ABSTRACT
In the autobiographical novel Ghigd, the Sicilian-born author Giuseppe Bonaviri reveals the intensity of his personal identification with stories of the Paladins, whose exploits were re-enacted every autumn when the puparo (puppet master) don Mariddu brought the teatro dei pupi (marionette theatre) to the Sicilian hill town of Mineo. Themes from the Carolingian epic cycle are played out in Bonaviri’s Novelle saracene, a collection of 26 tales of unmistakable Sicilian stamp. In the Novelle, the memory of a childhood nourished on the figures and humours of the Paladins allows Bonaviri to set his heroes on an imaginary stage alongside figures from Greek myth, Biblical history, liturgical drama and Arabic folklore. Traditional religious iconography most certainly plays its part in the Novelle, but it never does so in a completely traditional way.
