ABSTRACT
The Faerie Queene may be considered the first major work of fantasy in the Western world. Successor to but distinct from medieval romance in which elements of fantasy conventionally infuse the primary world, the poem establishes fantasy as an autonomous secondary world. Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, with which it is often compared, mingles human and superhuman elements but largely contains its action within the identifiable map of Europe. Coleridge, who noted the remarkable absence of specific time and place in Spenser’s poem, identified this secondary world as a mental landscape (ed 1936:36). Spenser’s Fairyland is a visionary world which, like a dream, follows its own strange laws and moves in its own wondrous ways. In this world, magic is operative, and spirits lurk in wood and well. Characters frequently possess magical powers and inspire awe or fear. Of particular importance is the figure of the wizard, whether projected positively as Merlin or negatively as Archimago. Events deal with archetypal themes such as coming of age, struggles with monsters, death and rebirth. The narrative structure, particularly in the first three books, is a physical journey which is also a spiritual quest. Ultimately the landscape of Fairyland offers a mirror of the human imagination, and the reader’s experience there represents an inward journey.
