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HUGELYN. Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, c. 1220-1289, was head of the Guelf party in Pisa. He betrayed his party to Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, the leader of the Ghibellines, who in turn revealed his treachery. Ugolino was imprisoned for eight months with his two sons and two grandsons, and all starved to death in the Tower of Famine in Pisa in March 1289. Dante places Ugolino and Ruggieri among the traitors in the second division of the Ninth Circle of hell, Inf XXXIII.1-90. Ugolino is frozen above Ruggieri in one hole, from which he gnaws on the archbishop's head.

The Monk's Tale of Ugolino follows Dante closely except for a few details. Chaucer gives Ugolini three little sons and omits the awful sight of Ugolino gnawing on Ruggieri's head, MkT 2407-2462. [Roger2]

Hugelyn, the ME variant and contraction of Italian Ugolino, appears in medial position, MkT 2407.


D.K. Fry, "The Ending of the Monk's Tale." JEGP 71 (1972): 355-368; T. Spencer, "The Story of Ugolino in Dante and Chaucer." Speculum 9 (1934): 295-301.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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