Medina: The Middle Sister in The Faerie Queene

Medina is a character in book 2 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. She represents the sensible middleground between her two sisters: Elissa and Perissa.

This makes sense when you consider that book 2 of The Faerie Queen is all about temperance, which Medina embodies. Both of her sisters represent opposing extremes, but she is the balance between them, displaying kindness, generosity, peacemaking, and everything else that is wonderful about being moderate.

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