The Canterbury Tales
The book 'The Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer the father of literature in the 14th century. This book is based on some pilgrims who are going on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. On the way, to shorten time, they have a contest of who is the most interesting story teller. So each of the pilgrims tell a story however originally Chaucer had planned to have 12o stories however Chaucer did not manage to do all of these so instead he had 24 finished stories. Some of the most well known are; The Wife of Bath, The Nun's Priest Tale, The Millers Tale, The Pardoners Tale and The Knights Tale.
Pilgrimages were very important in the Middle Ages. This was because they believed that when you went on a pilgrimage to go to holy land or visit a holy shrine then you will be forgiven of your sins. At that time nearly everybody was Christian so they all believed this. People also believed that if they do this it could help sick relatives or friends. That is also why people may have wanted to go and visit Becket's shrine. This was because on the day that he died the people in the church realised that Becket was now a Marta because he had died for his religion and the people of the church started to dab some of his blood on their eyes and they collected some of it in jars.
Important Pilgrimage routes in Britain & Europe:
Risks of going on a pilgrimage:
Life on a pilgrimage was very dangerous because there are many bad things that can happen to you whilst on a pilgrimage. Nowadays we have transportation we can use instead of walking whereas in those days you had to walk mile and miles.
Pilgrimages were very important in the Middle Ages. This was because they believed that when you went on a pilgrimage to go to holy land or visit a holy shrine then you will be forgiven of your sins. At that time nearly everybody was Christian so they all believed this. People also believed that if they do this it could help sick relatives or friends. That is also why people may have wanted to go and visit Becket's shrine. This was because on the day that he died the people in the church realised that Becket was now a Marta because he had died for his religion and the people of the church started to dab some of his blood on their eyes and they collected some of it in jars.
Important Pilgrimage routes in Britain & Europe:
- London to the Becket Shrine in Canterbury
- St. James in Spain
- St. Olav's Way, from Oslo to Trondheim, in Norway
- Thomas Becket's shrine in Canterbury
Risks of going on a pilgrimage:
- Going on a pilgrimage in the middle ages was a long and difficult journey. The venture took much longer, demanded much more physically, and could be quite dangerous.
- You could very easily injure yourself as there was no proper roads or paths.
- You could die of starvation or thirst (if you didn't have enough food or water that is!)
- You could become ill
Life on a pilgrimage was very dangerous because there are many bad things that can happen to you whilst on a pilgrimage. Nowadays we have transportation we can use instead of walking whereas in those days you had to walk mile and miles.