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Published: December 8th 2011
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Canterbury Tales 1
Part of the recreation of medieval pilgrimage route. Where the Lady of Bath tells her story. As today was my only day in Canterbury I had to fit as much as possible in today. My first stop was at Canterbury Tales. Occupying the former parish church of St. Margaret is a re-creation of medieval life. You get an audio guide and follow along on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket. As you go through the different scenes from the town, to the woods to the Cathedral you hear different tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. My favorite tale was The Pardoner’s Tale, about three young men who are looking for Death. They are in an ale-house and ask an old man where Death is. The old man sends them towards a tree in the distance. Once there they find a large pile of gold. The decide to stand guard over the gold until they can move it under the cover of night. They send the youngest brother to go and get food and drink for them to eat during the day. The two older brothers decide that the money would be better split by two rather than three and plot to kill their brother when he gets back. The youngest brother also thinks that the money would
Canterbury Tales 2
The setting of the Nun's Priest's Tale of mock heroics in the farmyard. be better not shared so he mixes some poison into the wine that he brings back to the brothers. When he gets back to the tree the older two jump upon and kill the youngest. After this tiring work they decide to refresh themselves with a drink. And so all three brothers did find death underneath the tree!
After that I went off to another place of murder, the Canterbury Cathedral. It was there that Archbishop Thomas Becket was brutally murdered. Soon after he was dead miracles were said to take place and Thomas Becket was made a saint. Thomas Becket was a friend and supporter of King Henry II although once he was appointed to the Church he became a staunch believer and did all he could to prevent the king from taking away the Church’s privileges. King Henry is said to have exclaimed “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest”. Four knights heard this and went to the Cathedral where they killed Becket. As penance King Henry II walked to the Chapel (barefoot) and there was beaten by every one of the 80 monks there!!
My final stop of the day was at the Canterbury
Canterbury Tales 3
The ale tavern and setting of my favourite story. (See Blog for details). Heritage Museum. It was a nice little museum which had a bit of history from the different ages all to do with Canterbury. It went from archaeological evidence dating from AD 300 all the way to recent times with the creation of a popular television show Bagpuss and Rupert!! It was a long day and after a bite to eat I headed back to the Hostel, stopping at Waitrose (a grocery store) to get a bag of Worcester Sauce flavored chips for desert! I now have to pack and get ready to once again change train stations in London, except this time they are not nicely across the road from each other so I have 30 minutes to find the underground get to the right stop and find my new train, all while lugging three bags!! I am a little nervous!! Wish me luck!
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