Flying Chaucer

When I hear the adjective 'English', one of the first nouns that comes to my mind is 'literature'.

When I think of English literature, the first example of it that comes to my mind is Canterbury Tales.

The first author is Geoffery Chaucer. Geoffery died at the age of 57 in the year 1400.

Canterbury Tales is a framing device; a collection of stories framed within the gimmick of a journey. The 30 pilgrims on the journey gather in April of 1388 at the Tabard Inn in Southwark on the outskirts of London which is on the road to Canterbury. They hit that road on horseback in order to visit the shrine to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Beckett. The journey is supposed to last at least a week. It will take 3-4 days to travel to the 60 miles to Canterbury where they will spend a couple of days at the shrine before riding back to London. The journey is a spiritual one yet the 30 pilgrims, due to the suggestion of Harry Bailly, agree to tell tales to pass the time and compete for a prize

Harry Bailly runs the Tabard Inn. On the journey he acts as host or emcee. He assigns the tales, provides color commentary on them while he chills with the pilgrims. Harry will also pick the winner of the prize for best story.

The pilgrims tell their tales but Harry never picks out a winner. Many college students will pick out the Summoner's Tale when they become aware that even 800 years ago, people farted and fucked. In that infamous tale the summoner responds to the story of the Friar who says that a summoner is a dude who "runs around giving out summonses for sexual intercourse other tan between husband and wife. The Friar's story tells the tale of a scumbag summoner who falsely accuses people of sin and then blackmails them with false evidence and big lies.

According to the Summoner a bedridden sick man named John offers a greedy friar a gift if the friar will divide the gift equally among the 12 members of his convent. The friar agrees to do so. John invites the friar to grope under his covers for the hidden gift. Once the friar is undercover, John farts in his face. The friar reports the incident to a local lord who with the help of a creative page solves the problem of how to divide a fart. The Lord decrees that John will fart into the center of a twelve spoked wheel and the 12 members of the friars convent will place their noses at the ends of the hollowed spokes and breathe brother breathe.

Oh how we loved that one in college. If Harry Bailly had been an American college student attending a state university in the mid twentieth century, no doubt the summoner would have won the prize.

But Harry wasn't. He was a tavern owner in the 1300s very familiar with farts. Harry didn't choose the Summoners tale nor did he choose the Friars tale nor for that matter did he choose any of the tales. The contest for best Canterbury tale is thus still open for discussion and misunderstanding.

When it comes to discussing misunderstandings or misunderstanding discussion, Thornton Krell is the man. The next time that I see Krell, if I think of it, I'll ask him to declare a winner of the Canterbury tales.

Stay tuned.