Why a pilgrimage?

England's new class of people, which included artisans, guildsmen, landowners, lesser nobility, merchants, and freemen, was a force that had been growing in power ever since the Black Death had killed most of the working population earlier in the century. England's new class of people, which included artisans, guildsmen, landowners, lesser nobility, merchants, and freemen, was a force that had been growing in power ever since the Black Death had killed most of the working population earlier in the century.

Serfs and feudal-bound workers abandoned their old lives for paying jobs in the cities and freetowns, and for the first time in the history of England a man not born into power or money could live as fine as royalty - better, in some cases.

One of the favourite pastimes for this new group of people was to take a pilgrimage, which had the same function as a holiday nowadays.

Although there were many popular spots - the pilgrimage centre of Glastonbury is just one example - the favourite of all was the cathedral in Canterbury that housed the remains of the beloved St. Thomas á Becket.

The second centenary of the death of St. Thomas occurred in Chaucer's lifetime, and for the jubilee thousands of people took to the road, and there was even free food and drink for the traveller all the way from London along the south road to Canterbury.

The murder of Thomas á Becket

Beside the body of St. Thomas, Canterbury had a lot to offer, enough to satisfy any pilgrim: the whole arms of eleven saints, the bed of the Blessed Virgin, some wool of Her own weaving, a fragment of the rock at Calvary, a piece of rock from the Holy Sepulchre, Aaron's Rod, a piece of the clay from which Adam was made, and other incredible exhibits.

Where the journey started… Where the journey started… The Pilgrims at the Tabard Inn

Chaucer had his pilgrims gather at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a disreputable area across the Thames from London. There actually was a Tabard Inn in Chaucer's day, and its innkeeper was Harry Baily, who is named in Canterbury Tales. And just as there was a real Harry Baily, so too was the character of the cook, Hodge of Ware, an actual person.

A London cook named Roger Ware (Hodge is a nickname of Roger) was known at that time, and Chaucer obviously intended for some of his London readers to recognize Baily, Ware, and perhaps even others.

Hodge of Ware

Southwark was the normal starting point for all pilgrimages, and although it is uncertain how individuals and small groups were organized into suitable companies, it seems certain that the Church also played the role of travel agency. A Canterbury pilgrimage was so popular and common that the route held few curiosities for Englishmen, and a written account of such a journey did not need descriptions of places or sights. Chaucer only mentions his pilgrims and their discussions; along the trip he barely named the towns they passed or where they stopped.

After leaving the Tabard the poets threw in an occasional poetic signpost, enough to maintain the illusion of a journey. He had the pilgrims stop at a site called the Watering of St. Thomas (an unidentifiable location), but other spots were barely mentioned, and when they were, just in passing: "Lo Greenwich, there many a shrewe is inne." Chaucer did not even write of Blackheath, or Dartford, the place where most pilgrims spent their first night out. In the Monk's prologue the town of Rochester (about 30 miles from London) is mentioned, Sittingbourne is cited in the Wife of Bath's prologue, and the Blean Forest is where the Canon's Yeoman joins the group.

At Boughton-under-Blee there were two approaches to Canterbury, and Chaucer has his company stop to decide which path to take. It is here, no more than a mile from their destination, that Chaucer ends his poem, and the pilgrims end their fictional journey, the arrival in the city eternally postponed. In the final reference to their progress, Chaucer does not even clarify which route the pilgrims would have taken: "Woot ye nat where ther stant a litel toun Which that ycleped is Bobbe-up-and- doun, Under the Blee, in Caunterbury weye?"

The Pilgrim's Path from Southwark to Canterbury

Even though Chaucer does not tell us how the pilgrims travelled, it is easy to trace the way they must have gone. The street leading from Southwark is an old Roman road and today is known as Old Kent Road, and eventually becomes New Kent Road. In Chaucer's day it was called Watling Street, and it can still be followed to Canterbury or to Dover

It would have taken at least four days to complete a trip such as this, but Chaucer has his pilgrims seemingly do it in one day. They leave Southwark in the morning, pass through certain towns during the day, then arrive in sight of Canterbury as the sun is setting. Nothing is said of stops for meals or overnight, and the trip seems to pass in a strange way from morning to night - much is made of the sun's position, the length of the shadows, and such. It would have taken at least four days to complete a trip such as this, but Chaucer has his pilgrims seemingly do it in one day. They leave Southwark in the morning, pass through certain towns during the day, then arrive in sight of Canterbury as the sun is setting. Nothing is said of stops for meals or overnight, and the trip seems to pass in a strange way from morning to night - much is made of the sun's position, the length of the shadows, and such.

Realism and symbolism… Critics argue that Chaucer meant the story to be more realistic than it is, that he just did not have time to do it right, but this way of interpreting Canterbury Tales means that it must be read for what is missing and not for what is there.

That is not the case. Canterbury Tales is not a work of realism, and the ending comes exactly where it does. Even those tales that remain unfinished do so for a purpose, such as the Squire's. The Squire is fresh and young, not yet through with life, and his incomplete story represents that.

We are all pilgrims, Chaucer says, and all of us have many tales to tell, some finished and others still in the making. And what was true in Chaucer's time is still true today, six hundred years later. We are, all of us, pilgrims on the journey through life.

"This world nis but a thoroughfare full of woe, And we been pilgrims passing to and fro."