i love the Canterbury tales
the book is an anthology of stories told by a company of pilgrims who travel from London the the shrine of saint Thomas Beckett in Canterbury, it was written by Geoffrey Chaucer from 1387 to 1400 and he continued to add to it until his death, though the work was left unfinished
one reason i love it is because it provides a tantalising glimpse into the medieval mind, a rare thing for any age
a great example of this is the opening to the wife of bath's tale, i know quote directly from my copy translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill:
'when good king Arthur ruled in ancient days (*1) [...] this was a land brim-full of fairy folk. The Elf-Queen and her courtiers joined and broke their elfin dance on many a green mead, Or so was the opinion once, i read, hundreds of years ago, in days of yore. But no one now sees fairies any more. For now the saintly charity and prayer Of holy friars seem to have purged the air; They search the countryside through field and stream As thick as motes that speckle a sun beam, Blessing the halls [the wife rattles of a long list of places where the friars bless] And that's the reason why there are no fairies. Wherever there was wont to walk an elf To-day there walks the holy friar himself As evening falls or when the daylight springs, saying his Mattins (*2) and his holy things, Walking his limit round from town to town. Women can now go safely up and down By every bush or under every tree; There is no other incubus but he, So there is really no one else to hurt you And he will do no more than take your virtue'
(1) = medieval people believed king Arthur to have lived around the 6th century, (2) Mattins is a prayer said around midnight in catholic Christianity
this passage is so fascinating to me because it implies that it was commonly believed in the middle ages that things like fairies, spirits, incubi, etc all existed at some point in the past but that Christianity had since expunged them
this passage can also be seen as a satire of the church, the canterbury tales and the whole pantheon of medieval literature is chock full of references to clergymen of low morals, how Chaucer compares the friars to the amorous spirits of an ancient, pagan/pre-Christian Britain
its just an interesting reflection on medieval views of the supernatural and the church
