lines 393-398. Here in the “the heart of [...] disorder” is where “the turning
point of the story begins,” (Longsworth, 1982 p.5). Amongst the bodies in
states of near-death, Orfeo is summoned by the Fairie King and to begin
the final act of the poem plays:
[…] his melody so swete.
The king herkneth and sitt ful stille;
To here his gle and gode wille (lines 442-444)
Many scholars have debated how this brief encounter seems to be
symbolic of culture as a whole. In an eleventh-century poem by Thierry
of Saint-Trond, Orpheus is said to: “[trust] with all the power of his
spirit in the divinity of his art, [and] bravely [take] what he desired from
[the Otherworld of] Styx. Thus art, aided by firm purpose, vanquished
nature.” Thierry’s opinion is mirrored by Nicolas Trivet (who wrote a
commentary on Boethius (c. 1305) (contemporaneous with Sir Orfeo)),
who also emphasizes this aspect of the narrative. Trivet (1970, pp.110-
111) writes: “By Orpheus, we should understand the part of the intellect
which is instructed in wisdom and eloquence… Orpheus, then, by his
sweet lyre, that is of his eloquence, brought the wicked, brutal, and wild
[…] to the law of reason .” However, these interpretations do contrast
with the fifteenth century Ovide moralisée that argues in favour of a
Christian (not necessarily cultural) interpretation of this action, preferring
to view the Underworld as a representation of Hell: “[b]y Orpheus and
his harp one should understand the persons of our Lord Jesus Christ
[…] He played his harp so melodiously that he drew forth from hell the
saintly souls of the saintly fathers who had descended there through the
sin of Adam and Eve,” (Dale, 1954 p.290). Whatever the interpretation
for this encounter, one thing is for certain; this is the transformative point
of the poem. After this exchange in the Otherworld, harmony is restored
to Orfeo’s Kingdom: he reclaims his wife; he reclaims his property; and
eventually, he reclaims his throne. This action has been spurred by an
active choice of Orfeo, who, up until this moment was in a meandering
exile for ten years. He has chosen to be an active participant in the story
and in doing so, becomes the “hero of his own poem,” (Rider, 1988 p.357).
The poem continues with this metaphor of Orfeo being a “hero” and a
symbol the art. As Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury state: “[t]he orphic
song emphasizes the power of art, eloquence, poetry, music, and rhetoric
[…] [l]ike Amphion, the legendary builder of Thebes, who charmed the
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