Sansfoy: Saracen Brother in The Faerie Queene

Sansfoy is one of three brothers (with the other two being Sansjoy and Sansloy), who shows up in the first book of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene.

His name means “without faith” or “faithless”, and he is a Saracen, generally considered to be a Muslim or nonbeliever. He is eventually killed by the Redcrosse knight early on in the story.

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