Canterbury Tales Webquest

Whanne that April with his shoures sote

The droughte of March hath perced to the rote.

Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 1.

·  The Canterbury Tales is a collection of prose and verse stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. Chaucer’s stories are embedded in a framework narrative told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the burial place of St. Thomas à Becket.

·  But if you’ve been paying attention in class, you already know all this! The real question is why should you care (besides the fact that a grade is involved), and why are you being asked to complete a WebQuest?

·  To answer these questions, we need to begin with: who is Geoffrey Chaucer, and why do we study The Canterbury Tales? This website says it a whole lot better than I do.

·  http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/chaucer/about.acds

The Quest

Today you are going to research background information about Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales. Anything not completed in class should be finished for HW.

The ultimate goals of this WebQuest are to enrich your experience with The Canterbury Tales, learn a little bit more about life in the Middle Ages, and help you begin to see that as much as things change, they still remain pretty much the same. Chaucer’s tales could easily be told by any of you in this day and age.

To complete this WebQuest, you will have to answer a series of questions, research a few websites, and choose one of three projects to finish. Don’t worry; I’ve made sure the information is at your fingertips.

- Working alone or with one other person, use the links to answer the questions listed below.

- Please PARAPHRASE your answers rather than copying and pasting information.

You may type your answers directly into the document and print when finished.

Life in Medieval England

In this assignment you will find out about life in Medieval England. You will also be looking at the 'chivalrous code' and Thomas a Beckett (Canterbury Cathederal).

1 The people: describe the functions in society of the following people:

The King

The vassals

Knights

Noblewomen

Bishops

Priests

monks/nuns

friars

Serfs

merchants

2. Thomas à Beckett

a. Who was he?

b. Why was he killed?

c. Why did/do people visit Canterbury on pilgrimages?

3. The Chivalrous Code.

Visit some sites on the Chivalrous Code and answer the following questions:

a. What was the Chivalrous Code?

b. Why was it so important?

c. And to whom?

1.  Geoffrey Chaucer

1.  What were the years of his birth and death

2.  What was happening in Europe during this time?

3.  Where was he from?

4.  What were his links to royalty?

5.  What roles did he fulfill in life?

6.  What kind of writer was he?

7.  What was his “masterpiece” ?

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ch/Chaucer.html

2.  What is a pilgrimage? (You should already know this from our vocab. quiz.)

3.  Define prologue.

http://www.webster.com (or other dictionary site)

4.  Where is Canterbury?

What famous event happened there?

What are the goals of the many people who travel there on pilgrimages?

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Canterbury,-England

http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/history/history.aspx

5.  When were The Canterbury Tales written? In what language were they written?

·  What are they about?

·  What is a frame tale?

·  How does this technique of storytelling apply to The Canterbury Tales?

·  What happens in the Prologue?

http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/canttales/gp/

http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm

6. What were the “Three Estates” during the Middle Ages?

Estate =

1st =

2nd =

3rd=

How were women categorized?

The “______estates”

· 

· 

· 

http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html

6.  What was the Black Death?

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ch/Chaucer.html

http://the-orb.net/textbooks/nelson/black_death.html

7.  Choose a picture from the site below to copy and paste it into this document: http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/macabre.htm

(Copy, paste and resize to fit this space.)

What do you notice about the illustration? Why were images like this so prevalent in the Middle Ages?

Handy Links

Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales

http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/

http://www.canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/canterbury/charlist.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/canterbury/tale12.html

Life in Medieval England

http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/life.html - 1

http://www.chronique.com/Library/Chivalry/code.htm