and full of pride He thinks bravery alone is enough We understand that the knight is courageous but lacks wisdom Spiritually it shows that a young Christian often enters danger without fully understanding it Appearance of the Monster Error The knight enters a dark cave and sees the Monster Error She is described as half woman and half serpent very ugly and disgusting Halfe like a serpent horribly displaide But th'other halfe did womans shape retaine Her long tail fills the cave and she has a deadly sting There are thousands of young ones They are sucking poison from her breast The monster stands for false religion The young ones beside her represent the followers of false religion The cave stands for darkness and ignorance Error lives in darkness because lies cannot survive in light The Fight Begins When Error sees the knight s shining armor she is frightened She tries to escape But the knight blocks her way and attacks her bravely At first the knight strikes her strongly and wounds her But soon Error fights back fiercely She wraps her long tail around the knight and traps him tightly The knight cannot move his hands or feet This moment shows how lies and sin can trap a person completely if he is not careful Role of Lady Una While the knight is trapped Lady Una cries out to him She tells him to add faith to his strength She says Add faith unto your force and be not faint She warns him that if he does not act quickly Error will destroy him Her advice gives the knight new courage With great effort he frees one hand and grabs Error by the throat This shows that truth and faith help holiness defeat sin Without Una s guidance the knight would have lost the fight Error s Vomit and Meaning As the knight strangles Error she vomits horrible things from her mouth She throws out poison flesh frogs toads and most importantly books and papers Her vomit full of bookes and papers was These books and papers symbolize false teachings and lies spread by false religion Death of Error and Her Children At last the knight gathers all his strength and cuts off Error s head Black blood flows out Her children rush to her body and drink her blood Soon they burst and die This shows that false beliefs destroy those who follow them Lies may seem alive for a while but they finally destroy themselves Meaning of the Encounter This encounter is deeply symbolic The Red-Cross Knight represents the Christian soul Error represents false belief and sin Lady Una represents truth The fight shows that a Christian s spiritual journey begins with a struggle against error Courage alone is not enough A person must have truth and faith to defeat evil In fine the Red-Cross Knight s encounter with the Monster Error is a powerful moral and spiritual episode It shows the danger of false belief It also shows that a person must have truth and faith to defeat evil This first adventure prepares the knight for greater spiritual trials ahead