In 1506 Ludovico Ariosto began work on the poem that became Orlando Furioso. The epic transformed chivalric romance through irony, speed, interlaced plots and dazzling ottava rima. It drew on popular Carolingian tales while remaking them for a sophisticated courtly audience in Ferrara.

Orlando Furioso became one of Europe's most influential narrative poems. Its method of switching between many stories shaped later epic, romance and fantasy, while preserving links to oral storytelling cycles and performed tales of knights.