Introduction to the Canterbury Tales- Webquest

Name: Miss Ling World Lit. II Date:

Introduction to The Canterbury Tales- Webquest

We are about to begin reading excerpts from The Canterbury Tales, and because there is so much background to know beforehand, we first need to gather some information. Please use this document to TYPE your response using complete sentences. DO NOT copy and paste text from the Web pages. Focus on putting the information into your own words.

This Webquest assignment is due in class Monday, 1/24.

The Author 1. Who was Chaucer? 2. When was Chaucer born and when did he die? 3. What were his links to royalty? http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/chaucer/index.html http://courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/varia/life_of_Ch/ch-life.html/

The Work 4. What are the Canterbury Tales about, basically? 5. When was it written? 6. How long is it? How long did Chaucer want to make Canterbury Tales? http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg073.htm http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/chaucer/index.html

Religion and Culture 7. Who is Thomas á Becket and why is he important in the context of The Canterbury Tales? http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/chaucer/index.html

Why was Thomas à Becket such an important figure in those days? What happened to him? When was Canterbury Cathedral built? What else can you tell us about the building? http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/becket.htm http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/ http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Canterbury,-England

8. Where is Canterbury, and why do people make a religious pilgrimage there? http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Canterbury,-England http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/varia/pilgrimage/index.html

9. Name some other locations that pilgrims visit. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ Name: Miss Ling World Lit. II Date:

10. Take a tour of Canterbury Cathedral and make 3 notes about the art and architecture you find particularly interesting or distinctly “Medieval.” http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/canterbury-cathedral-photos/

11. What were the “Three Estates” during the Middle Ages? 12. How were women categorized? http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl430/estates.html

13. What was the Black Death? What fraction of the population of Europe died because of it? http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/ http://the-orb.net/textbooks/nelson/black_death.html

14. Choose a picture from the site below to copy and paste into this document. Describe what you notice about the illustration. (Copy, paste and resize to fit the space.) http://www.godecookery.com/macabre/macabre.htm

Structure of Canterbury Tales 15. What is a frame story and how does this technique of storytelling apply to The Canterbury Tales? http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Frame_tale