What I Noticed in the First 100 Lines of the Caterbury Tales

	I’ll be honest; I really love the sound of Middle English. Although it is difficult to understand what Chaucer is saying most of the time, you have to admit that hearing it spoken is really beautiful. As I was listening to the audio recording Dr. MB provided for us, I noticed how familiar it sounded. It sounded very similar to German, and other European languages as well. I realized that the vowels of Middle English are pretty much the same as the vowels for German. Here is a little chart I found of German vowel pronunciation along with Middle English vowel pronunciation.   Not so different after all. If you want some sound comparison, here is the audio Dr. MB provided, https://archive.org/details/P_CHA_GEO_01 , as well as a lovely poem in German, https://youtu.be/PIM15F_nF20 . Something I find really funny about the first 100 lines of the Canterbury tales is how little it describes in so much text. On the first page alone he describes is that it rains in the spring (lines 1-10), that lots of people go on these spiritual “pilgrimages” (lines 12-15), and he meets 29 pilgrims at an inn who are also on their way to Caunterbury (lines 16-27). Chaucer talks about three things in the first 30 lines. He could have said, “It rains a lot in the spring when all of these people go to seek God. I meet 29 while on my way to Caunterbury.” But it sounds a lot better written out as it is. While at the inn, Chaucer takes note of the “pilgrims” and describes two of them; a knight and his squire. The knight is a worthy man from the time he first began “to ryden out” (line 45), and is a man who loves honor, freedom and courtesy. Chaucer then says some of the great deeds the knight has done, but he says that even though he’s done all this awesome stuff, this knight guy is modest about himself. He’s wearing a rough, cloth tunic that is stained by his chain mail because he had just come from an expedition. Looking back to what we talked about in Beowulf, this knight is the polar opposite of Beowulf. Sure, knight guy did lots of amazing stuff, just like Beowulf, but it doesn't sound like he lets it get to his head/ego. Chaucer also describes the Knights son as a squire. He talks about how awesome the son is; strong, handsome, well written, musical, a jouster, and he has curly hair. The squire wants to impress “his lady grace” (Line 87). Who wouldn't want to date a dude who has curly hair and can joust?             That's pretty much all I have to say about the first 100 lines of The Canterbury Tales.