I also suffered a bit from some burnout during the writing of this book, which is why it wasn’t available at its original pre-order date. I do apologize for that, but I’m sure a great majority of you reading this didn’t even know about that. Suffice it to say, future books should not take as long in writing. I’ve already begun work on the next one.
As with the first two books, I’ve provided a summary of the original poem, along with detailed explanations of what I’ve changed and why. I hope you enjoy!
Summary of Book 3 of The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
The main virtue for Book 3 of The Faerie Queene is that of Chastity, meaning abstinence before marriage, and a healthy love-life after marriage.
Unlike past books, where one hero embodies this virtue, this book has several. The most prominent of these is Britomart, a female knight. But other female figures also offer this quality, or varying aspects of it, including Belphoebe, Florimell, and Amoret.
Guyon and Arthur are continuing their travels since we last saw them in Book 2, when they come across Britomart, who engages Guyon in combat and knocks him off his horse, the first time Guyon has been beaten. Thanks to some calming words from the Palmer, they all become friends and set off traveling together.
After some time, a damsel in distress rides across their path, shortly pursued by a vagabond who clearly has some nefarious ideas in mind. Guyon and Arthur go off to find the damsel, while Arthur’s squire, Timias, specifically goes after the evil pursuer. We will later learn that this damsel is the fair Florimell, who’s own peculiar form of chastity is that she runs from all potentially unchaste encounters.
Britomart, meanwhile, was left behind and continues on her own. She comes upon six knights who are beating up another. When she confronts them, we find that the victim is none other than George, the Red Cross knight from Book 1. The six knights have been abusing him because he would not say that their lady was the fairest in the land, instead holding onto his true love, Una (which is kind of sweet when you think about it). Britomart helps him defeat the six knights, and then they confront the lady of the castle.
That lady is called Malecasta, and she falls deeply in love with Britomart, thinking she is a man since she’s dressed in armor. That night she steals into Britomart’s chambers, but Britomart leaps out of bed and draws her sword. Malecasta shrieks and faints, waking the whole castle.
As they leave, George and Britomart talk. Britomart tells him of her history, that she is the daughter of King Ryence, of South Wales. She is searching for Artegall, whom she says has committed a foul betrayal, but she’s secretly in love with him after she saw him in a magic mirror given to her father by Merlin. After seeing the vision she had fallen ill with love and her nurse Glauce had offered to help.
Britomart and Glauce had gone to see Merlin, who had foretold that Britomart and Artegall were destined to have a royal line of progeny that would eventually result in a virgin queen on the throne (Spenser’s really trying to get on Queen Elizabeth’s good side here). After speaking with Merlin, Britomart and Glauce disguise themselves in enchanted armor captured from a Saxon queen.
Back in the present, Britomart and George part and Britomart eventually comes to the coast where she finds a knight named Marinell who will not let her continue. They fight and she wounds Marinell, so she continues on. Turns out Marinell was the son of a sea nymph, Cymoent. And he had been warned against getting too close to women because of a prophecy that he would be defeated by a virgin.
Cymoent learns what has happened to her son. Finding him still alive, she takes him to the bottom of the ocean and sends for Tryphon to heal him.
At this point we return to Florimell, who is still running while pursued by multiple men. Arthur manages to get the closest, but he runs into a dwarf who has been searching for Florimell as well. The dwarf tells him that Florimell is actually in love with Marinell, the man recently wounded by Britomart. Marinell wouldn’t return her affection thanks to that prophecy.
Meanwhile Arthur’s squire, Timias, has been pursuing the Foster, the man who had been pursuing Florimell. He finds the man and two brothers who apprehend him and wound him severely, though not before he kills the three of them. At that moment, Belphoebe, a local wild woman who we met briefly in Book 2, shows up and treats his wound. Timias falls in love with Belphoebe, though that love is pretty much unrequited.
We learn of Belphoebe’s origin, which is a long and complicated tale of how she and her twin sister, Amoret, were separated at birth and raised by the goddesses Diana and Venus respectively.
Florimell finally stops at a witch’s cottage. There, the witch’s son lustfully seeks after her, and she runs away again. The witch sends a great hyena-like creature after her, but she barely manages to escape by getting into a boat and going out to sea. The owner happens to be sleeping in the boat at the time.
Since the monster failed to catch Florimell, it eats her horse. A knight named Satyrane (who we met briefly in Book 1) shows up and sees the beast eating the horse, and he notices Florimell’s girdle, which she had dropped nearby. Satyrane manages to overpower the beast, but it escapes. While traveling he comes upon a squire caught by a giant. With the help of another mysterious knight, they rescue the squire who calls himself the Squire of Dames. His job has basically been to “do service” to hundreds of women and see how many refuse.
Meanwhile the monster has returned to the witch’s hut with Florimell’s girdle. Presuming Florimell to be dead, and wishing to appease her son, the witch creates a false Florimell through witchcraft. The son and the false Florimell wander through the woods when they are found by Braggadocchio (one of the thieves from Book 2) who carries the false Florimell away, though she is quickly taken away again by some mysterious new knight.
The real Florimell is meanwhile still on the boat, and the owner has awoken and is sexually pursuing her. As she cries for help, the god Proteus comes to her rescue and takes her to a cavern-palace at the bottom of the sea. He then...tries to seduce her. Florimell can’t seem to get a break from these people. When she refuses, he locks her up.
Moving back to Satyrane and the Squire of Dames, they come upon a castle and meet up with a knight called Paridell. The lord of the castle, Malbecco, is a man who hoards riches and is jealous of his wife, Hellenore, not letting her see anyone. Britomart shows up and, after a brief scuffle with Paridell, joins with the group. They decide to burn down the gate, at which point Malbecco finally lets them enter. Paridell is quite taken with Hellenore, and proceeds to try and woo her.
The next day, Britomart and Satyrane leave the castle, but Paridell stays with Hellenore, somehow managing to sleep with her, despite the jealous eye of her husband, Malbecco. Eventually they run off together, lighting Malbecco’s treasure on fire to distract him enough that they can escape. Malbecco pursues with the help of Braggadocchio and Tompart, whom he meets on the road. They eventually find Paridell who has grown tired of Hellenore and left her in the forest. He has often left women like this. Malbecco continues until he finds Hellenore with a bunch of satyrs. He tries to persuade her to leave, but she’s happy with the satyrs and refuses to go. Malbecco ends up becoming a wild man in a cave, consumed by his jealousy.
Britomart and Statyrane have found a giant and are pursuing it when they are separated. Britomart eventually comes upon Sir Scudamore, passed out and in distress. He eventually tells her that his love, Amoret, has been taken by a sorcerer named Busirane in his castle. Scudamore is past exhaustion trying to get to the sorcerer, and Britomart agrees to help. She passes through a wall of fire to enter the sorcerer’s castle, and enters what is essentially a shrine to cupid, with various erotic depictions of love and hero’s conquered by love on the walls.
Over one door she finds an inscription: “Be bold.” In another room, the inscription over the door says: “Be not too bold.” Britomart hasn’t been able to find any kind of life so far, so following the council written above the doors, she decides to wait patiently.
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br /> As the night wanes, there is an earthquake, a storm, and the personifications of various emotions come through the doors. After they make their march through the chamber where Britomart is waiting, she proceeds through the door they had come from. There, she finds Amoret bound to a pillar. Busirane is using blood from Amoret’s heart to write strange runes. Britomart, horrified at what she sees, forces Busirane to reverse the spell on Amoret. He does so, then he is bound and led away. Britomart and Amoret leave the castle, but find that Scudamore and Glauce, Britomart’s nurse, have gone away in search of help.
The Adaptation
I will admit, this book resulted in the most changes. This is due to two things: 1) Spenser’s Book 3 is by far the most complicated plot so far, with the introduction of a lot of characters and convoluted storylines, and 2) Trying to continue plot lines begun in books 1 and 2 of this series. The following is a general list of changes and my rationale for making them.
Meeting Britomart
The beginning starts our quite similar to the epic poem, but given Brit’s somewhat fiery disposition in the poem, I decided to run with that and furthermore make her a foreigner so as to increase the social disconnect between her and others. I was originally going to make her a Saxon, but that ended up not working. After all, her name is BRIT-omart, and she’s meant to embody Queen Elizabeth I in the original. Making her an invader, even though Saxons would eventually become just as much a part of Britain as its original inhabitants, just didn’t quite line up. I did, however, make the man she is hunting for, Artegall, a Saxon.
In crafting Brit’s character, I also knew that having her searching for her true love would be somewhat at odds with her more independent nature. While it’s certainly possible to have a “true love” and be everything Brit wants to be, undiminished by her relationships, I was reasonably certain that someone like her would not view it this way at first. And as I’m developing her character arc for future books, I knew I needed to start her off as not wanting to be “tied down” as she sees it. We’ll see how that character arc develops in future books (winky face).
Wrath
Since I’d made the decision to use the Seven Deadly Sins as the main antagonists of series, I knew I needed someone to play that leading villain role for this book. The main theme of the original book is Chastity, but I immediately knew that there would be problems with this approach, not the least of which is the fact that we had already apprehended the Sin of Lust. So I decided to switch the theme to overcoming anger. That made Wrath the perfect candidate for the main villain.
I decided to give him the actions of several characters within the poem, including the ill-fated Marinell who stops them along the coast, the son of the witch who sends the hyena monster, and the god Proteus.
Since Brit is the primary character who struggles with anger, it made sense to have Wrath be present at the end when Brit triumphs over herself and rescues Amoret.
Una and Florimell
As you probably guessed by now, I combined the characters of Una and Florimell. As I was reading the poem, I realized that the two had very similar stories. Florimell, like Una in Book 1, is often pursued by lustful men, and frequently flees in response. So I made the decision to cut Florimell from the book, and instead give her role to Una, since Una was not in the original Book 3 anyway, and needed some things to do.
Additionally, having more men pursue her the way they do, could only add to Una’s anger, which fit with the theme of the book. Wrath’s little infatuation also fit quite nicely, especially when the Sin of Wrath was originally described as riding on the back of a lion in Book 1 of Spenser’s poem.
Merging Una and Florimell also gave me the opportunity to play with the plot device of the “false” copy. This will have more to do with Book 4, but this ends up playing exactly into a plot thread of my own, the emergence of Una’s father back into the world. So instead of a False Florimell, we have a False Una. I’m excited for where this is going in Book 4.
Malecasta and Malbecco
In an effort to simplify the plot, I made Malecasta and Malbecco a couple, and we find out later in the poem that Malbecco is actually the Sin of Envy, which made sense since Malbecco is an embodiment of jealousy. The original encounter between Brit and Malecasta, as well as the cameo appearance by the Red Cross knight, all follow the poem fairly well. It’s not until we return to the castle that we deviate from the original plot somewhat.
Here I’ve had to simplify extensively, all but removing Paridell from the narrative (though he does make a short appearance in Brit’s anger fit), and removing other characters like Satyrane, the Squire of Dames, and the giants from the narrative.
Ultimately, though we do meet Malbecco in the form of Envy later in the poem, most of that plot line had to be cut in favor of resolving some of my own plot threads, and as a way of transitioning the characters to the ending.
Guyon and Belphoebe
Since Arthur and Timias had previously been cut from Book 2, I didn’t use them in this book either. Instead, I decided to keep Guyon around and give some of Timias’ role to him. However, the villains he’s pursuing are not themselves pursing Florimell, but Belphoebe. This made sense because Belphoebe is the one to rescue Guyon in the poem, so I thought it fitting to simplify the plot by making her the original object of the thieves' hunt.
The decision to make Belphoebe and Amoret daughters of the Faerie Queen was also my own, but one that isn’t too much of a stretch, since both are “born of Faerie” and Belphoebe in particular represents Queen Elizabeth I, also represented by the character of Gloriana. This also gave a reason for why the forces of darkness would capture Amoret and hunt Belphoebe.
Completely Original Plot Lines
In order to continue plot threads I started in other books, namely Una’s role and the identity of her parents, I’ve had to add wholly new scenes. These include her confrontation with the Faerie Queen, her capture by Duessa, and the rescue by George. Thankfully, I think I’ve managed to fit these storylines in rather well. The theme of overcoming anger allowed me to give Una a bit of hubris that would make her confront the Faerie Queen and grow just overconfidence enough to lead to her capture. George’s cameo at the beginning of the book also allowed a perfect excuse to bring him in again at the end.
In doing this, I not only fit them with events of the original poem, but also set up a number of important plot threads for Book 4, some of which are in the original poem, and some of which are not.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this installment of The Faerie Queen, and that you’ll join me for my next book, Knight Fallen, in which we get more of Britomart, learn more of Una’s father, and see what that False Una is up to.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider giving it a review on Amazon. Every little bit helps others find the series.
See you in the next book!
About the Author
Jason Hamilton is an unapologetic nerd of all things science fiction and fantasy. He is the creative director of the Arthurian Legends Universe, and the editor-in-chief of ArthurLegends.com, as well as the other of other works of fiction.
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www.jasonleehamilton.com
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www.arthurlegends.com
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Also by Jason Hamilton
Roots of Creation
A New Light (short story)
Out of Shadow
Growing Ripples
Through Fire
Into Storm
To World’s Above
As Winter Spawns
Seeds of Hope
In Creation’s Heart
Knight Spellbound Page 26