# Raniero di Raniero — Short Fiction character guide

> Raniero di Raniero in Short Fiction by Selma Lagerlöf.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** This Raniero, Raniero

**First appearance:** 0044-the-peace-of-god

## Snapshot

A Perugian nobleman whose taste for humiliating his wife's family, and a lame workman, slowly cuts her love to ribbons.

## Who they are

Raniero is a man of prowess and pride, celebrated for climbing towers and catching robbers, but blind to how his needling cruelty erodes the marriage he prizes. His rivalry with Jacopo degli Uberti's house and his mockery of a lovesick workman drive Francesca to leave him, and his calm certainty that she will return proves disastrously wrong. He matters because his story is a study in how love is not destroyed by catastrophe but by a thousand small, deliberate humiliations.

## Relationships

### [Francesca degli Uberti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters/francesca_degli_uberti)

_romantic_

Francesca and Raniero are passionate lovers, entangled in a forbidden affair that leads to tragedy.

### [Francesca degli Uberti](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters/francesca_degli_uberti)

_romantic_

Francesca and Raniero are passionate lovers, entangled in a forbidden affair that leads to tragedy.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/i)

The protagonist, a strong and boastful armorer whose violent and cruel actions drive his wife away.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/ii)

The host of the feast, honored for being first to light his candle at the Holy Sepulchre; becomes enraged when the fool mocks his sacred candle.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/iii)

The knight undertaking the candle-vow; rides backwards, is robbed, mocked, and finally loses the candle overnight.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/iv)

Protagonist on a pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Florence, carrying a sacred flame.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/chapters/v)

Returns to Florence with the sacred flame, endures mockery and physical collapse, and ultimately lights the altar candles after a bird extinguishes the flame.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters/raniero_di_raniero
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_50_se/characters