History or Fiction? The Role of Doubt in Antoine de La Sale's Le Paradis de la royne Sibille

Summary

Le Paradis de la royne Sibille (1437) is a collection of five true stories written and narrated by Antoine de La Sale, who informs us that this work is the result of his personal investigation into the events he describes. These tales are connected in that each relates a legend concerning the Mountain of Sibylle, a geographical location which, at that time, was associated with rumors of an underground kingdom ruled by the title character, Queen Sibylle. The narrator of the Paradis states that he not only collected these tales during a personal visit to Italy's Central Apennine Mountains on May 18, 1420, but also verified their sources (63).

The storyteller begins by introducing the reader to the fictive region. This lengthy introductory section contains important geographical and historical references that are to persuade us to accept La Sale's fictional observations as fact. Reaching the main part of the text, the reader finds that the first story is about five young spelunkers who attempt to reach Sibylle's earthly paradise, but quickly abandon their journey after having been frightened by a supernatural event. The second tale features two German knights who presumably reach the Paradise but never return from it; their guide, a priest, verifies the details of their journey. The next story, about a German knight and his squire, appears to have been so popular that it had already passed from the oral tradition to a written form.