Extra Reading: Canterbury Tales Prolog

For the extra reading this week, I read:
The General Prolog, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, retold by Tony Kline
freebookapalooza

This is the very beginning of the Canterbury Tales when everything is laid out. It is told that Chaucer, the narrator, meets up with twenty-nine pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and they accept him into the group. Then, the pilgrim are introduced extensively. The first to be mentioned is the knight, who is traveling with his son, a squire. There are also clergy members such as a monk, nuns, and priests.
Some of these, Chaucer seems to esteem, others, he chastises, particularly members of the clergy who live lavishly.

Once they are introduced, it is proposed they have a storytelling competition to pass the time on their journey. They will tell two stories on the way there and two on the way back. The winner will get a free meal when they return to their starting place. Lastly, the knight is chosen as the first storyteller.

Here is a picture of the cathedral in Canterbury, where they are heading:

Photo Credit: wikimedia

Comments

Week 3 Wikipedia Trail

For this assignment, I started with the article about the Canterbury Tales, since that is what I am working on for my project. First article: The_Canterbury_Tales This one is very intensive and covers not only a premise of the story but also a historical context, the themes, and the style of the writing. I imagine I am going to use this article a lot when I begin working on my project. From this article, there are links to all the other sections and a bunch of pictures of the different pilgrims. Second article: General_Prologue This is the prologue and the beginning of the story. It not only gives a premise to the storytelling competition, it gives a background of the pilgrims and their destination. I am going to use a similar premise in my project and will refer to this article when I am working on my introduction. One thing I am debating is whether I will have a "Geoffrey Chaucer" character in my story. In the original, the author inserted himself into the tale, I d...

Reading Notes: Ozaki, Part A

Japenese Fairytales, Ozaki by Yei Theodora Ozaki In this unit, there have been three stories so far: My Lord Bag of Rice In this story the name of Tawara Toda, which means "My Lord Bag of Rice" is explained. He was a brave warrior who came across a large dragon on a bridge. Instead of running away, he just climbed over the dragon and continued going, however, someone called out to him and when he looked back he discovered a person where the dragon had been. It was the Dragon King whose family was being killed by a giant centipede every night and he begged for the warrior's help. The warrior agreed and went to wait for the centipede. As it came down a mountain, he shot it with an arrow tipped in saliva which killed the centipede. The Dragon King was so grateful, he gave the warrior, among other things, a sack of rice which never ran out. The Adventures of Kintaro A warrior married a woman, however, he died and his wife ran away to the wilderness in fear of his e...

Week 14 Story: Jason and the Giant's Gold

Jason and the Giant's Gold Jason had always been a poor peasant, unknown by most. He had a job as a shepherd for the Lord of the lands and it provided for himself, his mothers, and his sisters and he was grateful for it. However, he was with the sheep night and day and was unable to do little else. If he didn't have this job, his family would have starved when his father died some years back and so Jason worked hard, both to support his family and from the gratitude he felt toward the Lord for trusting him with his flocks. However, some days back, he had left the sheep, for a little while, when he had come across a giant. He thought that would be the end of him and he briefly wondered who would take care of his family when he died but the giant hadn't killed him. It had needed his help and as a reward, it had taken him to a giant celebration. It had given him a belt of invisibility so he would be safe from the other giants and in this way, Jason had been able to witness...

My Blog for Myth and Folklore

Search This Blog