Gloriana is the fairy queen in Edmund Spenser’s epic poem “The Faerie Queene.”
Gloriana serves as the distant central monarch whose annual twelve-day feast launches the poem’s quests. Each knight receives an adventure connected with a virtue, making the poem both a romance narrative and an allegorical exploration of moral qualities.
Spenser published the first three books in 1590 and three more in 1596. He planned a much larger structure, but the poem remained unfinished when he died. Queen Elizabeth I is widely understood to be an important historical inspiration for Gloriana, though the poem transforms real politics into elaborate myth.
Gloriana should not be confused with Una, a major character in Book I, or Britomart, the female knight associated with chastity in Book III. Titania, meanwhile, is the fairy queen in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”