Jerusalem Delivered Summary: the events of the most important songs and the main characters.
Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso is a masterpiece of Renaissance epic literature, which narrates the events of the First Crusade and the conquest of Jerusalem. Through a fusion of history, mythology and chivalric themes, Tasso creates a work full of adventures, love and internal conflicts. The poem deeply explores human emotions, intertwining the fate of its protagonists with the struggle between faith and power.
The First Crusade had been underway for six years when Godfrey of Bouillon, who was waiting for the end of winter in Lebanon, received a visit from the Archangel Gabriel who urged him to take the reins of the Christian army and finally conquer Jerusalem. However, the forces of the devil were determined to oppose him and, when the troops arrived near the Holy City , they sent the sorceress Armida to bewitch the soldiers. The woman, beautiful and disguised as a Spartan princess from Damascus, managed to convince the best fighters to follow her to her castle.
Jerusalem Delivered: Summary
Meanwhile, the outcome of the battle becomes more complicated when the Muslim warrior Argante decides to challenge one of the Christian soldiers to a duel, starting a clash that will determine the outcome of the entire war. Tancredi, one of the strongest soldiers, is sent to fight against the infidel . The duel goes on for a long time until, as night falls, it is suspended.
Erminia’s escape and the love between Tancredi and Clorinda
Among those who witness the clash is Erminia, princess of Jerusalem , unfaithful but in love with Tancredi and worried about the fate of her beloved who, however, has feelings for Clorinda, the Muslim warrior virgin , whom he loves in return despite their difference in faith.
Erminia, seeing her love wounded, decides to wear Clorinda’s armor and go look for him but, surprised by the Christians, she runs away finding refuge with a group of shepherds with whom she decides to stay, forever distancing herself from the horrors of war. The princess’s escape is meanwhile noticed by Tancredi himself who mistakes her for Clorinda and, therefore, decides to chase her into the woods, thus ending up as Armida’s prisoner.
Meanwhile, another Christian hero, Rinaldo , is about to abandon the camp. In fact, after killing a comrade in arms, he decides to run away.
The Battle of Suleiman and Rinaldo’s Love for Armida
The war thus proceeds with one side now at an advantage, now at the other, also thanks to various interventions of a nature that are sometimes divine, sometimes demonic . When the day of the duel arrives, in fact, an angel helps Tancredi’s substitute , who has disappeared in the meantime, in the fight, but the devils ensure that the direct clash turns into a battle.
Not only that: the intervention of Suleiman, and his Muslim army from Egypt, puts the crusaders in extreme difficulty. The Christians will be saved from this latest danger by the archangel Michael and the arrival of the Christian heroes who, freed by Rinaldo, return to the camp. The hero, however, has paid a high price for their escape: Armida, seeing him, has fallen in love with him and has attracted him to her .
The duel between Tancredi and Clorinda
Godfrey of Bouillon then orders his men to build a tower to launch the final assault on Jerusalem, but his plan fails when Argante and Clorinda manage to set it on fire, destroying it. The warrior virgin, however, is unable to re-enter the walls and ends up fighting against her beloved Tancredi who, not recognizing her because of the dark armor she is wearing instead of the light one she usually wears, kills her.
Clorinda dies in the arms of her beloved after having asked him to receive baptism and having been granted it. The hero’s despair is such that he is driven to think of suicide, but the appearance of Clorinda herself in a dream will succeed in dissuading him from his intent.
Rinaldo breaks the spell
The difficulties for the Christian army are not over: the tower cannot be rebuilt because the magician Ismeno has cast a spell on the forest of Saron to ensure that the crusaders cannot use any more wood. The only one who can break the spell is Rinaldo who, however, is still a prisoner of the sorceress Armida .
Goffredo then sends two Christian heroes, Charles and Ubaldo , to free him. The crusader, repentant of having given in to love and passion for an infidel, succeeds in the mission for which he was called, giving his companions the opportunity to have all the weapons they need.
The final battle
In the final battle Rinaldo kills Solimano while Tancredi , in a valley far from the epicenter of the battle, fights against Argante and kills him , but is wounded. Erminia, now a shepherdess , will come to his aid and finally have the consolation of being able to save the life of the man she loves.
The poem ends with Goffredo planting the Christian flag within the walls of Jerusalem .
