Geoffrey Chaucer Online:
The Electronic Canterbury Tales

Daniel T. Kline | U of Alaska Anchorage | Chaucer Pedagogy | CV

"But now to yow, ye loveres that ben here,  Was Troilus nought in a kankedort?"

Troilus and Criseyde 
2: 1751-52

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Electronic Canterbury Tales - Kankedort.Net Index Page

1. The Canterbury Tales in Middle English

2. The Canterbury Tales in Translation

3. General Historical & Cultural Backgrounds

4. Sources, Analogues, & Related Texts

5. Online Notes & Commentary

6. Online Articles & Books

7. Student Projects & Essays

8. Online Bibliography

9. Syllabi & Course Descriptions

10. Images & Multimedia

11. Audio Files & Language Helps

12. Potpourri

13. Additional Resources

14. Scholar's Dozen

15. What's New? Recent Additions to the ECT

An Online Compendium and Companion
to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

1.  In Middle English

The Knight's Tale at the UVa Electronic Text Center.

Read the Knight's Tale in the context of Fragment I - Group A.

Read Chaucer's short lyric Trouthe (Representative Poetry Online, U of Toronto), embodying a chivalric value crucial to the Knight's portrait in the General Prologue:

• A Knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,
  That fro the tyme that he first bigan
  To riden out, he loved chivalrie,
  Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie. (I [A].43-46)

2.  In Modern English Translation

The Electronic Library Foundation's edition of the Canterbury Tales, accessible by individual tale & available in a variety of formats:  Middle English, Modern English, Facing Page, & Interpolated/Glossed (frames; from unknown base text).

• Although unsuitable for formal research or college work, the ELF is the best online version for younger readers and those unfamiliar with Middle English.

Skip Knox's selection of Canterbury Tales in Modern English (Boise State) includes the Knight's Tale (from an unknown base text).

3.  Historical & Cultural Backgrounds

The Crusades (Paul Halsall, IMSB) offers a full range of primary sources on the Crusader Era from Urban II's pivotal address in 1095 to the fall of Acre in 1291, including accounts of the Crusading Orders. 

The Western Orientalism section of IMSB contains texts from Western European travelers as they describe the "exotic" lands of the East.

Knights, Warfare, Weapons, and Tournaments:

Steven Muhlberger (Nipissing U) has put together a very fine compilation of chivalric texts entitled, Deeds of Arms: A Collection of Accounts of Formal Deeds of Arms of the Fourteenth Century. These are, in fact, accounts of tournaments (in original languages and in translation) as opposed to fictionalized accounts. Included in the riches here are 

• The 1351 Combat of the Thirty 
  • La Bataille de Trente Anglois et de Trente Bretons (text in Old French; tr. by W. H. Ainsworth; tr. by Steven Muhlberger)
  • Jean le Bel (text in Old French; translation by Steven Muhlberger)
  • Froissart  (translation by Steven Muhlberger)
  • Wyntoun  (text in Scots English; translation by Steven Muhlberger)
• The Smithfield Tournament of 1390
  • The Brut (text in Middle English; translation by Steven Muhlberger)
  • Froissart (translation by Thomas Johnes)
• The life-and-death duel between James le Gris and John de Carogne (Froissart, Religieux)
  • Froissart (translation by Thomas Johnes)
  • Religieux de Saint Denis (text in Latin; translation by Steven Muhlberger)

See also Muhlberger's Historical Materials on Knighthood and Chivalry and Fighting for Fun? What was at Stake in Formal Deeds of Arms of the 14th Century?

Elizabeth Bennett (Princeton) has provided a facing page translation of Rene d'Anjou's traictié de la forme et devis d'ung tournoy.  Bennett notes "The tournament book describes a style of tournament which René says he has adapted from the ancient customs of France and other countries. Although René describes this tournament in vivid detail, we do not know if such a tournament was ever held in the fifteenth century."

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts has an extensive site that puts the meat and bones back into the romantic accounts of medieval warfare, and it's chock full of articles explaining and illustrating forms of medieval combat and types of weapons. A rich site indeed that focuses on late medieval (and Renaissance) combat. See especially:

• The spectacular ARMARIUM: Online Historical Fencing Manuals & Texts is laden with primary sources and manuscript images.  Just a few of the riches here include:
  • MS 3542: The Harleian Manuscript Analysis Project - Part I:  Interpretation of a 15th Century English text on the Two-hand or Great-sword
  • A 15th Century Sword Manual: “Additional Manuscript 39564” (or MS. 39,564)
  • "Codex Wallerstein" (UB Augsburg: Cod.I.6.4.2) (c. 1470). Great images!
• An excerpt from John Clement's Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods and Techniques
• An excerpt from Sydney Anglo's The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (Yale UP)
• Medieval and Renaissance Sword Forms and Companion Implements

Other Websites Concerning Knights, Warfare, and Tournaments:

• Read about the medieval horse as warrior and worker at the online International Museum of the Horse (Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, KY).
• Read a simple overview of Medieval Siege Warfare put together by Thomas Finley and about Medieval Swords  at Lee Jones' site. 
• Gather information about specific battles from a slightly later time period at The Art of Warfare site (C. Iannuzzo). 
• More for the enthusiast, re-enactor, or younger student, the Knighthood, Chivalry, and Tournaments Resource Library has the seal of approval from the Encyclopedia Britannica and Discovery Channel.

4.  Sources, Analogues, & Related Texts

TEAMS Middle English Text Series (Russell Peck, URochester) houses a number of lesser known and hard to find medieval texts in helpful student editions. A generous and fascinating selection not to be missed! Each selection includes a scholarly introduction and full notes. Some of the selections related to the Knight's Tale include:

• The Canterbury Tales: Fifteenth-Century Continuations and Additions (ed. John M. Bowers), Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992.
  • John Lydgate's Prologue to the Siege of Thebes | Introduction

   

• John Lydgate: The Siege of Thebes (ed. Robert R. Edwards), Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2001.
  • Introduction
  • Prologue
  • Prima Pars
  • Secunda Pars
  • Tercia Pars

"All TEAMS texts are under copyright, whether in hard copy or in electronic form. The on-line texts provided here are meant for individual use only. To download and make multiple copies for course use, you must have permission from the managing editor of Medieval Institute Publications."

Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, from the W.V. Cooper translation. (London: J.M. Dent, 1902). A key text for understanding the Knight's Tale. 

• R.J.Kilcullen's very fine PHIL 252: Medieval Philosophy course page (Macquarrie U) offers a detailed Reading Guide to Boethius's Consolation as well as a number of other introductory (and downloadable!) lectures and notes on figures like Abelard, Aquinas, Anselm, Averroes, Ockham, & Wycliffe.

For other views of medieval chivalry, you might peruse one of the greatest of all   Middle English poems, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or the famous crusading epic, The Song of Roland.

5.  Online Notes & Commentary

Discussion and links concerning the Knight's Tale on Larry D. Benson's superlative Geoffrey Chaucer Page (Harvard). Includes e-texts of scholarly essays, sources and ancillary texts, and capsule discussions of key issues.  Some of the items related to the Knight's Tale include:

• General Note on the Knight's Tale
• Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (Book II, metr. 8):  "The Fair Chain of Love" (see Theseus's "Firste movere" speech)
• Courtly Love
• English Romance
• Summary of the Knight's Tale
• Tournaments & Chivalric Ceremony

6.  Online Articles and Books

Peer Reviewed Articles

Louise O. Fradenberg's Sacrificial Desire in Chaucer's Knight's Tale," Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27.1 (1997), 47-75 takes a Lacanian view of the KnT.

Helen Barr's "Chaucer's Knight: A Christian Killer," The English Review 12.2 (2001), np takes on the claim that the Knight was a mercenary. From Grover Wonderbrook's geocities.com website.

Academic Books

An important work of gender criticism in Chaucer studies is Elaine Tuttle Hanson's Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender (Berkeley: U of California P, 1992).  

H. Marshall Leicester's The Disenchanted Self: Representing the Subject in the Canterbury Tales (Berkeley: U of California P, 1990).

Richard Neuse reads Chaucer through the lens of the great Italian poet Dante in Chaucer's Dante: Allegory and Epic Theater in The Canterbury Tales. (Berkeley: U of California P, 1991). 

Charles Ross traces the courtly tradition in The Custom of the Castle: From Malory to Macbeth (Berkeley: U of California P, 1997). 

Aldo Scaglione details a wide variety of knightly practices in Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry, and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 1992).

R.A. Shoaf's online postprint Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the Word devotes Chapter 10 to "Fragment A and the Versions of the Household"

Chaucer Sourcebook, from the Harvard Chaucer Page, offers a number of classic and professional essays from noted Chaucerians, including:

• David Aers, "Imagination, Order and Ideology: The Knight's Tale," from Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative Imagination, 1980, pp. 175-95.
• Susan Crane, ""Medieval Romance and Feminine Difference in the Knight's Tale," Studies in the Age of Chaucer 12 (1990): 47-63.
• Charles Muscatine, ""The Knight's Tale," Chaucer and the French Tradition, pp. 175-190.
• Larry D. Benson, The Tournament in the Romances of Chrétien de Troyes & L'Histoire de Guillaume Le Maréchal Chivalric Literature: Essays on Relations between Literature & Life in the Later Middle Ages. Ed. Larry D. Benson & John Leyerle. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute, 1980. 2-24.
• All articles on the Harvard Chaucer Page reprinted by permission.

Sarah Stanbury, "Visibility Politics in Chaucer's Knight's Tale," from the Conference Proceedings of "Cultural Frictions:  Medieval Studies in Postmodern Contexts," 27-28 October 1995.  Cite as web document.

Other Studies

Chaucer's Knight, the Tale of Melibee, and the SocioHistorical Implications of Pilgrimage, from the very interesting website of Frederick Martin and his project Whitecrow Borderland, which is concerned with articulating a Native American cultural philosophy.

Essays in Medieval Studies, full-text articles from the proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association, edited by Allen J. Frantzen (Loyola - Chicago).

Keeping in mind the Knight's portrait in the General Prologue and Theseus's grand tournament between Palamon and Arcite for the hand of Emily, see Steven Muhlberger's excellent overview of the knightly ethos in Fighting for Fun? What was at Stake in Formal Deeds of Arms of the 14th Century?

Thomas Honegger has written a sophisticated linguistic analysis in  'Yif me my love, thow blisful lady deere' : Forms of Address in Chaucer's The Knight's Tale (U of Zurich).

7.  Student Projects

Matthew Markland, a student of Susan Yager (Iowa State) prepared a hypertext report on Chaucer's Poetry:  The Boethian Poems, whose content is pertinent to the Knight's Tale.

Anniina Jokkinen's Essays and Articles on Chaucer includes a number of sample student essays, of varying quality.  Like any other source, student essays must be evaluated rigorously, cited correctly, and  used responsibly. Jokkinen also compiles a number of resources by Canterbury Tale: The Knight's Tale

8.  Online Bibliography

Steven Mulberger's Select Bibliography on Medieval Tournaments (Nipissing U).

William Vincenti's Chivalry Bibliography (Montclair State U).

From Association for Renaissance Martial Arts: General Reference Books on Medieval Arms & Armor or Medieval Warfare

9.  Syllabi & Course Descriptions

10.  Images & Multimedia

See the Knight's Portrait from the Ellesmere Manuscript, one of the two earliest compilations of the Canterbury Tales (Huntington Library, San Marino, California).

11.  Language Helps & Audio Files

Sample audio files (.wav, .au, .aiff) from the Knight's Tale, read by Alan T. Gaylord and recorded at Dartmouth College in 1994, are available from the Chaucer Studio (Paul Thomas, Brigham Young).

12. Potpourri

Warfare and armor, mostly from enthusiasts and hobbyists:

• The Arador Armoury Library
• The Tale of the Trebuchet

Maps

• Europe at the Time of the First Crusade, c. 1099 (Paul Halsall-IMSB)
• First Crusade, Second & Third Crusades, Fourth & Later Crusades
• Jerusalem & Crusader States in the Twelfth Century (Paul Halsall-IMSB)

13.  The Next Step

The "First Fragment" or "Group A" (GProl, KnT, MT, RT, CT) of the Canterbury Tales

is available in a nice Penguin paperback edition

Additional Chaucer Pages in The Electronic Canterbury Tales

Chaucer the Pilgrim-Narrator & Author

Chaucer's "Orphan" Pilgrims - Those without a Tale

The Frame Tale, Later Continuations,
& Chaucerian Apocrypha

Manuscripts, Printed Editions, & Electronic Texts

Electronic Chaucer Texts:
What's Available Online?

Chaucer in / and Popular Culture

Troilus and Criseyde

Documentation Primer

Chaucer Pedagogy Page

Something Extra?

Free Books!
The Poor Medieval Scholar's Electronic Bookshelf

(no cost, older academic books,
in .pdf form from the 
Google Library Project &
Microsoft Book Search Live)

Cheap Books!
The Electronic Canterbury Tales Bookshop

(recommended books for the study of Chaucer and Late-Medieval England)

The Kankedort
Gift Shoppe

(with many serious and some silly offerings for the medievalist
in your life)

Netflix.com

The Electronic Canterbury Tales 

  © 1998-2007 Daniel T. Kline & www.kankedort.net All rights reserved

This page was last revised on 01.08.07.