The Canterbury Tales

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The Canterbury Tales is a group of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them are written in prose, the others are written in verse). There is one big story about a group of pilgrims travelling from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine (little temple) of Saint Thomas à Becket's at Canterbury Cathedral. The other stories are all part of this one. The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle English.

In the City of Canterbury there is a Museum about The Canterbury Tales, called "The Canterbury Tales". It is on St Margrets St.

[edit] The Stories

The stories are very different from each other. The General Prologue (beginning) talks about the characters.

The Tales are:

• The General Prologue • The Knight's Tale • The Miller's Prologue and Tale • The Reeve's Prologue and Tale • The Cook's Prologue and Tale • The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale • The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale • The Friar's Prologue and Tale • The Summoner's Prologue and Tale • The Clerk's Prologue and Tale • The Merchant's Prologue and Tale • The Squire's Prologue and Tale • The Franklin's Prologue and Tale • The Physician's Tale • The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale • The Shipman's Tale • The Prioress' Prologue and Tale • Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas • The Tale of Melibee • The Monk's Prologue and Tale • The Nun's Priest's Prologue and Tale • The Second Nun's Prologue and Tale • The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale • The Manciple's Prologue and Tale • The Parson's Prologue and Tale • Chaucer's Retraction

Some of the stories are serious and others are funny. All of them are about the way people are. A lot of them talk about religion. Some of them talk about the same things that other Canterbury Tales talk about, and some of them are written as a response to the story before it. Chaucer planned the stories before he wrote them but he did not finish his plan. He planned that each character would tell four stories: two while going to Canterbury and two while going back again. If Chaucer had finished he would have written 120 stories. He only actually wrote 26.

Some people think that Chaucer was trying to say things about politics by writing the stories. Chaucer was an important and powerful person. Some people think that the characters are like real people who were alive when Chaucer wrote the stories.

[edit] The complete work

Chaucer began to write the stories in the 1380s. He stopped writing them in the 1390s. Some think that he deliberately did not write the total 120 stories. Some people think that Chaucer copied parts of others peoples’ writings because The Canterbury Tales is very similar to them. The characters, however, are very different. The characters are middle class and have different occupations and personalities. They all tell different types of stories and they tell them in different ways. The big story is about many pilgrims traveling to Canterbury. They are riding horses and the trip takes several days. Chaucer does not say much about the big story and most of the writing is about the stories told by the pilgrims.

Two early manuscripts (original copies) of the tale are the Hengwrt manuscript and the Ellesmere manuscript. 84 manuscript and four printed copies of The Canterbury Tales were written before 1500. Some people have started The Canterbury Tales Project. They read all these copies of The Canterbury Tales and try to write one copy.

[edit] Importance

Chaucer was one of the first famous people who wrote stories in English. Before, people had written them in French or Latin. Other people who lived when Chaucer lived wrote in English as well. Some of these people were John Gower, William Langland, and the Pearl Poet.

The Canterbury Tales are very famous. Some people have made television shows and films about them.