Faerie Queen Summary Book 1, Canto I

We meet a young and gentle knight riding through a plain. He's wearing armor that has clearly
seen action, but he must have just acquired the armor since he himself is inexperienced. He
seems like a good-humored kind of guy, definitely ready for some fighting. On the breastplate of
his armor, and on his shield, a bloody cross is painted, out of respect and adoration for Jesus and
his crucifixion. (This also tells us this guy is probably the Mr. Redcrosse Knight named in the
title.) Redcrosse is a very faithful and loyal knight, devoted to Jesus Christ, but he also seems a
bit sad.
We learn that he's about to begin an exciting adventure given to him by Queen Gloriana, the
queen of Faerie land, but also a reference to Elizabeth I. He really, really wants to impress the
queen and keeps hoping something exciting will happen so that he can prove his worth. The
quest he's been sent on is to slay a fearsome dragon.
Riding next to him, on a white donkey, is a lovely lady, also very white but whose face is hidden
under a black veil. She looks deeply sad, and by her side walks a milk-white lamb. The lady is
just as virtuous as the lamb, and she's from a formerly great and powerful royal family. But,
sadly, that family has been ruined by the terror of one scary dragon, and it's to help her and her
family out that Redcrosse has taken up this quest.
Pulling up the rear is a dwarf, who's going kind of slowly, which makes sense since the poor guy
is in charge of carrying all her stuff. As they walk, it gets very cloudy and suddenly breaks into a
terrible storm. The rain falls so severely that they all realize they need to find cover.
As luck would have it, a nice shady grove happens to be nearby. They think it might be a good
place to rest since it's very, very dark and full of windy paths leading into the forest. In they go,
and happily they can hear some birds chirping, who must also be hiding from the storm. The
birds certainly are happy about how many wonderful trees there are here: Pine; Cedar; Elm;
Poplar; Oak, Laurel, Fir, Willow, Birch, Myrrh, Beech, Ash, Olive, Plantane, Holme, Maple.
They wander around this tree-filled area until the storm passes, but, surprise, they've gotten lost;
there are just so many different ways to go, they begin to doubt themselves and become
completely confused. Finally, they just choose the one that looks most used and figure that's a
good sign. Soon, they get to a cave in the thickest part of the forest and Redcrosse dismounts to
investigate.
The lady warns him to be careful, reminding them that they have no idea where they are and that
danger can lurk anywhere, sometimes emerging without any prior notice. Redcrosse says it
would be cowardly not to investigate, and besides, he's a good person, and good people prevail
even through darkness.

Not really, says the lady. In fact, she actually now knows where they are and it's such a bad place
she would rather have Redcrosse be a bit cowardly than face it. But it's too late! She goes on to
explain that they have arrived in "Errours den" and that Errour is a horrible monster. The dwarf
recommends they leave immediately. But Redcrosse doesn't listen and in he goes into the cave
and sees the monster: half-serpent, half-woman. Her tail is huge, and full of knots and stingers,
and takes up most of the cave. She has thousands of little monster babies, also weirdly shaped,
who were feeding off her but after seeing Redcrosse, jump into her mouth. Errour is not happy to
see Redcrosse, and rushes toward him but is momentarily put off by the shine of his armor, since
she hates light.
Redcrosse takes advantage of this and attacks her, forcing her not to leave, and strikes her
shoulder. She's momentarily dazed by the blow, but then becomes even angrier, rushes on top of
Redcrosse and wraps him up with her tail. The lady, seeing that things are not going well, urges
Redcrosse to strangle the monster before the monster strangles him.
Redcrosse manages to free one of his arms and grabs the monster by the throat, which loosens
her hold on him, but also causes her to vomit out disgusting poison, that not only smells horrible
but is also filled with books, papers, frogs, and toads. This vomit is just like when the Nile River
in Egypt inundates, and out of its slush a bunch of weird creatures are born.
Brain bite! The Nile is the major river in Egypt and every year it inundates, or overflows, onto its
banks providing much-needed irrigation for the soil. While there is certainly diverse wildlife near
the Nile, there aren't any strange monsters.
The smell of the poisonous vomit is so bad that Redcrosse loses his strength. Seeing this, the
monster then unleashes all her little offspring on him. They're annoying, but don't really seem
able to hurt him.
Redcrosse feels just like a shepherd, who, when the sun sets, gets attacked by gnats. They don't
hurt, but they sure are annoying and hard to get rid of. Redcrosse is now really angry, and afraid
not so much of dying but of the shame of not winning, so he vows to win and rushes at her with
god-like strength... and cuts off her head. Her children freak out when she dies and run over and
start drinking her blood, "making her death their life" (I.i.25).
Redcrosse is pretty grossed out by this and watches as each little monster, after drinking up his
mother, actually bursts apart and dies. Redcrosse thinks they deserve their death and is happy
that these gross little enemies killed themselves without any help from him. The lady sees
Redcrosse's victory and congratulates him, saying that he has shown himself to be worthy of
armor and that he has won a great victoryshe hopes many other great victories are in his
future.
They then find their way out of the forest by sticking to one path and following it to the end, and
continue on their journey looking for adventures. After a long time, they come across an old man

with bare feet, a long grey beard, and a book hanging from his belt. He seems extremely sad,
perhaps repenting for something he's done. Redcrosse greets him and asks if he knows any super
cool adventures in the area that he could begin.
The old man, pretty reasonably, asks Redcrosse why in the world an old hermit (who doesn't
know anything about the world but just sits and repents) would know something like that.
However, he can tell them all about an evil man who has done terrible things to the country
they're in. Redcrosse responds that he would love to hear about someone like that, since that's the
kind of person who knights just live to kill.
The old man responds that this evil person lives in a far away wilderness that no living soul goes
to. The lady interjects and reminds Redcrosse that he's pretty worn out from his last adventure
and that he might want to rest that night before embarking on another fight. The old man chimes
in and agrees with the lady, and Redcrosse is convinced. They all spend the night with the old
man.
The old man lives in a hermitage, far away from anyone else, with an adjoining chapel where he
frequently prays. Even though the old man's house isn't the most happening spot, they all enjoy
resting and hearing the stories the old man tells.
Night falls and they all sleep very heavily maybe too heavily. The old man turns out to be a
magician and casts spells on them to give them nightmares. He casts spells that call up the wife
of the god of the dead, other terrible magicians, and evil spirits from the underworld, one of
whom he sends off to carry a message, another to stay with him and help with his evil mischief.
The messenger spirit heads straight for Morpheus, god of sleep, who lives deep in the earth.
Even though the gates to Morpheus's house are locked, the spirit easily goes in and finds
Morpheus. But he's fast asleep, lulled by soft noises from his cave, completely oblivious to the
spirit's presence.
The spirit tries everything to wake him up, finally mentioning the dreaded name of Hecate, a
fearful witch, which at once rouses the sleeping Morpheus. The spirit explains that he has been
sent by a magician named Archimago (the old man) and that Archimago wants Morpheus to give
Redcrosse, the lady, and the dwarf false dreams.
Morpheus agrees and finds a strange dream to give the spirit. The spirit then takes the dream
back with him to Archimago. Meanwhile, Archimago has been busy. He's turned the second
spirit into a woman who looks exactly like the lady, who we only now find out is named Una.
When the spirit returns with the dream, Archimago sends it to Redcrosse and teaches the second
spirit to imitate Una perfectly.
Redcrosse ends up being cursed with sexually charged dreams of Una, which, once he wakes up,
seems to be true since someone who looks like Una (the second spirit in disguise) is lying

seductively next to him. At this, he gets very upset, since Redcrosse thought she was a pure and
shy virgin sadly, this was a typical expectation men had of women in Spenser's time.
He decides to test her, since she's behaving so out-of-character. She pleads with him, explaining
that he can't blame her for loving him, since God has made her do it. And if she can't be with
him, she'd rather die. Surely, she says, he must understand that she has trusted herself to him and
worries about him. Redcrosse, for some reason, doesn't seem to quite get it, and asks her again
why she's bothering him. She bluntly explains (again) that she loves him and it's been keeping
her awake all night long. Redcrosse, who has never heard a lie before, is becoming a bit more
convinced.
He apologizes that he's causes her pain and responds, somewhat noncommittally, that her love is
very important to him and reminds her that he's promised to never leave her. The spirit, defeated
by Redcrosse's conciliatory response, leaves him alone for the time being. Redcrosse, still uneasy
about Una's behavior, finally falls again into a trouble, and sexualized, sleep. But soon his
dreams leave him in peace, realizing they aren't working their evil magic.
Fairie Queene as an Allegory:
Edmund Spenser stands among the greatest writers of the Elizabethan period whose valuable
contributions fashioned a new tradition in English literature. Nowadays he is hailed to be one of
the chief initiators of the Renaissance movement in English literature. Spenser's rich and
vigorous imagery, and careful treatment of metrical structure left a profound influence on the
succeeding poets and ensured his place as one of the seminal literary artists in the flamboyant
field of English literature.
Spenser reached the highest pinnacle of his art and invention with his romantic tour de force The
Faerie Queene. It has been hailed as Spensers masterpiece, the supreme triumph of the poetic art
in English literature. The poem is an allegorical romance symbolising the moral and spiritual
journey of an individual through innumerable temptations of sins towards the ultimate attainment
of glory and truth. The poem thus has a serious purpose behind its fanciful characters, settings
and events. All the characters in The Faerie Queene have allegorical significance since they
represent abstract ideas. The title character, the Fairy Queen (Gloriana) herself, is meant to
represent Queen Elizabeth. The Red Cross Knight who is appointed by the Fairy Queen to assist
Lady Una in releasing her parents from the prison of Dragon is the embodiment of Holiness,
piety, and true religion (Protestantism). Lady Una stands for truth, goodness and wisdom. Her
parents symbolise humanity held by Evil represented by the foul Dragon. The mission of
Holiness is to champion the cause of Truth and regain the right of human race, held by subjection
by the mighty force of Evil.
For a Christian to be holy, he must have true faith. So Holiness must be grounded in Truth in
order to remain pure and immaculate in the world. As long as Truth and Holiness are united no
evildoer can stand against holiness. The power of truth invigourates Holiness. The plot of Book I

mostly concerns the attempts of evildoers to separate Red Cross from Una to decrease his
strength. Most of these villains are meant by Spenser to represent one thing in common: the
Roman Catholic Church. The poet felt that, in the English Reformation, the people had defeated
false religion (Catholicism) and embraced true religion (Protestantism/Anglicanism).So Red
Cross must defeat villains who mimic the falsehood of the Roman Church. In the course of his
mission he and Una come upon various manifestations of evil. The first encounter is with
monster Error. The monster Error allegorically stands for all sorts of mistakes which every
individual makes in the course of his life. The fight of the Red Cross Knight with the monster
Error symbolises the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. The books and papers
vomited by Error allude to the offensive pamphlets directed against Queen Elizabeth by the
Roman Catholics.
The Red Cross Knight may able to defeat these obvious and disgusting errors, but until he is
united to the truth he is totally lost and can be easily deceived. This deceit is arranged by
Archimago, who symbolises the hypocrisy of Papacy. When Truth and Holiness are separated,
Hypocrisy gets the chance to mislead Holiness. The separation of Truth from Holiness
symbolises the danger of the English Church against the hypocrisy and plots of the Roman
Catholicism.
Once separated, Holiness is susceptible to the opposite of truth or falsehood. Red Cross may able
to defeat the strength of Sansfoy or faithlessness through his own native virtue, but he falls prey
to the tricks of Falsehood herself Duessa. Duessa also represents the Roman Church, both
because she is false faith, and of her rich, purple and gold clothing, which, for Spenser,
displays the greedy wealth and arrogant pomp of Rome. Historically Duessa stands for Queen
Mary who was a Roman Catholic by faith. Having been separated from Truth, the Holiness
becomes weak and feeble. He cannot withstand the fierce attack of Falsehood and becomes a
prey to Duessa. Red Cross becomes a veritable puppet in the hands of Duessa. In the similar
manner Truth also becomes weak and in order to protect her virtue she gets aid and succour from
Lion which stands for Courage. But subsequently the hypocrisy of Archimago makes her an easy
victim Sans Loy who stands for lawlessness. She is later saved by Sir Satyrane who is a symbol
of the Natural force. The implication here is very clear and concrete. Truth cannot be subjected to
Lawlessness for long. It has a natural force which would assuredly impel it to reassert itself
against all hindrance. The humility, symbolised by the Dwarf, informs Truth the story of the
sufferings of Holiness. Then Truth goes in search of Gloriana, the Fairy Queen and Holiness is
led to the palace of Divine Grace by Truth. There he recovers his former strength. He is now
ready to fight against the malignant forces of nature.
Thus at the end Spenser represents the triumph of Holiness and Truth. They may be separated by
various evildoers but ultimately they are united again to bring about the redemption and moral
salvation of human.

The Faerie Queene Important Questions:

What was Spenser's primary purpose in writing The Faerie Queene?
Spenser himself stated that the main goal of his epic was to instruct young men in the ways of
virtuous living. To this end, he uses the examples of several noble knights to work through the
various virtues, overcoming temptations and learning the proper behavior associated with the
virtue, as allegorical stand-ins for the young readers themselves.
How do Spenser's personal beliefs color the epic?
Spenser allowed his own fervent Protestantism to give The Faerie Queene a distinctly antiCatholic bias. Catholic "heresies" are depicted in the person of Grantorto, the monster Errour,
and the failure of the knight Burbon. Each of these episodes serves to promulgate the superiority
of Protestant Christianity over Roman Catholicism.
What view of women is presented in The Faerie Queene?
In many ways, Spenser's view of women as depicted in the epic is ahead of its time. While many
of the damsels in distress are vapid and frail, major characters such as Britomart stand out as
examples of strong femininity. Britomart's gender serves the purpose of the allegory in making
her immune to evil feminine wiles, but Spenser goes further in his depiction of Britomart as a
woman equal in beauty and battle-prowess. Only her future husband, Artegall, can master
Britomart, and he only achieves a form of equality on the field of battle, not superiority.
How is the virtue of Holiness depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Holiness is represented by Redcrosse, a knight bearing the symbol of Jesus Christ upon his
shield. His brand of holiness includes moral and theological purity, as he fights deceptive
monsters on behalf of his lady Una (whose name means "truth"). Una herself reminds Redcrosse
that his holiness proceeds from God, not from within, allowing him to overcome Errour and
eventually to destroy the dragon imprisoning Una's parents. Holiness overcomes false doctrine in
this Book.
How is the virtue of Temperance depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Temperance is the most ambiguously depicted virtue in the epic. Guyon, the knight of
Temperance, is himself often intemperate (he even threatens harm to an old woman!). While he
is a more human character than many of the other walking symbols in the work, his
representation of Temperance is not unequivocally pure even by the end of his quest: as he enters
the Bower of Bliss to destroy it, he is sidetracked by his desire to stand and watch two beautiful,
naked women frolic in a fountain. Only the Palmer--a more mature believer who has taken the
path already--can urge him on his way to fulfill his quest.
How is the virtue of Chastity depicted in The Faerie Queene?

Contrary to popular views, Chastity is not depicted as perpetual abstinence from sexual relations.
Britomart does not seek to remain a virgin all her life; in fact, her quest is to find the man she has
fallen in love with, win his heart, wed him, and raise up a noble and mighty line of rulers. Her
Chastity is more a single-mindedness in love: she will not turn from her path toward her beloved
Artegall for any man, and her gender gives her built-in immunity to the charms of the
temptresses along the way.
How is the virtue of Friendship depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Spenser departs from his traditional single-knight representation of virtues in Book 4, where two
knights must illustrate Friendship through a bond of mutual love. Spenser intentionally sets Book
4 up as a series of balanced pairs, which interlock into tetrads (groups of four). Cambell and
Triamond are the exemplars of friendship; their relationship is double-bonded by their virtuous
wives, Canacee and Cambina, each the sister of her husband's best friend.
How is the virtue of Justice depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Justice is represented by the knight Artegall and by the iron man Talus. Talus shows Justice in its
most mechanical, systematic, and stubborn form. The iron man knows nothing of mercy and
must be repeatedly stopped from slaughtering everyone associated with an unjust character or
place. Artegall is a more fully developed kind of Justice: he is fair and impartial, but knows when
punishment must stop and reconciliation must begin.
How is the virtue of Courtesy depicted in The Faerie Queene?
Calidore is the knight of Courtesy, which in Spenser's day meant proper behavior in relation to
the social classes, particularly the nobles (those who reside in the sovereign's court). Spenser
follows the traditional depiction of Courtesy as a virtue of those born to high estate and raised
properly by courteous parents. At the same time, he introduces the problem of nature versus
nurture into the equation in the form of Tristram, who has not been raised properly but is
nonetheless courteous due to his noble lineage; and the Savage Man, who has no noble heritage
but was raised properly by his adopted parents and behaves most courteously in the epic. That
the Savage Man saves the knight of Courtesy and is himself immune to any knight's weapon
suggests that Spenser saw Courtesy as a universal virtue rather than one limited to societal
constructs.
How does The Faerie Queene fit into the chivalric tradition?
Spenser self-consciously imitated the works of Thomas Malory and the purveyors of the
Arthurian legends in his epic. However, he also takes critical shots at the code of chivalry by
depicting many of the knights as immoral, lazy, cowardly, and incompetent. There is an
undercurrent of critique against the romantic tradition in his repeated use of the "damsel in
distress" trope as a catalyst for confusion and foolishness on the part of the otherwise virtuous

knights. The best example of this is Florimell, who lures even Arthur off his path with her
fleeting beauty.