The Pardoner's Tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in the last two decades of the fourteenth century, tells what amounts to a Medieval joke. Three young ne'er-do-wells set off from a village pub one morning, already drunk, to find the villain Death. Of course, they all find him very quickly, at the hands of one another. The tale contains an interesting vignette from an old man who cannot yet find a young man to exchange his age with.
The Franklin's Tale is another of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and is Geoffrey's attempt to write a Breton lai. A young knight in Brittany falls in love with a married woman whose fear for her husband's safety overseas leads her incautiously to pledge to become her young admirer's lover – provided that he can accomplish a seemingly impossible task. With the help of a druid, the young man succeeds in doing exactly as she asks. Her husband, by now returned, insists that she fulfils her pledge, the young man, although now owing a fortune to the druid, takes pity, releases her from the bond, and the druid in turn waives the young man's debt; and so the tale ends happily and to the credit of all concerned.
Geoffrey's Tale of Melebeus and Prudence, another of his Canterbury Tales, follows directly after his tale of Sir Thopas, Geoffrey's parody of bad romance. This tale of Melebeus describes the aftermath of an unprovoked assault upon Melebeus's wife and daughter and is, like Sir Thopas, Chaucer's own story – it is an erudite and scholarly account of a man's subsequent rejection of his own aggressive instincts for violence and retribution in favour of a more reasoned and logical approach offered through the advice of his female muse, in this case his own wife.
The Shipman's Tale is another of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and, typically for Geoffrey, tells a derogatory tale about a Christian religious person, in this case a monk. It may be contrasted with the Franklin's Tale, in which the ancient Breton characters all end the story with their moral virtue wonderfully intact.
The Prioress's Tale is perhaps one of the more problematic of Geoffrey's Canterbury Tales, involving itself, as it does, with the widespread anti-Semitism of fourteenth century England. However, because of this, the point of the tale is often overlooked. Following a young Christian boy's murder at the hands of some Jewish thugs, his body is not desecrated in parody of a Christian icon but is instead cast into a cesspool, where it continues to sing, although the boy's throat has been cut, until an abbot removes a seed from the boy's mouth; a seed which had been placed there by a female deity, the Virgin Mary.
The Manciple's Tale, one of the shortest of Geoffrey's Canterbury Tales, tells a just-so story, in this case, how the crow came to be black. The main thrust of his message is that, whenever one hears something of a sensitive or incriminating nature, one should endeavour to keep one's mouth tightly shut. Could this be a stern warning from Geoffrey aimed at his own circle of associates?
The Gast of Gy describes a haunting that allegedly took place from Christmas 1323 to Easter 1324 in the southern French town of Alés. The ghost of a recently deceased townsman haunts the house where he died, terrifying his grieving wife and attracting the attention of a local prior, whose close questioning of the spirit leads to a fascinating account of Purgatory and the fate of the Christian soul after death.
The Revelation of the Monk of Eynsham describes a near-death experience that reputedly took place in the closing decade of the twelfth century, in a monastery at Eynsham, near Oxford. A young monk has been very ill in the infirmary for many months, then at Easter, he begins to experience what many might consider to be hallucinations, collapses and lies unconscious for three days. When he awakes, he tells of being escorted around Purgatory by Saint Nicholas, and recounts his experience of the Earthly Paradise. The Middle English version of this account was translated from Latin at about the time that Geoffrey Chaucer was composing his Canterbury Tales.
Sir Launfal is a Middle English retelling of one of Marie de France's Breton lais, Lanval, composed, possibly by a poet named Thomas Chestre, in the second half of the fourteenth century. It is set in an Arthurian world in which the principal hero, Sir Launfal, is cast from wealth and success as King Arthur's steward into destitution, by the malice of Queen Guinevere. In this impoverished state, he is taken by the daughter of the King of Faerie and made wealthy once more. But events conspire and in the end, his life once more in danger through the malice of Guinevere, he is taken to Avalon by his Otherworldly mistress.
Sir Cleges is written in the style of a Middle English Breton lai, although it is not based on any tale recorded by Marie de France. Like many fourteenth century works it is first found in manuscripts dating to the fifteenth century and follows a broadly similar theme to Sir Launfal. Sir Cleges is a generous knight at the court of King Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. But many years of extravagant living and unrivalled hospitality have dwindled his resources so greatly that he faces loneliness and hunger in his one remaining manor. One Christmas, however, he encounters a magic cherry tree whose fruit promises to reverse his fortunes.
Sir Isumbras is a Middle English tail-rhyme romance composed sometime before 1320. It is a story that was very popular in Medieval Europe, that of a knight put on trial by destiny. Young Sir Isumbras is addressed one morning in a forest by a bird who gives him the choice of poverty now and wealth later, or the other way around. Choosing the former, Sir Isumbras's world collapses in spectacular style. He loses his possessions, his children, his wife and finally even his own identity, as he labours for many years as a blacksmith's apprentice. In the end, like many romances, he is reunited with those he loves and his former status is restored and even bettered.
Cheuelere Assigne is a Middle English version of an Old French romance called Chevalier au Signe, or the Knight of the Swan. Elements of this story are also found in a fairy tale called the Six Swans, recorded by the Brothers Grimm. The Middle English story of Cheuelere Assigne tells of a lady who gives birth to seven babies with silver chains around their necks. As soon as these chains are taken away, they turn into swans. But the one remaining child is able to fight for the life of his wrongly-accused mother, to right a grievous wrong and to restore all but one of his siblings back into human form again.
