Wife of Bath’s Tale – Chaucer
Woman beating a man Chaucer's Wife of Bath's tale is different from the other stories in the Canterbury Tales. It's the only one told by a woman. She's a woman [...]
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08, 2017
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08, 2017
Tristan and Isolde – King Arthur’s Round Table
Tristan and Isolde, in a German woodcut (1400s AD) In the story, Isolde was a princess in Ireland, and a great healer. She was the best doctor in the land. One day this guy [...]
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08, 2017
Knights of the Round Table – Medieval England
Lancelot to the rescue! Notice the importance of his strong steel sword. (Knights of the Round Table) A framing device In the early Middle Ages, poets and story-tellers were telling a lot [...]
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08, 2017
Petrarch – Late medieval Italy
A portrait of Petrarch Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca in Italian) was born in 1304 AD in Arezzo, in northern Italy. His father was a lawyer, and when Petrarch was a teenager his father made [...]
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08, 2017
King Arthur and Morgaine – Medieval England
King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake Morgaine, or Morgan, first appears in written stories about 1150 AD. There are different stories about her, but most of them agree that [...]
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08, 2017
King Arthur and Mordred – Medieval England
King Arthur (Flores Historiarum, 1200s AD) Mordred first shows up in writing as early as 960 AD. His name's in the Annales Cambriae, in the entry for the year 537 AD. He [...]
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08, 2017
Miller’s Tale – Chaucer – Canterbury Tales
A medieval carpenter works in his shop. A carpenter's story Once there was a carpenter, who lived with his wife Alison and a student, Nicholas, who rented a room in [...]
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08, 2017
Lawyer’s Tale – Chaucer – Canterbury Tales
The Lawyer's Tale: This is probably a picture of either the real Constantina or her mother Helena (Santa Costanza church, Rome) The Lawyer's Tale In the time of the Roman Empire, [...]
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08, 2017
Lancelot and Guinevere – Medieval Romance
Guinevere and Arthur Queen Guinevere first appears in written stories about 1325 AD in the Welsh story Culhwch ac Olwen, as Arthur's queen. In later medieval stories, she's the daughter of King Leodegrance, and [...]
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08, 2017
The Knight’s Tale – Chaucer – Canterbury Tales
Chaucer's Knight's Tale: Medieval knights in the Metropolitan Museum of Art A story about Theseus Chaucer set his Knight's Tale in ancient Greece, and it's about Theseus, the king of Athens in Greek mythology. (So [...]
