Redcrosse Timeline and Summary
MoreRedcrosse Timeline and Summary
- Redcrosse, knight in training and hero of Book I, is charged by the Faerie Queene to slay a dragon bothering the kingdom of Una and her parents.
- He and Una travel together, along with her dwarf, until they come upon the monster Errour, who Redcrosse slays.
- Soon after, they come across the magician Archimago in disguise who takes them home and tricks Redcrosse into thinking Una is unfaithful to him. Tough luck.
- Upset, Redcrosse leaves, meets and kill the knight Sansfoy and joins up with his companion, the witch Duessa, also in disguise. Worse and worse.
- The two of them come across Fraudubio, a man changed into a tree by Duessa, but Redcrosse, alas, never figures this out.
- They then arrive at the house of Pride, where Redcrosse fights with Sansjoy and becomes suspicious of the whole place after hearing about prisoners she keeps trapped.
- He meets up again with Duessa and is defeated by the giant Orgoglio, who throws him in prison and makes Duessa his queen.
- After a while, he's freed by Arthur and Una and the two swear eternal friendship before Arthur has to leave.
- Una and Redcrosse then come across the knight Trevisan, fleeing from Despair, who Redcrosse then challenges himself.
- But Despair is a tricky character, and almost convinced Redcrosse to kill himself before Una intervenes.
- Una then takes Redcrosse to the house of Caelia where he learns how to live a moral, Christian life and where he learns his future identity as St. George.
- They leave the house of Caelia and then, finally, come to Una's kingdom where Redcrosse fights the dragon for days and then finally kills him. Huzzah!
- Una's parents are, naturally, overjoyed, and then Una and Redcrosse get engaged, after Redcrosse clears up a little misunderstanding about his past relationship with Duessa.
- But Redcrosse's works isn't over yet since he's promised the Faerie Queene six years of service.
- In fact, we meet him soon in Book II, where he's falsely accused by Duessa of raping her.
- Guyon almost fights him over this, but luckily, they straighten everything out.
- We then catch up with Redcrosse when he helps Britomart fight Malecasta's knights, and ends up telling her all about Arthegall.
- They leave on good terms, swearing eternal friendship, and we don't meet Redcrosse again until Book V, where he knights Burbon.