Fraudubio: The Living Tree in The Faerie Queene

Fraudubio is a minor character in book 1 of The Faerie Queene who was turned into a tree by Duessa.

While traveling with Duessa, the Redcrosse knight sits beneath Fraudubio in tree form, and accidentally tears a branch off him which starts to bleed. If that wasn’t freaky enough, Fraudubio then begins talking to the Redcrosse knight, telling him his story.

Fraudubio tells him that he was tricked by the same woman that the Redcrosse knight is following, although St. George doesn’t know it yet, and that when he tried to go back to his wife, Duessa turned him into a tree.

It is a sad story that, unfortunately, St. George ignores and falls into the same trap.

See our complete list of Arthurian characters for more entries like this one.

Arthurian Bibliography

• Norris Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, Debra Mancoff – The Arthurian Handbook (Second Edition)
• Alan Lupack – The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend
• Ronan Coghlan – The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Arthurian Legends
• Anonymous – Lancelot-Grail, the French Vulgate
• Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur