Urganda
witch from Portuguese myths
Urganda is a mythological witch, the Portuguese equivalent of Circe, the witch whom Odysseus (according to the Odyssey) encountered on his journey home from Troy. She is an enchantress in the romances belonging to the Amadis and Palmerin series in the Spanish school of romance.
Urganda is one of the Fates who appear in Matteo Maria Boiardo's epic poem Orlando in Love (1495). In the poem she is the protector of Amadigi, along with fellow fate Oriana.
The Spanish poet Miguel Cervantes mentions her in the preliminary Poems of Don Quixote (1605). The part she plays in the poem is more like that of Merlin. She derives her title from the faculty which, like Merlin, she possessed: that of changing her form and appearance at will.
A hermitage folly designed in 1750 by Thomas Wright in the grounds of Badminton House, in Gloucestershire, England, and known as the Root House is dedicated to Urganda.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Urganda” as witch from Portuguese myths. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as witch from Portuguese myths. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q30905293. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1495, 1605 and 1750.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Urganda”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Urganda primary sources, Urganda archive and Urganda research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Urganda”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Urganda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.