The Knight's Tale
Two cousins born at the same time fall in love with the same princess. Which one will win her hand? One of Chaucer's best-developed romances, the Knight's Tale is full of surprises.
The Legend of Good Women
Chaucer was criticized by some of his audience for being somewhat antifeminist. This early work of the poet is to overcome that criticism, presenting a catalogue of good and faithful women in brief biographies, a sort of medieval DNB.
The Man of Law’s Tale
Almost a saint's life, this tale tells of a Roman emperor's daughter of such holiness that her first husband-to-be, a Muslim, converts to Christianity and is then slaughtered in his own mother's jihad. Will Custance survive in a rudderless boat?
The Manciple’s Tale
The Manciple's story of metamorphosis when the crow is changed from a white bird to a black-feathered bird because he told all that he saw Apollo's wife doing one day.
The Manciple’s Tale
The Manciple's story of metamorphosis when the crow is changed from a white bird to a black feathered bird because he told all that he saw Apollo's wife doing one day.
The Merchant’s Tale
This is Chaucer's darkest fabliau in which he takes on the nobility for a change. Colder even than the typical December-May marriage is that between the aged January and May here. But Damyan is nigh in the hortus conclusus, as the gods look on.
The Miller’s Tale
The Miller's answer to the love triangle in the Knight's Tale that immediately precedes, we soon see what is different about the characters in a romance and a fabliau. Perhaps the most thorough poetic justice shown in any of Chaucer's fabliaux.
The Monk’s Tale
The Monk's series of 17 of the promised 100 examples of the fall of great men and women (de casibus tragedies) is finally interrupted by the Knight, who wants to hear stories of those who have fallen whose Fortune improves.
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Seemingly a beast fable about a cock, a hen, and a fox, this tale proves to make fun mostly of human foibles. There are frequent mock-heroic "drops" in tone when we are reminded that we are mostly listening to a book-reading rooster and a tempting fox who is also a reader of texts.
The Old High German and Middle High German Hildebrandslied
Recorded in Austria in 2006, the OHG and MHG versions of the Hildebrandslied are performed before a live audience by that gift to medieval music performance in Medieval German, Eberhard Kummer.
The Pardoner’s Tale
The Pardoner's moving exemplum or sermon story to illustrate that the root of all evil is avarice. The irony is that the Pardoner himself is avaricious, as his long prologue reveals, though he hopes to save other from his own deadly sin.
The Parson's Tale
This is the last tale and Chaucer's Retraction of all of his tales that "sounen unto synne."
The Physician's Tale: Two Readings
One of Chaucer's more troubling tales to a modern audience, this short tale is read by Professor Tom Burton and Kathryn Dineen in two complete versions: one by a male voice; another by a female voice
The Poetics of Alliteration
Recording of all the alliterative poetic passages Alan Gaylord discussed in his expansion of a plenary address given at a SEMA annual conference in 1998. Range from Old English to Modern English examples.
The Poetics of Alliteration
The CD has Alan Gaylord's readings of the various texts he chose for examples of alliteration, ancient and modern, in his plenary address at a SEMA conference.The monograph accompanying the CD is an expansion of that plenary address.