Archimago

Archimago is a figure of European literary tradition, best known as a powerful sorcerer or archmage who embodies deception and magical cunning. The name itself derives from Italian usage for an “archmage” and has appeared in various forms across medieval, Renaissance, and early modern poetry, often as a villain or testing force for virtuous protagonists.

In Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Archimago is introduced as a formidable wizard who dwells in a secluded place and exercises enchantment, illusion, and trickery to influence the course of events. He employs shapeshifting and a demon to impersonate others, sowing confusion among lovers and knights and obstructing quests. His schemes are meant to test the heroes and to undermine moral order, and his plots are typically countered by perseverance, virtue, and acts of true heroism.

In Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Archimago appears as a central antagonistic sorcerer who uses enchantment and deceptive appearances to tempt and mislead the Redcrosse Knight and Una. Through illusions and feigned personas, he seeks to create division and doubt, underscoring the poem’s broader themes of truth, virtue, and spiritual danger. The character in this work solidified Archimago as a symbolic archetype of the duplicitous magician.

Beyond these specific works, Archimago serves as a literary shorthand for the archetypal evil mage: a master of deception who wields magic to test, corrupt, or derail noble quests. The figure has influenced later fantasy portrayals of archmages and continues to appear as a reference point for magical deceit in Western literature.