Mammon is a mysterious character that appears in book 2 of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. He is a primary tempter of Sir Guyon, focusing on earthly wealth, riches, and the like.
And he has a lot of money. Like, a lot a lot.
His entire purpose is to accumulate more and more wealth and keep it for himself.
His Role in The Faerie Queene
Mammon was clearly not well liked by Spenser, because he places Mammon’s lair right next to the entrance to the underworld.
His encounter with Guyon largely mimics the New Testament account of Jesus facing the devil, making Mammon a dastardly villain indeed.
Thankfully our hero, Guyon, is the night of temperance, which means that nothing Mammon throws at him manages to sway him in the least. However, his experience in the underworld is dramatic and exhausting, resulting in Guyon losing consciousness upon returning to the real world.
If not for the actions of the Palmer, Guyon might have died while unconscious, meaning that Mammon might have come close to being the villain that bested him.
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
See also my ever-expanding list of primary and secondary sources.
