Narrator, how do you know these things?!

I read the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales back in 7^th grade, but I never thought about how much the characters actually spoke to one another. The narrator says that he—I assume he because the author is also a he, which is not the best reason but it’s all I got—spoke with each of the twenty-nine pilgrims he met at the inn (24-31). He establishes that he arranged to depart with them early the next morning (33-34), but he does not say whether he asked about each person’s background. He describes “al the condicioun / Of ech of hem, so as it semed me” (emphasis added) (38-39), so he is describing the impression each person left on him.

Some of the information the narrator gives on the knight and the squire could be chalked up to an impression. Appearance is an easy one to pick up on: the knight’s plain-colored tunic of rough cloth, and the squire’s youth, average height, and curly hair. Also, if the knight is as noble and as well-mannered as the narrator claims, perhaps he would give a good impression of his virtuous traits in a single conversation.

That being said, appearance and general impression of character are such small parts of meeting a person and of what the narrator tells us. There is no way the narrator knows about the knight’s and squire’s pasts, hobbies, and relation to each other unless he asked them. The knight would have to tell him about all the places he has been, from Prussia to Algeria to Turkey, and all the battles he has fought in. I don’t think the knight would volunteer the information too easily, since in this Christian society he would not want to boast his accomplishments (unlike a certain Geatish warrior we all know). Instead, I imagine the narrator kept asking for more tales of far-away lands, high-stakes tournaments, and noble battles with heathens.

Similarly, the narrator probably had to ask the squire about his relation to the knight and about his hobbies. However, he apparently forgot to ask the squire his age: “Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse” (emphasis added) (82). He’s about twenty. Wow. That seemed so much older back when I was in 7^th grade, but now that’s exactly my age.

As for the guy's skills and hobbies, I hope the squire’s singing, dancing, drawing, or writing becomes relevant later in the story, just because that appeals to me.

Now the narrator probably did ask the knight and the squire about these things, but decided not to mention that he did so . . . for some reason. Though the text gives the impression that the characters gave very brief introductions to each other and then made plans for the pilgrimage, what actually happened (probably) was that the narrator went and spoke to each of the pilgrims for a decent amount of time. He probably asked about their backgrounds and previous travel experiences. The pilgrims were probably happy to share this information with him.

Who Is The Squyer...?

So I'm not going to lie, it took me about a solid half an hour just to read the beginning of the prologue to this story. That kind of makes me nervous considering we haven't even started reading the actual story yet, and there are a little less than 400 pages in this version of The Canterbury Tales.

But, that terrifying fact aside, I kind of enjoyed the introduction of Chaucer's story (once I finally understood what exactly was going on) and I'm interested to see where it goes from here. It is slightly annoying that I have to continue looking from the footnotes to the explanations on the right side of the page to the actual writing itself, but honestly I'd be lost without all of the help in understanding Chaucer's language. 

The prologue starts off like practically every other book I've read that was written in Middle English: there's a super cool knight with super cool (almost demigod) abilities and a spotless reputation. So far, so good. Chaucer has introduced us to such a character right off the bat.

However, I have to say, I'm much more interested in this squire guy; the knight's twenty year-old son. I honestly wonder why he was mentioned at all, but I'm hoping that he becomes the central character in this story because he does seem to have a more interesting personality than his dad, who seems to be the stereotypical chivalrous knight from back in the day. Cool and all, but I want some variation, yanno? Anyway, when Chaucer described the squire as a dude that sings and dances, for some reason I couldn't stop picturing Eddie Redmayne in Les Mis. Weird, I know, because this man was no knight and this is the wrong time period and setting, but hey, I'm gonna run with it. 

Basically, I'm just stoked to see what comes out of this squire dude. I feel like he has some solid potential, and if he's as available as Chaucer makes him out to be, there's no doubt in my mind that a lady will be introduced sometime in the near future. Now I'm not a huge fan of sappy romances, especially when they're written in Middle English (sorry Dr. MB) but maybe I could get behind this one considering I've read about twenty lines that talked about the squire and I'm already in his corner. Well done, Chaucer. Well done.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...

I've always loved stories, particularly fairy tales. When I was little I had dozens of collections of fairy tales, some of which were so big that I had to get an adult to pick it up from the shelf for me. As one may expect, the go-to introduction for all of those stories in all of those books was "Once upon a time." As cliché as that is, it's a pretty-sounding phrase that helps the reader shift into gear and get ready for the story they're about to read. That's a good bit of legwork for four words. Another example is Star Wars' "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...," which does the same amount of work in ten words, which is still rather concise.

Chaucer, on the other hand, does not have any limit on how many words he can use, nor any qualms about using them. He is not concerned with being concise. The very first line of the Canterbury Tales tells us that the story begins in "Aprill," although you might not realize that until you reread that passage and find out that the Ram has "halfe cours y-ronne" (8), and subsequently read the footnote explaining that that means. As Chaucer continues, we find out that our narrator is at an inn in Southwerk while they "redy to wenden on [their] pilgrimage to Caunterbury" (21-22). Nonetheless, this is The Canterbury Tales' version of a "Once upon a time..." or "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." All of these preludes establish a setting and get us, the reader, buckled up for the ride we're about to go on. Simple! Easy! Totally understandable!

In any case, there's more to an introduction than founding a setting that the story can build off of. They need to extend a bit further, introducing the characters that will be featured in the narrative, as well as any significant backstory for those characters. True to his form, Chaucer does this with a litany of lavishly lyrical poetry, which is my poetic way of saying the most verbose way possible. After taking seven lines to decide to tell us about how he's gonna tell us about the other pilgrims, Chaucer spends another fifty-seven lines describing two people. Two. Out of how many total characters?

(It's a trick question. We don't know how many because our author just spent 100 lines setting up the story and telling us about two people.)

As much as I rag on him, I actually really enjoy reading Chaucer, although I've always read translations of his work or just unabashedly bastardized the original Middle English. I'm still dipping my toes into the phonetics of Chaucer's day, but I like those so far too.

A Knight in Training that is into Music?! Um Yes Please!!

I'm not going to lie. Even though we read this in Dr. MB's Medieval Romance class, I forgot most of what was in the prologue. I can tell you, however, that the The Wife of Bath's Tale is a story to look forward to! I also really want to mention how much I love the sound and flow of Middle English. It really captures my attention not only because I need to work a little harder to understand what is being said but also because it has an appealing and rhythmic sound. It just makes me want to go back and time and watch them tell the story because surely there is some kind of physical movement to it!

As I'm sure many people have noticed, Chaucer is very descriptive. While half of me wants him to get to the point, the other half of me loves how much detail he is giving me to create an image in my mind because sadly I can't go back in time and see the world through their eyes.

Chaucer also mentions a knight. He's great and all but personally I want to talk about his son, the Squyer. Let's just lay out what we are told about him:
- 20 years old
- average height (so compared to me that's tall!)
- strong
- (and let's face it, probably dreamy)
- whistles and SINGS
I don't know about you guys but as I said in my title.....UM YES PLEASE!!! I'm imagining he's kind of a mix of Prince Henry from Ever After, Westley from The Princess Bride, and William frommA Knight's Tale (which is VERY different from the version in this book).

Ah, poetry...so melodic, but also so wordy! I can already tell that it's going to take a lot more concentration and time for me to read this oh so lovely tale. I'm diving into this world of middle English and I'm not necessarily hating it, but I don't exactly love it; I find that medieval English is actually a little bit fun to read (even if it takes me 4 times to understand what the words are actually saying), the words just flow so nicely together...plus the pronunciation of every single letter
makes it more fun (I guess)!

Anyways, to begin with, Chaucer's elaboration on the details kind of reminds me of my experience with George Orwell's 1984 rambling, except this is more pleasing. I like that the elaboration by Chaucer is used to create an image of the scene that he's setting; he talks for 18 lines about the setting before he actually introduces his own character. With these descriptions of singing birds and the sprouting plants, he successfully paints a lovely picture of spring and how it fosters opportunity.

This is an actual gif of Chaucer himself splashing in the puddles made from the "shoures sote"

Once the scene/mood is set, Chaucer now proceeds to elaborate on the people that he is introducing, starting generally with the fellow people that also want to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and then zooming in on them each (beginning with a knight). And considering that Chaucer had just met the guy, he sure seemed to know a heck of a lot about his character and how he held himself. Which leads me to believe that Chaucer was a great listener if he had to sit and hear all about this special knight...although, being a poet, he probably greatly enjoyed listening to everything everyone had to say. His description of the squyer had me all over the place though, I was imaging multiple different characters from the movie Ever After (which is a totally fluffy chick flick, but so good too).

Basically, I'm entertained by middle English and its strange musical flow. Plus Chaucer seems cool too.

Quite the Knight

I must say that I am quite surprised by the descriptions of the characters so far. The knight is kind and noble, yet dressed in a tunic. But, I guess a tunic could range anywhere from: 

http://www.medievalages.net

http://quotesgram.com/

Complex

                 to

                                

 

                        Simple

 

However, considering the fact that his clothes are compared by the narrator to to the outfits of the horses, and for the knight to lose that fashion contest, is saying something. 

http://giphy.com/search/knight/4

The narrator does seem to hold the knight in high regard, he is amazed by all the different places he has traveled and how he had “foughten for oure feith” (63). He even concludes by saying that the knight is “a verray, parfit, gentil knight” (72). Essentially that the knight is the picture perfect image of the characteristics a knight should have (according to how we see it today at least).  He was a knight of all honor and glory but he did not rub it in people's faces. For from the haughty knight I am used to reading about. 

On that note, what is up with this squire! He is the son of the knight and he is essentially the prince in the making from every fairytale princess story growing up. He is 20 years old, with naturally curly locks, who is training to become a knight. He is agile, strong, and has been to many lands far and wide even in his young age. He even sings and whistles all day long! If that does not sound like a man who would break out in random songs with his one true love then no man will.