Caelia is a Fairy Queen

Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen was a figure from English folklore who was said to rule the fairies. Fairy Queen may also refer to:*The Faerie Queene, a poem by Edmund Spenser*Fairy Queen , an Indian steam locomotive...

 in Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson (16th century)

Richard Johnson was an English romance writer. He was baptized in London on May 4, 1573. His most famous work is The Famous Historie of the Seaven Champions of Christendom . The success of this book was so great that the author added a second and a third part in 1608 and 1616...

's romance

Romance (genre)

As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...

 Tom a Lincoln. Caelia is the ruler of an island called "Fairy Land," populated by women who have slain their warmongering men. She begs Tom and his companions to stay on the island so that it might be re-peopled. She eventually bears Tom's son, the Faerie Knight

Faerie Knight

The Faerie Knight was, in the Matter of Britain, a bastard son of Tom a'Lincoln and Caelia, the Faerie Queen. His proper name is never given. He appears in Richard Johnson's romance Tom a' Lincoln....

, but later commits suicide by drowning herself when she thinks herself abandoned by Tom.

She further appears in Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

's The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...

as the ruler of the House of Holiness where with the help of her three daughters she helps the Redcrosse Knight (the epic's protagonist) regain his strength and holiness to complete his quest. Caelia is described in Canto X of Book I. Her name refers to the Heavenly Spirit. She resides in the House of Holiness, which serves as the direct opposite of the House of Pride that appears earlier in the book. She is the image of how a good mother should appear. Her joys come from helping lost souls, and doing good deeds all day long. She is the mother of Faith, Hope, and Charity, otherwise known as Fidelia, Speranza, and Charissa.

Perhaps coincidentally, a fairy

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...

 named Celia also appears in Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

's 1882 comic opera

Comic opera

Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...

 Iolanthe

Iolanthe

Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....

as an attendant of another Fairy Queen. She too takes a mortal lover at the opera's conclusion.