Stories from the Faerie Queene

by Mary Macleod

Spenser's The Faerie Queene is one of the masterpieces of English poetry, and certainly part of the literary pedigree that culminated in Tolkien. However, the original text is very difficult to follow for modern readers because of the archaic language and spelling. To the rescue comes Mary Macleod. Her late Victorian retelling in straightforward modern English allows one to plow through Spenser's intricate and allegorical plot. If you are planning to read the Faerie Queene, or want to understand the narrative but don't have the time or patience to tangle with an epic poem in early modern English, you've come to the right place.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Fantasy, Poetry, Childrens, Audiobook, Retellings

302 pages, Paperback

Published June 10, 2021

Reviews

[Tori Samar]

These prose retellings are a good way to orient oneself to the storylines in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. I read a section of this book before reading the corresponding FQ canto(s) and found that doing so really helped me keep my bearings. Note: Because children are the intended audience for MacLeod’s retellings, some of the more “adult” portions of the original are not included.

[Hannah]

This was such a great read. Gwen and I both loved it. It was admittedly hard to keep track of characters and plot lines, as it gets pretty complicated, but the stories were really compelling and thought provoking. It makes me want to attempt the real thing again one day. Having tried and failed to read it once, I think having read this simplified version first would be a big help to getting through the original.
One gripe I have is the typos. One or two I can forgive, but this copy has one every page! It needs an edit and update.

[Timilyn]

I really appreciated having this to read & get the gist of the story & who the characters were before reading the poem proper. And my boys (turned 7 & 5 over the span we read) have an introduction too.

[Diana]

This book helped me so much while reading Spenser's original.

[Mark]

This book was cool. It's basically Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene put into long fairytale-style prose—so it's not an epic poem, and it's not really, really long. It's still about 80k words, though, but only one book instead of seven.

This helped immensely for me to gather the plot and story. Actually, it helps with understanding the allegory, too. I noticed a few slight differences, however, unless I imagined those (which is entirely possible). I thought I remembered Duessa taking on Una's form—but she doesn't seem to do that here. Did she ever? I'll have to check the notes I ordered on The Faerie Queene when they arrive.

Although this is condensed and made understandable in a linear non-poetic way, I wouldn't say it's particularly simplified—nor does it seem to be dramatized. You still have to pay attention, but if you do, it's pretty easy to follow (as opposed to books where it's hard to follow no matter what). I'll admit I paid a lot more attention throughout the first half of the book. Maybe I'll listen to the second half again some time—but not any time soon.

I got a lot of good insights through this book. It's a valuable resource. However, you'll get different things from the epic. For instance, this book doesn't go into all the gory descriptions of evil characters. The epic really makes them sound horrid. This book just kind of mentions them. There are other things, too, but I don't remember which ones at the moment.

Oh, heh, heh. One that just struck me is that the epic mentions leeches (meaning people who use leeches to bleed people) all over the place—it's kind of funny for a modern reader, I think, to hear a person be called a leech. I don't remember a single mention of one in this book.

I was going to give this four stars, but then I figured that since it's such a valuable resource of a sort that I had hoped to find—one that really does help—(and since it's free) then I would give it an extra star.

[Karleen]

I love it when my child falls in love with a book. He begged for this every night and when it was over, we started again from the beginning. It is his favorite read-aloud yet. This is an exciting retelling of the stories of knights and ladies from The Faerie Queen. It was a huge hit with my fairytale-loving boy. I'm interested to read the real thing now.

[Brent]

Sizzling fan fiction in the Arthurian macroverse.

[Lady reading under the Willow]

As our introduction to Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," this little book by Jeanie Lang was lovely and helpful. We thought it beneficial to encounter the stories before tackling the original, therefore read it aloud this summer as a prerequisite to our upcoming literature studies.

The stories feel quite medieval and are written in a courtly, noble fashion. They were a joy to read aloud, though most of them were sad or at least had sad parts (but happy endings).

This volume contains retellings of the following:

1. Una and the Lion
2. St. George and the Dragon
3. Britomart and the Magic Mirror
4. The Quest of Sir Guyon
5. Pastorella
6. Cambell and Triamond
7. Marinell, the Sea-Nymph's Son
8. Florimell and the Witch

Our youngest listener was 5.5, but if I had pre-read I may have chosen to wait a year or so, but honestly we already read a Beowulf retelling which had similar elements and it's been fine.

Elements for consideration in "Stories from the Faerie Queen" include but are not limited to:

- Wicked magicians, robbers, knights, witches, dragons, etc.

- Death of faithful animals

- Battles and mentions of blood and death, fights with wild beasts, knights being slain in tournaments

- Kidnapping of ladies and holding them prisoner, also of bad men chasing and/or attacking ladies

- A magic mirror which is also called/resembles a crystal ball

- Some characters pine for someone they love, and nearly die of it

- Some characters attempt to force a lady to marry them

- A baby is left in the bushes and later rescued by a shepherd

- There is much weeping and wounding

(There may be more I have forgotten, but I failed to keep notes so cannot recall.)

We did the ebook download from Project Gutenberg and we're happy with it. However, it would be fun to find a paper copy someday!

[Andrew Hoy]

I listened to the audiobook of this, and to be honest, not that closely. I was mainly previewing it to see if it would be a good book to put on our list for fourth through sixth grade students. Overall, I think it could be a decent book for the reading list, especially if the students will be reading the Faerie Queene at a later age. It also includes many fun, epic stories that display a virtue, and provide a glimpse into the medieval mind.

[Melissa Bair]

Read with the girls this year (they were 8 and 10). They got a beautiful taste of the Faerie Queene and heard about Una, Britomart, and Marinell and Florimell. They want to read the Mary MacLeod retelling next!

[Amanda]

Not exactly the version I read. mine was a Naxos audiobook read by John Moffat.

The poetry is lovely to listen to, but I'm going to need lots of help from LitLife to understand any of it. They've recommended an annotated version which I may ask for for Christmas...

[Julie Mabus]

This was a great introduction to the Faerie Queen. The kids enjoyed it and it helped me work through the first book of Spencer’s Faerie Queen.

[Susan Ayers]

Ready for the real Faerie Queen now!

[Diane]

I read this alongside Spenser's Faerie Queene and it greatly helped me to understand the work!

[Katelynn]

A great read for dipping a toe into the Faerie Queen stories before making the full jump into Spencer. Read aloud for a group knight adventure.

[Mel]

A great way to, very accessibly, orient yourself in the story of Spenser’s, The Fairie Queen. One day I hope to read the original in full instead of just book 1 🫣.

[Red]

henry purcell made a musical piece with the same name but that was an other story afterall

[Tracey Wear]

A lot easier read than the original.

[Jessica✨]

Epic, epic and epic. I only read part of the story with Britomart, but I'm currently trying to get the full version.
Update #1: Found full version, currently reading.

[Angela Bergeron]

I did this as a read aloud and all of my kids enjoyed it. It was a good introduction to the faerie queene and the stories were interesting.