Collected Works of Italo Calvino: Our Ancestors

Author: Italo Calvino
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: Our Ancestors was published in 1960 and is a trilogy combining The Baron in the Trees (published in 1952), The Prince Who Was a Knight (published in 1957), and The Nonexistent Knight (published in 1959).
Once upon a time, there was a war with the Turks. My uncle, Count Medardo di Terrabba, rode across the Bohemian plains straight to the camp of the Christian army. A groom named Curzio followed him. Flocks of white storks flew low in the murky, stagnant air.
"Why are there so many white storks?" Medardo asked Curzio. "Where are they flying to?" My uncle had just arrived. At that time, he had just joined the army, and some of the dukes in our vicinity had gone to war, so he had no choice but to join in. He was assigned a warhorse and a groom at a castle under Christian control, the closest to the battlefield, and hurried to the imperial camp to report.