This web page is designed to give its viewers a better understanding of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen.  This page will only deal with book one and more specifically the imagery of the lush forests and its effects on the relationship dynamics of Una and Red Cross Knight.  To begin I suggest going to the Edmund Spenser Home Page so that you can get a little background information on the Elizabethan period and to our class home page which explains the assignment which sparked this brilliant effort.  If there are any further questions you may have about any other parts of Book One of The Faerie Queen you can look up topics by single words on the wonderful search engine for The Faerie Queen which was created by Matt Kozusko.  Now that we are all on the same page,  the characters of Una (also Vna in the text) and Red Cross Knight (also Redcrosse Knight) are overcome by a rain storm and attempt to take refuge in a dense wood early in Canto I.  This circumstance propels these characters into a very sticky situation.  The forest in this episode parallels the Biblical Garden of Eden. It is this parallel which exemplifies how Una and her Knight are replicas of Una's parents, Adam and Eve.  This episode is the first temptation Una and Red Cross Knight face together in the text of The Faerie Queen. This temptation exemplifies how Holiness and Truth struggle to maintain composure while being tempted and tried in the world. 

              But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,  
                    The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,  
                     For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,     
                     And dead as liuing euer him ador'd:  
                     Vpon his shield the like was also scor'd,  
                     For soueraine hope, which in his helpe he had:  
                     Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,  
                     But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;   
                  Yet nothing did he dread, but euer was ydrad.  

The blood soaked cross is a direct link between Red Cross Knight and Jesus.  The next line states directly that it is a "remembrance of his dying Lord."  This parallel between the Knight and Christ give a perfect background for placing the label of Holiness on Red Cross Knight. It is this Holiness and the temptation and fall from holiness which gives the woods (and thus evil) power over the knight.  Unlike his Lord, Red cross Knight is not able to resist the temptations of the garden or the woods. 

     Next we meet Una.  The picture we are given of her in Canto 1, Stanza 2 is one in which she is paralleled to the Virgin Mary.  Spenser places the fair Una on a "lowly Asse more white then snow" and it is this placement which likens Una to Mary for Mary is always associated with riding a white mule into Bethlehem for Jesus' birth.  Spencer also describes Una as "much whiter" but this show of her purity she hides "Under a vele, that wimpled was full low."  Her attire which hides her purity is that of one in mourning.  Canto 1, Stanza 4 goes on to say
                   
                    And ouer all a blacke stole she did throw,
                    As one that inly mournd: so was she sad,
                    And heauie sat vpon her palfrey slow:
                    Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
                    And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.

The color black is a definite sign of mourning and this is a direct link to the purpose of the mission.  Una and Red Cross Knight are on a mission to save Una's parents, Adam and Eve. In this symbolic action Una, truth and the Church, and Red Cross Knight, her betrothed Jesus figure, are off to save the world from sin.  The weight and sin of the world seemingly sits upon both of their hearts. The couple is characterized by their solemness. (The lamb in this scene indicated further her symbolic relationship to Christ) She is shown both as the Mary mother figure and as the Church and subsequent bride of Christ. This purity coupled with the Dwarfe who follows her (he represents the conscious) are those things which allow her to be likened to Truth.  Her innocence together with the questioning nature of her conscience are the aspects which when combined seek truth.  It is this purity and innocence which also leaves her venerable to the evil and the temptation which her parents succumbed to in the Garden of Eden.  Even though both Una and Red Cross Knight exude the properties which make them good they are human.  Their humanity is that aspect which allows them to be tempted and is that which gives the woods power over them. 

                    And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
                    Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
                    Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
                    Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky.
                    Much can they prayse the trees so straight and hy,
                    The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
                    The vine-prop Elme, the Poplar neuer dry,
                    The builder Oake, sole king of forrests all,
                    The Aspine good for staues, the Cypresse funerall.

Pleasure is that aspect of sin which makes people tempted to do it.  If sin were difficult or unpleasant then there would be no problem; no one would do it.  The fact that this wood is lovely and enchanting is that fact which gives the forest its sinister nature.  Una and Red Cross Knight are happy and bathed in pleasure while in the wood.  There is sweet music being played and the trees are beautiful. This is such a scene to which many a lover has succumbed.  These two with their supposed ability to resist these temptations regain their composure and attempt to leave at this point.

     The rain stops and the couple wishes to leave the wood (as any pious person would).  Upon attempting to get back on the path Spenser shows them confused and lost.  Canto 1, Stanza 10 plays with the couple somewhat.  It gives them some depth of character by showing their gladness to be in the shelter (and thus in the sin which is the woods) and also depicts their want to get back to "Holiness", or back on the path.

                    Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
                    Vntill the blustring storme is ouerblowne;
                    When weening to returne, whence they did stray,
                    They cannot finde that path, which first was showne,
                     But wander too and fro in wayes vnknowne,
                     Furthest from end then, when they neerest weene,
                     That makes them doubt, their wits be not their owne:
                     So many pathes, so many turnings seene,
                     That which of them to take, in diuerse doubt they been.

Searching for the path proves to be much more difficult than one might imagine.  Using the symbol of the dark woods as sin and paralleling it to the legend of the Garden of Eden works as a tool for Spenser.  Because his Knight is like Christ the couple is able to return to the path unlike Adam and Eve who could not escape their sin.  Una and Red Cross Knight are now on their way to continue their symbolic attempt at saving Una's parents and thus saving the world from sin.  

     Now that Una and her Knight have made it through this first test  they must go on to face bigger temptations.  This is precisely how Holiness and Truth must struggle and overcome battles in the world.  Even though the woods were sweet smelling and beautiful "mood" music filled the air Una and Red Cross Knight kept their composure and got back on that path which (as you will see later in your reading of the poem) they thought would lead them out of temptation (if you didn't catch it that was a Lord's Prayer reference) and back to their quest.  Like the everyday quests of mortal people Una and Red Cross Knight will now go on to fight more terrifying battles.  Like the old saying goes, what does not kill them will in the end make them stronger and more able to fight off evil in the future.