Canterbury Tales Essay, Research Paper

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of accounts about a journey pilgrims made to and from the Canterbury Cathedral, composed by British writer Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 1300 s. Chaucer greatly increased the prestige of English as a literary language and extended the range of its poetic vocabulary and meters (Encarta 1). In the tales, the host offers a contest to the pilgrims which requires

them to tell four stories during their trip . Chaucer ingeniously integrates the episodes with one another and also resplendently describes the personality, behavior, and general way of life of a variety of aspects of society in the Medieval Ages. The Canterbury Tales consists of twenty-four tales, two of which are unfinished. One of these unfinished accounts is the Tale of Sir Thopas.

The Tale of Sir Thopas begins with the narrator describing a fair and gallant knight who is from the far country of Flanders. It continues on characterizing this knight, Sir Thopas, as a handsome man who was skilled at hunting, horse riding, wrestling, and archery. All of the woman of the land longed for him, but Sir Thopas forsake all of them. Then one day, riding through the forest, the knight hears beautiful birds singing songs of love. Upon hearing this, Sir Thopas hurries to ride away because his heart is sore as there is no woman in the world to his make.

The knight then recalls a dream he had where his darling would be an elf-queen. He continued riding until he found a secret place called the Land of Faery. There he met a great giant whose name was Sir Oliphant. The giant threatened Sir Thopas to leave the land where the Queen of Faery resides or he would be killed. After hearing this Sir Thopas answered that when he has his armor both of them would fight to the death. This scene is an example of how

Chaucer Gives the Tale of Sir Thopas a hilarious send-up as opposed to other more serious tales that indirectly disparage English literature (Payne 33).

Sir Thopas returned to his kingdom where he prepared himself for his battle against the giant. His merry men cheered him with tales of old romances, they brought him sweet wine, a royal spicery of ginger bread, and fine linen to cover himself. Then he dressed himself in ornate armor. He had a spear of fine cypress wood, a saddle of rewel bone, and a shield of solid gold.

The narrator then describes Sir Thopas as a man of regal chivalry. He was a knight adventurous, Wherefore he d sleep within no house, But lay down in his hood; His pillow was his helmet bright, And by him browse his steed all night http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm 3). At this point of the tale there is no conclusion. One reason for the lack of completion of this tale is most likely the death of Chaucer.

One of the many prolific purposes of Chaucer s prose is to help describe more vividly the varying aspects of medieval society. This specific tale describes the honor and valor to which the people held their knights to, with some deliberately outrageous ineptness within the character (Payne 129). The account also includes some of the mythological twists in which storytellers exaggerated their tales with. Sir Thopas is a prime example of how society looked upon its

code of chivalry. For example the knights loyalty to his duty, charisma of his behavior, enthusiasm for battle, etc. The inclusion of the knight s dream of his elf-queen and his encounter with the supernatural giant are examples of the chimerical aspects of the Middle Ages.

The Tale of Sir Thopas was an adequate representation of the civilization in which Geoffrey Chaucer tried to emulate. It was a humorous yet descriptive account of the way of life of medieval Englishmen. The episode helped execute Chaucer s purpose in an accurate and entertaining manner. However, had Chaucer completed the interrupted tale the audience could have had a better insight into

Chaucer s interpretation of the world around him.