Orlando

[Many Centuries]

 

Orlando

"...a very pretty gentleman that I once met, by name Orlando..."

"...the ever-young and slender gallant named Orlando, who adventured in North Africa during the sixteenth century, apparently a male during this part of his or her career."

  • Featured in :
  • Orlando Innamorato (1495)
    • by Matteo Maria Boiardo

     

  • Orlando Furioso (1516)
    • by Ludovico Ariosto

     

  • Orlando (1928)
    • by Virginia Woolf

 

Biography

Orlando, the omnisexual hero-heroine drifts dreamily and bemused from one era to the next, born as a woman and changes sex often.'How many years, I wonder, has it been, or centuries, since last I knew the pleasure of these sands between my toes? Travelling without company I soon came to those dear, familiar ruins in the north, set on their stone plateau; those tumbled relics of a city that I still walk in my dreams of childhood, where my girlish fingertips still know each dent in each worn stone as though it were a long lost cousin. Tethering my horse I found my way through the familiar labyrinths and chambers, mounting finally the old iron ladder to our city's central courtyard, or at least its remnants. Some of my old fellows left their hole-like dwellings at the city's outskirts to come to greet me, though the Troglodyte condition is much worse in them, and this has advanced since last we met. I hardly could make out a word they spoke, though our discourse was amiable, and they seemed most amazed to find me now a man'

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OBSERVATION

Judging from Orlando's pocket watch, it is possible that s/he was a member of one or many Leagues throughout the ages.

 

OBSERVATION

In the Almanac of V2 #4 it confirms that Orlando was "seemingly affiliated to the Prospero, Gulliver and later Murray groups."

 

OBSERVATION

Alan Moore says in "Alan Moore's Exit Interview" by Bill Baker

"And after that, me and Kevin would probably like to get on with some individual stories, some Tales of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that could focus upon, say, one character. Orlando is a very tempting character to do a one-off special based upon, especially after you see the way that we've treated him/her in The Dossier."

 

ORLANDO'S ORIGINS

In the Almanac of V2 #4 we are given two possible origins as to the source of Orlando's imortality ;

1) Orlando may be Kundry who (in Wagner's Parsifal) made the mistake of laughing at Christ on the Cross, thus earning a curse that keeps her alive indefinitely.

2) Orlando may have bathed in the Fire of Life.

 

Both could be true, or neither, perhaps Orlando help create the Fire of Life through her curse, or perhaps Orlando was destined to bath in the Fire to activate the curse ?

 

OBSERVATION

Orlando is identified as a member of Mina's second League, and appears to be featured in a grouping with Thomas Carnacki, Allan, Mina, and A.J. Raffles.

Mina's Second League

 

 

 

Date

Orlando's Log
Early 1400s Orlando visits Alcina's Island.
1480s Orlando's visits Albraca and kills the King of Tartary for Angelica (daughter of King Galafrone).
1680s Orlando works with Prospero's Men.
1780s Orlando works with Gulliver's Group.
1906 S/he travels by steamer to Japan, and stays in her/his rooming house in Nagasaki. S/he visits Shanghai and regions of Ino-China.
1906 Six months of adventures in Tibet, followed by a meeting with Mina and Alan. which results in all three of them travelling to Pentexoire together.

 

 

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