Genealogies of Fiction -- Introduction -- Marriage by Duel -- disappearing women: sons who are maidens -- marriage by duel: bradiamonte and atalanta -- pregnant warriors: galiziella -- variations on a theme: boiardo, cieco da ferrara, and marco polo -- converting princesses and shrinking giantesses: the Inamoramento de carlo magno -- An Amazonian Past -- amazonian times -- wayward men and fearsome women: the foundation of alessandria -- exceptions to the state: amazons and the law -- marfisa's rule and bradamante's exception: amazons and female warriors between boiardo and ariosto -- The Paradox of Helen -- astolfo -- lidia -- the ungrateful woman in the -- fathers, daughters, kingdoms -- the victim of war and the victim of love -- the woman as " nonresponsible cause" and dynastic foundation: lidia and bradamante -- The Poem as a Prophecy -- the gender shift: bradamante and the dynastic prophecy -- bradamante, the interpreter -- the poem as a prophecy -- " di che merito son io?" prophecy and female genealogy -- merlin revised: melissa from betrayal to gift -- melissa -- and the gendering of the prophecy -- the traffic in women and the gift of prophecy -- exogamy, hypergamy, and the politics of marriage -- the rhetoric of exogamy -- conflicting genealogies -- positional subjects: bradamante at the rocca di tristano -- manipulating customs -- the prophetic frescoes: history becomes negotiation -- Mixed Genealogies.