Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this English unit's Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi.

This lesson looks at The Knight's Tale which is part of Chaucer's epic poem, The Canterbury Tales.

But before we can start our journey towards Canterbury, we need to make sure we're fully prepared.

For this lesson today you need a pen, a piece of paper, and to make sure that you've cleared away all distractions that could hurt your potential in this lesson today.

Make sure you've turned off the notifications on this device you're viewing this video on.

While you get sorted I'm going to turn myself off so we can enjoy this video in full.

Let's get started then.

In this lesson, we'll learn about Chaucer's The Knight's Tale.

We're going to examine the main characters from this tale.

Firstly, we're going to learn a new word.

The new word is oral tradition.

Say the word with me, oral tradition.

If we break this phrase down into two separate components we have oral and tradition.

Now oral is a way of communicating using speech or song.

I'm orally communicating with you now, using speech.

I won't do it through song because I don't want your ears to bleed.

However, we also have tradition.

Now tradition is knowledge and ideas that are handed down to the next generation.

There's a tradition in my family.

We always pass down a sovereign from generation to generation.

The eldest member of each generation pass this sovereign to the next eldest member of the next generation.

And so on and so forth.

So for example, the sovereign was passed from my great grandma to my nan, to my mom, and then to my brother.

There might be some traditions in your family.

So together, oral tradition is the idea of communicating using speech and song, not using writing.

And orally we pass knowledge and ideas to the next generation.

Examples of oral tradition are fairy tales, legends, epics, myths, and superstitions.

Notice how all of these types of oral tradition are essentially different forms of stories.

So oral tradition is essentially a way of sharing stories.

It's a form of storytelling.

Examples of oral station include Cinderella.

Now Cinderella is an example of a fairy tale.

And fairy tales are forms of oral tradition.

Hercules who is a legend is another example of an oral tradition.

Beowulf from his epic poem is again an example of oral tradition.

A story that was first told orally and later written down for record.

Pandora's Box is a myth.

Finding a shoe horse brings good luck is a superstition.

Now all of these pieces of knowledge and ideas have been passed down over generations orally before they've been written down.

And because they've been passed down orally we're not 100% sure where they originally came from.

What I'd like you to do in a moment is to pause the video.

And you're going to select which is the correct definition of oral tradition.

Option one, knowledge and ideas are communicated orally to and from generations.

Option two, knowledge and ideas are communicated into myths and legends.

Option three, knowledge and ideas are communicated in writing to and from generations.

Option four, knowledge and ideas are communicated in writing and made into fairy tales.

Take a moment to pause the video, in three, two, one.

So by now, you should have paused the video and made your selection.

The correct definition is option one.

Well done if you selected that oral tradition is when knowledge and ideas are communicated orally to and from generations.

Now let's quickly test your knowledge in action.

So, you are going to select which of these is the form of oral tradition.

And I'll give you three seconds to make your selection.

Legend or novel? Three, two, one.

You should have selected legend.

Legend is a form of oral tradition.

Legends aren't necessarily written down.

They are passed orally from generation to generation.

Whereas a novel is written down.

You can physically give the novel to your next generation.

However, this is not a form of oral tradition.

Which of these is a form of oral tradition? I'll give you three seconds to make your selection.

Three, two, one.

You should have selected myth.

Myth is a form of oral tradition.

Oliver Twist is a novel which is not a form of oral tradition.

Which of these is a form of oral tradition? Again, three seconds, three, two, one.

You should have picked fairy tale.

That is a form of oral tradition.

Which of these is an example of oral tradition? Hercules or Hulk? Make your selection.

Three, two, one.

Hercules is in fact the example of oral tradition.

We can't pinpoint exactly where the story of Hercules comes from.

However, we are a hundred percent aware that the Hulk story comes from Marvel Comics.

Which of these is an example of oral tradition? Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, or Frozen? Make your selection.

Three, two, one.

You should have picked Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood.

These are all examples of fairy tales and these fairy tales are oral traditions.

Now you're probably thinking, well Frozen is a form of a fairy tale.

Why is that not an oral tradition? Well unfortunately, we are fully aware of where the story of Frozen comes from.

And that story was originally written down in order to be produced as a film.

The other three examples of fairy tale of Cinderella, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood have no definitive or precise area where they originated.

So we can't pinpoint where they exactly came from.

Because the stories of them were passed down orally from generation to generation before they were written down.

How about now? Which of these is an example of oral tradition? Hercules, Medusa, Julius Caesar or Hades? Make your selection in three, two, one.

You should have selected Hercules, Medusa and Hades.

All three of those are parts of our Greek myths.

Julius Caesar, however, is parts of our Roman empire, which is actually part of history.

So it's clear that The Canterbury Tales and oral tradition go hand in hand.

If we think that oral tradition is essentially a form of storytelling then The Canterbury Tales is built solely on this idea.

Each pilgrim tells their own tale without rehearsal and without a script.

So all of their tales are told orally.

It's possible that their stories are passed down from generation to generation.

Or, that they have been part of this story themselves.

But their story is not written down.

Instead they recite it from memory.

Therefore, this is a form of oral tradition and Geoffrey Chaucer is celebrating the form of oral tradition.

Of sharing stories and passing them down from generation to generation.

Essentially, Geoffrey Chaucer is recording these stories in order to share them to a wider audience.

By writing them down he also ensures that they're never lost.

Now we're going to recall some key information about The Canterbury Tales.

So The Canterbury Tales is an epic poem.

And it was written during the middle ages.

Now it was written by hand, by Geoffrey Chaucer.

He had no luxury of the printing press and therefore he was unable to reach a large audience with his Canterbury Tales.

Therefore, Geoffrey Chaucer himself had to rely on oral tradition.

He had to rely on people reading his stories, reading his tails and sharing them orally with others to get his work noticed.

He did not have the luxury of printing many books and publishing them far and wide up and down the country.

Instead he had to rely on people orally reciting, orally recalling his stories to one another and sharing them across generations.

Before the invention of the printing press.

The story focuses on a group of pilgrims journeying from Southwark London to Canterbury.

They're heading on their pilgrimage or journey to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket.

This pilgrimage became more popular after the brutal murder of Thomas Beckett in 1170 at Canterbury Cathedral itself.

For entertainment along the way the pilgrim share tales with one another.

Now this is a form of oral tradition.

The sharing of tales between the pilgrims. Their sharing stories that are not scripted and are not rehearsed.

They're sharing oral tradition, oral stories between one another across generations.

The narrator describes each pilgrim in the prologue.

Remember, a prologue is just the introduction to a poem.

To decide who shares the first tale, the pilgrims draw straws.

The Knight draws the shortest straw and therefore the Knight tells the first tale.

Before we look at the story of the Knight's Tale, we're just going to check our knowledge of oral tradition.

In a moment you're going to pause the video.

And you're going to answer down on your sheets of paper the answer to these questions.

Question one, what is an example of oral tradition? Question two, what is oral tradition? Question three, why is oral tradition important in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales? Take a moment now to pause the video and write down your answers to those questions in three, two, one.

By now, you should have paused the video.

We're going to go through the answers to these questions now.

Do not worry if you're answers are slightly different to mine.

That's okay.

Question one, what is an example of oral tradition? An example of oral tradition is myth, such as the story of Hercules.

You might've had something different.

So you might've used the example of an oral tradition, such as fairy tales.

You might have said the fairy tale of Cinderella.

That's absolutely fine to do also.

Question two, what is oral tradition? Oral tradition is when knowledge and ideas are communicated orally from one generation to another.

Absolute perfect if you managed to remember what oral tradition was.

Question three, why is oral tradition important in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales? Oral tradition is important in The Canterbury Tales because each pilgrim recalls a story from memory, without a script.

They tell their stories in performance.

Chaucer had to rely on oral tradition in order to share his works.

There was no luxury of printing press in the middle ages.

Next we're going to outline the plot to The Knight's Tale.

So we begin with Duke Theseus of Athens.

And he's returning from war in Scythia.

Theseus captures Queen Hippolyta and they fall in love and return to Athens to marry.

They return with Hippolyta's sister, Emily.

Now remember Emily, because she's one of our three main characters.

On their journey back to Athens they find a group of women crying on the side of the road.

The women are so upset because their husbands who died in battle have not been returned to them.

Creon of Thebes has not returned their husbands bodies to them.

Enraged by this, Theseus rides immediately to fight Creon.

Now we're just going to take a moment to check that we've been listening.

So who is returning to Athens? Option one, is it Creon of Thebes, Theseus and Hippolyta? Option two, Creon of Thebes, Hippolyta and Emily? Option three, Theseus, Hippolyta and Emily? Or option four, a group of women, Hippolyta and Emily? Take a moment to pause the video and make your selection in three, two, one.

So by now you should have pause the video and made your selection.

The correct answer is option three.

Theseus, Hippolyta and Emily are returning to Athens.

On with The Knight's Tale.

So Theseus battles Creon of Thebes and he kills him.

And he returns the husbands bodies to their wives and then continues on to Athens.

From the battle, he captures two injured princes.

Now remember these two injured princes, as they are our last in our three main characters.

Now Theseus keeps these two injured princes prisoner in a tower in Athens.

Now Palamon, who is one of the two injured princes is pacing up and down one day in the tower, frustrated of his imprisonment.

And he notices Emily, our other main character through his barred window.

And he notices how beautiful she is.

And as he does, he cries out in pain.

He holds his hand to his chest, clutching his heart crying out in pain.

So let's look at our character of Emily.

So, Emily is Hippolyta's younger sister.

And Emily is what we call an mediaeval ideal, a mediaeval ideal.

So she is beautiful and she is pure.

She is exactly what is expected of mediaeval women.

To look beautiful, to be pure in virginity.

And when Palamon sees Emily, he immediately falls in love with how she looks.

Now Arcite, the other injured prisoner, thinks that Palamon is crying out in despair because he is saddened by being imprisoned in this tower for so long.

However, this is not the case.

But Arcite too looks from the window and he sees Emily and he too falls in love with Emily at first sight because of her beauty.

And then Palamon explains to Arcite that he is wounded by his love for Emily.

And then Palamon compares Emily to Venus.

Now we're going to look at the description of Emily when Palamon first sees her and he says, her beauties freshly clad to speak of those, her yellow hair was braided in a tress behind her, a yard in length I guess.

She wandered gathering flowers, white and red, to make a subtle garland for her head.

So now take some of those ideas and explain those.

So she has beauties freshly clad.

So here, Emily is dressed in fresh clothes that suits her.

So here Emily is dressed in beautiful clothes to suit her figure.

To speak of those her yellow hair.

The fact that she has yellow hair doesn't seem very striking for a 21st Century reader.

However, within the middle ages it would have been very different for someone to have yellow hair, to have blonde hair.

Whereas most people would have brown or black, very dark hair.

So it's the fact that Emily stands out.

She is unique in this moment.

And it's braided down her back in a plait, a yard in length.

Now, a yard in length is very impractical.

To have very long hair would not be ideal if you're working in the fields, if you're working in a factory, et cetera.

So it suggests that Emily is not a working woman.

So she has the luxury of being able to grow her hair as a long length.

She wandered gathering flowers, so, it suggests that Emily is very delicate in this moment.

She's collecting flowers to make a subtle garland or subtle little crown if you like, to sit upon her head.

So it suggests that Emily is a very delicate creature.

She's beautiful.

She's a bit fragile.

This is an ideal mediaeval woman.

Then he moves on and says that she's roaming in the garden to and fro.

Is all the cause and I cried out my woe.

Woman or goddess, which? I cannot say, I guess she may be Venus.

Well, she may.

So here, Palamon is talking about the woe that he cries out.

So that's the pain that he feels in his heart when he sees Emily.

And he's saying that her beauty is so strong that it actually wounds him.

And that's where it hits him hard in the heart.

And that causes his love to begin.

And then he questions whether she is a woman or a goddess.

So, is she a simple woman of this earth, or is she something else? Is she a blessed creature to be sent from the gods as a goddess to walk the earth? And he says, I guess she may be Venus.

So he compares her to Venus.

Now, why is this significant? Well, Venus is the goddess of love and beauty.

And this is significant because we've already heard that Palamon falls instantly in love with Emily at first sight.

And he is aware of her beauty and he describes it at length.

In addition to this, Palamon uses a metaphor when describing Emily.

He says that she must be Venus.

Now, she must be Venus in his eyes because if she can create a love as strong as he feels and be as beautiful as he believes, then she must be Venus.

Because she must be able to grant love and produce beauty across the planets for all humans.

She is the source of love and beauty embodied as Venus.

And therefore he elevates her.

So he places her much higher than she actually is.

By comparing her to a goddess, someone immortal, and someone having power suggests that Emily must be above all other humans.

So he's placing her, elevating her above others.

Now we're going to look at a new phrase.

The phrase is patriarchal society.

Now a patriarchal society is a society in which men have more power and influence than women.

So men being in charge of a society is called patriarchy.

Try and say patriarchal society, patriarchal society.

So it's a society in which men have more power and influence than women do.

So for example, The Canterbury Tales was written in mediaeval England, which had a patriarchal society.

The pilgrims lived in a patriarchal society.

Women tend to suffer because of patriarchy, as their voices and opinions are seen as unimportant.

In this moment we see how Palamon and Emily are living within a patriarchal society.

Palamon has no idea about what Emily is thinking, how she feels.

If Emily is even got a nice personality, he has no idea.

He's only taking Emily at face value.

He's only looking at her beauty.

And Emily doesn't even know that Palamon exists at this moment in time.

And he is developing this strong love towards her.

And soon, he'll use his power as a man to take Emily for himself.

And we'll see how in a moment.

Now we'll continue with the plot.

So Arcite says that he is happy to stay imprisoned if he can see Emily daily.

Now Palamon, highlights that he made an oath with Arcite to make sure that they both support each other in finding love.

So Palamon explains how he saw Emily first and explained his love to Arcite.

Whereas Arcite argues back and says, well hang on a minute, no you didn't.

You didn't say anything about your love for Emily.

You insinuated that your pain came from the fact that you didn't want to be locked away in this prison anymore.

He didn't mention Emily.

And therefore from this conflict, their friendship begins to deteriorate.

And they take the opinion that it is now each man for himself and they want their own claim to Emily.

So as their friendship deteriorates, they begin fighting and they end up in a duel.

And Theseus catches them duelling and puts a stop to it and he proposes a tournament.

And the winner of the tournament gets Emily's hand in marriage.

So Palamon, Arcite and Emily all pray the night before the tournament to different gods.

Palamon prays to Venus, the goddess of love.

Arcite prays to Mars, the god of war.

And Emily prays to Diana, the goddess of chastity.

And all three are given a vision overnight that their prayers will come true.

Both men are injured in the tournament.

Arcite dies from his injuries.

And after a period of mourning, so period of sadness, Palamon and Emily marry.

Now patriarchy is important in this moment because nowhere in this plot has Emily been asked her opinion on who she should marry.

She isn't given a decision on whether she prefers Palamon or Arcite.

And that's because within the patriarchal society Emily's opinion did not matter.

So Emily is the prize within the tournament.

And it doesn't matter who would win.

Emily would have to marry either Palamon or Arcite.

The men do not question whether Emily wants to marry them or not.

But it is what they desire.

And that's why Emily is subjected to this patriarchal society.

In a moment you're going to pause the video and complete your task.

On your sheet of paper, I'd like you to answer these three questions.

Question one, what does Palamon believe Emily is? And what does he compare her to? Question two, what was Arcite prepared to do if it meant he could see Emily every day? Number three, how did the men settle on who marries Emily? And as an extra challenge, could you answer why this is unfair on Emily? Pause the video and answer these questions in three, two, one.

So by now, you should have paused the video and answered those questions.

I'm going to go through the answers.

Don't worry if you've worded them slightly different to how I have.

Question one.

What does Palomar believe Emily is? And what does he compare her to? Palamon believes Emily is a goddess.

And he compares her to Venus.

Palamon thinks that Emily is extremely beautiful and feels strong love towards her.

This convinces him that she must be the goddess of love and beauty, Venus.

Question two, what was Arcite prepared to do if it meant he could see Emily every day? Arcite was prepared to stay locked away in a prison if it meant he could see Emily every day.

Well done if you managed to remember that.

That was a very small detail included in the plot.

Question three, how did the men settle on who marries Emily? And then the bonus question.

Why is this unfair on Emily? So the men settle on who will marry Emily by battling in a tournament.

Perfect.

Then you could have extended your answer with why that was unfair on Emily.

Now this unfair on Emily because she lives in a patriarchal society.

And therefore her opinion on who she wants to marry is not valued.

Brilliant if you were able to extend your answer with that.

That is excellent work from today's lesson.

Now that concludes our lesson for today.

Well done on completing the lesson.

And thank you for working so very hard.

Next lesson, we'll be looking at The Knight's Tale but transported into the 21st Century as our new tale of Emily by Robert Knightly, included in Telling Tales by Patience Agbabi, where we see a very different Emily portrayed to us.

I hope you can join us then.

Have a lovely day.