Woden’s Day, October 15: Geoffrey Chaucer
EQs: What is “medieval” literature, and why is Chaucer the “father” of English?
 Welcome! Gather
OLD WORK,
pen/cil, paper, wits!
 Overview: Notebook,
Reading Journal,
Canterbury Tales
 Work Your Work!
ELACC12RL-RI2:
Analyze two or
more themes or
central ideas of text
ELACC12RI3:
Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events
interact and develop
ELACC12RL5: Analyze an author’s choices concerning
how to structure specific parts of a text
ELACC12RL-RI9: Analyze for theme, purpose rhetoric,
and how texts treat similar themes or topics
ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature
independently and proficiently.
Beowulf in Saxon (Old English)
Hwæt! We Gardena
in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,
þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas
ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing
sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum,
meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.
Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,
he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum,
weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc
þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade
hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan.
þæt wæs god cyning!
ðæm eafera wæs
æfter cenned,
geong in geardum,
þone god sende
folce to frofre;
fyrenðearfe ongeat
þe hie ær drugon
aldorlease
lange hwile.
Him þæs liffrea,
wuldres wealdend,
woroldare forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme
(blæd wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera
Scedelandum in.
Swa sceal geong guma
gode gewyrcean,
fromum feohgiftum
on fæder bearme,
þæt hine on ylde
eft gewunigen
wilgesiþas,
þonne wig cume,
leode gelæsten;
lofdædum sceal
in mægþa gehwære
man geþeon.
Vulgarity
is about sociology.
The word “vulgar” means “common,”
in the sense of “low.”
Saxon words’ meanings do not offend,
but using Saxon at all seemed/seems low.
Profanity
is about ontology.
“Using the Lord’s ‘name’ in vain”
is offensive not because “God” is His “name,”
but because calling on His Might when someone cuts in
front of you at Taco Bell trivializes The Divine.
“Periods” of English Language, Literature
 Old English (OE): ???? – 1066
o Sometimes called “Anglo-Saxon”
 Example: Beowulf
 Medieval (“Middle”) English (ME): 1066 – 1500s
o Development from Hastings to Spenser, etc.
 Example: Geoffrey Chaucer
 Modern English: 1500s – today
o Doesn’t mean “just like now”!
 Examples: Shakespeare up to now
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 - 1400)
is from what is called the medieval era.
He writes in what is called Middle English.
Now, about that ….
“Middle English” started in 1066, when William of Normandy
defeated Harold of Wessex at the Battle of Hastings to become
King of England. This set up that untenable situation we discussed:
as of Christmas Day, 1066, Brits spoke three different languages:
o The Nobility (William’s buddies) spoke French, and held all
positions of political and economic power. Not surprisingly,
they enjoyed “romantic” stories of questing knights, fierce
dragons, and fair damsels to be rescued (or seduced).
o Commoners (Harold’s surviving buddies) spoke Saxon, and
had little power or wealth. Not surprisingly, they enjoyed
“dirty” stories about clever peasants outsmarting rich folk
and churchmen to steal their money, women and pride.
o The Church and scholars continued to use Latin for
religious, scientific, and philosophical writing. Not
surprisingly, their “stories” were mostly sermons,
meditations on the Gospel truths and saints’ lives.
The classes stayed largely separate in language, customs and
storytelling traditions except in a few power centers, like
London, where some hybriding began to happen.
In 1343, Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 - 1400)
wrote tons of stuff, both sacred and profane.
His most famous work, The Canterbury Tales,
concerns thirty very different people –
sacred & profane, rich & poor, lovely & ugly,
wise & ignorant, young & old, male & female –
all travelling together on a pilgrimage
(journey of religious devotion)
from London to Canterbury – a long trip,
so they tell tales to each other to pass the time.
By combining the different stories, accents,
vocabularies, and beliefs of all classes of Brits –
nobility, church, and commoners –
Chaucer more or less “created” a new language
for English poetry. He is therefore called
“The Father of English Poetry.”
Let’s discover how that looked and sounded.
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Middle English
Full text in Middle English, with translation: http://www.librarius.com/canttran/genpro/genpro001-042.htm
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35
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Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heath
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esed atte beste.
And shortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everichon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward erly for to ryse,
To take oure wey ther as I yow devyse.
But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun
Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,
And whiche they weren, and of what degree,
And eek in what array that they were inne;
And at a knyght than wol I first bigynne.
Greek God of the warm West Wind
sun is halfway through Aries’ zodiac sign
a shire is a district of England
holiest site in England; big cathedral
St. Thomas Beckett, martyred for
opposing king’s power over church
area in south London; famous inn
various, very diverse
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Reading Guide: General Prologue, ll. 1-42
1. In what season of the year do we find ourselves?
2. According to the narrator, what is the weather like THIS month?
3. According to the narrator, what was the weather like LAST month?
4. According to the narrator, what does this weather cause to happen?
5. What has Zephirus “inspired” – literally, “breathed life into” – as it blows?
6. What “smale” animals are described, and what are they doing?
7. What are they NOT doing – and why not?
8. What are they doing INSTEAD? (YOU have to figure it out)
9. This, according to the narrator, is when “__________ folk to _______ on pilgrimages.”
10. How much of what he has described has to do with Christian spiritual longing?
11. So – would you say their reasons for going now spiritual or physical?
12. Especially, says the narrator, pilgrims from England like to go to what city?
13. Whom do they visit there?
14. What help do they want – spiritual or physical?
15. How many people does the narrator meet at the Tabard?
16. These people were “by ________ yfalle / In _________________.”
17. Translate that, roughly:
18. What does the narrator do with each one?
19. The narrator promises that he will tell us “the __________________
Of ech of hem, so as it ___________ _______,
And whiche they weren, and of what _____________,
And eek in what ___________ that they were inne.”
20. Translate that, roughly:
21. He says he will begin his description with which pilgrim?
TURN IN TODAY

Reading Guide: Chaucer in Middle
English (Canterbury Tales ll. 1-42)

Reading Journal Entry quoting and
reflecting (100 words) passage from
Canterbury Tales (Middle English)