The Fanes' saga

The Fanes' kingdom is a mythological-legendary tale of the Ladins of the Dolomites, Italy. Structured as an epic cycle, today it's mainly known in the version of Karl Felix Wolff, from 1932, which our project is inspired by. It is the only saga born on the Italian territory that is vaguely comparable to the great European legendary cycles.

 

The saga is about the expansion and decline of the kingdom of the Fanes, originally a mild people, characterized by the alliance with the marmots of the homonymous plateau: however, when the queen marries a greedy and warlike foreign king, the climate begins to change. Soon the king makes his daughter Dolasilla an unbeatable amazon, aided by infallible arrows and an impenetrable armor given to her by the dwarves. With Dolasilla at his command, the kingdom expands until the fatal meeting of the princess with the enemy warrior Ey de Net. The two, actually already met years before, fall in love and decide to get married. The king strongly opposes to the end, as the dwarves had predicted that the invincibility of Dolasilla it would only last until she got married. Foreseeing the end of his reign, the king sells Dolasilla and his people, sending them into disarray in the last battle, in which Dolasilla find death, killed by his own arrows, steal them by trickery from the sorcerer Spina de Mul. The traitor king is turned to stone and the few survivors of the Fanes kingdom take refuge with the marmots in a cave under the rocks of their kingdom, from which they still await the sound of the silver trumpets, which will signal their rebirth.

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Several scholars have tried to reconstruct the origin of the legendary material. The possibility that the nucleus dates back to pre-Roman times is not excluded. In particular, some themes could suggest a dating around the end of the Iron Age, therefore around 900 BC.

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The Fanes saga holds great cultural significance for the Ladin people of the Dolomites. It's not only a captivating story but also a way of preserving their unique cultural identity and connecting with their ancestral roots. The saga has been passed down through generations in the form of oral traditions, songs, and stories. Overall, the Fanes saga is a fascinating blend of history, mythology, and local culture. It has captured the imagination of generations and continues to be celebrated through various cultural events, festivals, and artistic expressions in the region.