allowed the original manuscript to
disappear, and only a few pages of the a lost prior version were discovered in Spain by Antonio
Rodrguez-Moino, and are now conserved at the University of California, Berkeley. These reveal that
rather than enlarging on the source text, Montalvo abbreviated it.[4]