Saturday, March 16, 2019

A Review of Canterbury Tales: The Tale of Sir Thopas

The Monk did tell the last tale is interrupted. The audience seems to have had enough of gloomy stories for a while. Chaucer himself tells the story of Sir Thopas.
 One day Sir Thopas goes for a ride and falls asleep outside. He dreams he sleeps with an elf queen. Thopas come to have strong passion for this elf of his dreams and when he awakens cries to Mary that he may be with her.
 A giant comes though, and threatens Sir Thopas to leave. Thopas however, simply returns by saying that he will kill the giant when he returns. The giant tried to kill the knight upon the knight's departure but failed.
 The knight returned to the town and assured the people of his coming triumph over the giant. Thereafter he rides out again but then the story never finishes what happens as Chaucer is interrupted by the host. The Host claims the tale is boring and proceeds to the next tale.
 I thought it was odd the story's end this way. I am wondering if this was something Chaucer never finished purposely, or if it so ends the way it does for sake of humor.

This is one tale I could not think of a Bible verse to go with it. Plus, the story is unfinished. That said I hope you enjoyed the tale!

10 comments:

  1. Maybe the interruption was for the sake of humor, but maybe he also wanted us to imagine our own ending? Still, it's kind of odd that he left it unfinished.

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    1. Yah, it maybe humor as you suggested! I really don't know!

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    2. That's what I was thinking! Maybe it's for our the sake of own imagination/humor.

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  2. "The Host claims the tale is boring and proceeds to the next tale." - I actually initially thought that was kind of funny! LOL.

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    1. Haha! The Canterbury Tales are!

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    2. The Tale of Sir Thopas is not contained in many copies of Chaucer's work though.

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