"The magic ring, Vol. 1 (of 3)" by La Motte-Fouqué is a romance written in the early 19th century. It blends chivalric adventure, Christian devotion, and faintly allegorical magic around a contested talisman, following the young squire Otto von Trautwangen, his cousin Bertha, the resolute Gabrielle de Portamour, and the formidable Sir Folko de Montfaucon. Expect pilgrimages, torchlit jousts, knightly vows, and the pull between courtly love and duty in a richly
medievalized setting. The opening of the romance sets its tone with a translator’s notice and the author’s devout preface, then shifts to the Danube, where Otto and Bertha witness pilgrims and crusaders before encountering Gabrielle and her escort. In Gabrielle’s tale, a family ring passes between her and Folko through stratagems and tournaments, until she reaches Germany under the protection of Count Archimbald. A dramatic night joust ends with Folko’s victory; Otto impulsively offers to fight but is rebuffed as an unknighted youth, and Gabrielle departs in grief. Back at the castle, Otto is solemnly dubbed a knight, keeps vigil in the chapel amid eerie encounters with ancestral arms, and at dawn takes leave, despite Bertha’s heartbreak. He rides out alone, travels toward the Main, and pauses at an inn near Frankfort, where he meets a weathered German knight and an Italian merchant; the trio exchange tales, including a northern legend of enchantment and loss, as the section closes with another story about to begin. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Tom Trussel, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
