Italo Calvino’s The Nonexistent Knight is the third novel of the Our Ancestors trilogy. In each of these fictions, the main character’s existence is unusual or fantastical in some way. The first, The Cloven Viscount, describes an individual who was cut into two by a cannonball and lives a life as two people. The second, The Baron in the Trees, describes a man who lives in the tops of trees, and The Nonexistent Knight describes a knight who exists only as an empty suit of armor. This third novel pushes readers to think about what it means to exist and identify as a human being, especially within a world dominated by social pressures, norms, and bureaucratic regulations.

The titular character, Agilulf, is defined by only his job and purpose. He has no physical form; rather, he is willpower and chivalry distilled into a suit of armor. He represents such an extreme example of devotion to duty that as soon as he believes himself to be stripped of his rank, he disappears entirely. He follows every rule, edict, and regulation with extreme precision, to the point that his compatriots are annoyed by him, and even Charlemagne is relieved to be rid of him when sending him on the quest to prove Sophronia’s virtue. Such an existence ultimately seems to be empty in the same way that his armor is empty. 

Although he is socially inept, Agilulf often wishes for companionship and the trappings of a physical body (such as sleeping and eating), but he does not know how to achieve these things. Because he only understands facts and regulations, he can only criticize and thus alienate those around him. The armor represents his title and his commitment to knighthood, but behind his title, there is nothing. By contrast, other knights exhibit other, more human qualities, and at the end of every day, they take their armor off, showing that they are not only knights, but vulnerable physical bodies as well. 

The Knights of the Grail also serve to strengthen this interpretation. While they have physical forms, they seek to transcend the profane physical world, devoting themselves to the religious concept of the grail. Like Agilulf, they believe themselves to be filled with an abstract power—in this case, the will of the grail—which leads them to commit crimes and prey upon innocent villagers. Their commitment is so intense that they forget their humanity.

Gurduloo serves as a foil to the idea of ascribing to a singular identity. While Agilulf and the Knights of the Grail have only one specific identity, the only constant for Gurduloo is his physical form. Gurduloo seems to have no commitment to any one identity, so much so that he is influenced to become whatever character or object is immediately around him, be it a duck, a pear, a corpse, a king, or a soup. Gurduloo must be saved from himself throughout the novel, He must be told how to eat, for he believes a hole in a tree to be his own mouth, and he must be exhumed after he buries himself, unaware of the difference between himself and a corpse. Between Gurduloo and Agilulf, it seems that neither of these are viable ways to live; rather, one’s identity must exist beyond merely having a corporeal form or adhering to a single abstract ideal.

While Agilulf is the main character of the story, Raimbaut may be the closest that the story comes to presenting us with a hero. Characters like Agilulf and Gurduloo serve as a kind of warning to readers, suggesting that one must...