An Unyielding Past: Holy Wells and Historical Narrative in The Faerie Queene 1–2

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines the wells found in 1.7, 1.11, and 2.1–2 of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and reads them alongside the long and syncretic history of holy well ritual practices in England. The essay borrows Jonathan Gil Harris's notion of "polychronic objects" to argue that holy wells, which were used by pagans, Catholics, and Protestants on the British Isles, are multivalent symbols that collate various moments in England's history. In the three episodes explored here, Spenser exploits this feature of holy wells in order to stage a conflict between the nation's Catholic and pagan past and its Protestant future. The episodes thus reveal the power of the polychronic landscape to recall the nation's past and complicate narratives about its future.