The Fall 2004

At this site you can find out all sort of things about Chaucer's life, links for studying, a bookshop and The Canterbury Tales. In the tales portion of the site you can read any tale you want. You can either read it in its original middle-English or in its translated version right next to each other. The coolest part about the site is if you don't know a word they have a middle-English glossary. You can click on the word, if it is in blue and underlined, and it will bring up the meaning. This site also gives a link to enotes.com which gives you a summary of each tale, quotes, pictures and discussions. -- Laura Beard

The one cool/useful thing about the website is it defines all of the words it uses in the writings. I had a hard time figuring out what the words meant, but the website helped me decipher the meanings. -- Amy Kirst

This site gives a brief explanation of the Canterbury Tales right on the homepage, it also gives very detailed links to characters bios, as well as a modern translation. this site also gives u a look into Chaucer's other pieces of literature/life. -- Dave Dolyak

With the help of a librarius website, anyone can get a quick incite on the meaning of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The great use of the found website is the “to the point” summary that tells you what the site is about, what the famous story by Chaucer is about, who is in it, where it takes place, and the time in which the story was actually written. It helps you know immediately whether or not the site will be of interest or of use to the site’s visitor. Another great thing about the website is the table of contents that separates the story in defined, straightforward sections. The simple setup makes it easy to get right to where you want to be. The neat side by side feature that the site has translates the middle English story into modern English so that someone struggling with the comprehension of the story can almost literally be read and compared side by side. The last option that makes this site a great find is it’s middle English glossary. The glossary is an alphabetical listing of middle English words translated to understandable modern English for the readers convenience. The sites all access setup gives the site visitor everything needed to be introduced to, to read, evaluate, understand, translate, and to investigate Chaucer and his stories.

The only downfall of this website is the organization. In order to obtain the helpful information, guidelines, and cheat-sheet translations you need to search deep into the site. There is no main bar giving you options and straightforward connections to the “special features” which means they may be overlooked or misunderstood. Still, the Pros outnumber the cons, making this site more helpful than not for those who are really looking for help, translations, or information on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. -- Sarah Penney

The first part of the page has different links, such as: on-line bookshop, chronology of Geoffrey Chaucer's Life and times, and also Librarius links with other links amongst them. On the side you have the table of contents with the story organized into chapters, which also includes side-by-side translation. The "cool thing" about this website is that on the bottom of the page is a Middle-English glossary. all the words that need to be translated are alphabetically organized. I found this website a great help to me when I was trying to understand the story. -- MyCheal Krieger

Librarius has the Canterbury Tales in Middle English side-by-side with modern English. It also has links in the Middle English that lead to a window with a Middle English glossary. You can click on each section and then each section is broken up so you can easily look at a specific part. --Worthy Sizemore

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer are stories that were written in the late 1300s. The stories are about pilgrims and the journeys that they went through. A website done by the Librarius organization gives a in depth look into the Canterbury Tales and helps those in need learning about it a better understanding. The site goes into great detail about ever aspect of the Tales and is one of the better sites on the web about the Tales. Through the site you can learn a great deal about the life of Geoffrey Chaucer year by year, further links to go to about the Canterbury Tales, each tale interpreted word by word so that the average person can understand the tales better. The site also has a bookstore you can buy from online, has many audio files if one does not want to read all of the tales, and has a direct email to the owners of the site if you have any questions about the Canterbury Tales.

The life of Geoffrey Chaucer is broken down the years before him and after. On the left side of the page it gives what happened during his life year by year. It shows also during the years what works were written and when, which then you can click on the work that he wrote that year and go to a link that gives what he wrote, with the cover of the work so you know what it looks like if you were to go and buy it form the store. Which it automatically takes you to the Amazon website, in which from there you can purchase the work. Or you can hit the “Buy it now” button to purchase the work. On the right side, there is a list that gives the same years on the left side, but shows what historical event took place during Chaucer’s time. The timeline of his life is almost a year by year list to show the things that he was going through to help understand in a way about the works he was writing during those times. The historical events also help even though they only give a brief statement about the major occurrence, so there may have been other events that could have greatly affected Chaucer, which one could look up the time and place to find out more information.

If you go to the actual Canterbury Tales link to help translate, it gives an outline of every tale and shows under the tale a side-by-side translation. The actual link of the tale shows the tale, and words that might be questionable, in old English, are highlighted so that you can go to the link and learn what the word really means. The link that deals with more information about the Tales is also very useful. On the left there is a list about the different links to choose from, they range from information about the author, or history during the time, or links that lead to other people’s understanding of the Canterbury Tales. Overall I believe is a great site to help get through the Tales, since the language then was so different from now. The site is well organized to help anyone who is not familiar with online sites to get where they are looking to get. There are too many useful things on the site to list, the top would be having the words that are not understandable, I can quickly find out what they mean. -- Shannon Betty

I came across another website that was created by Michael Murphy and actually offers a detailed, step-by-step guide on the vocabulary, rhyme, and pronunciation methods on how to read the tales. Scattered throughout the website are examples of pronunciation that I found to be very helpful. -- Cassie Sheetz

This website has helped me in understanding the readings of the tales. It is the background information that I have found to be the most helpful. It gives background information on the author and the work. This background information allows for the reader to know about how the work developed before the readings begin. Providing this information has allowed me to know where the work originated and how it came to be, this in turn provides understanding of why they have been put in their manners. The Canterbury Tales are difficult to understand, especially for first-time readers; it has been this information that has given me a less hassle on reading the tales.

In addition, this web site provides services (for a fee) that help in writing and editing essays, resumes, cover letters, etc. It has helped students become better writers and create a great first impression. I certainly recommend this web site to other students who need help on literature writings. -- Esmeralda Sanchez

I read the tale of the frere (friar) and then I went to the above website. I became very confused because the two seemed to be completely different. The website was very clear and concise but it dealt more with other tales and drifted away from the tale of the frere (friar). -- Nicole Ebbesmier

I liked this site a lot because the site gives you a ton of searching options. For example, you can search for a "tale or section" from start to end and also limit the number of lines of text that you want to show up. The site allows you to see the text in middle English and also in modern English. You can also use this site for Shakespeare, Arabian Nights and other books. The site is easy to use and not very cluttered. There are forums that you could go into the chat with other people if you want to talk about the tales. -- Kristin Alfero

This website contained both the original Canterbury Tales in Middle English and the deciphered version into Modern English. It provided you with a table of contents and allowed you to chose which section of the Canterbury Tales you wanted to read. It gave you the option of narrowing down your search to specific lines in a section you chose. I found it very useful that you could pick out any particular numbered verse. It also had a pagination option, allowing you to read the tale straight through, or 15-30 lines at a time. Overall this site was very helpful and provided easy access to the Canterbury Tales. -- Christy Benefield

This web site was designed to help a person understand The Canterbury Tales. I found it very useful, because I have no idea how to read old English. As I have never studied this piece of literature before, it was also interesting to find information on the background of the tales. The site offers an interlinear translation of each one of the pilgrim’s prologues and tales. Again, very helpful to the modern day college student.

Each pilgrim’s page described what their story was about and dealt with some criticism aimed at both the characters and Chaucer. At the top of every pilgrim’s page there was a picture of their character. So it was easy to get the feel for both the physical look of the person and the time period to which Chaucer was referring.

The site was appealing to both the mind and eyes. The web page contained stained glass art work on the opening page that depicted the pilgrimage scene from a stained glass window in Canterbury Cathedral. While it was interesting to get an idea of what the characters looked like it was also interesting to read further into their dynamic stories as they each competed for a free supper. --Kim Herbolsheimer

The Pink Monkey website allows you to do many things. When you enter the website, you can pick from the many literary works that they have and get interesting notes and summaries. If you are also in need of that particular work, you can download a printable version of it. Something else useful about this website is that it has detailed summaries on main characters and key elements of the story, as well as, a study smart section which shows different ways to help you study. -- Brittany Macon

The website I chose to research The Canterbury Tales was very useful in understanding Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry. The website offered a short summary of what the story was about and it also provided a brief description of each character. The website help me understand the story better because it provided themes, motifs, and symbols throughout the entire tale. One cool and/or useful thing about the website was that the website was very easy to find and after I founded it provided a list of all the characters and background information about the author which I thought was very interesting. Altogether the site was a very beneficial and interesting website that helped me understand the context of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. --Erika Lopez

I went on to sparknotes.com and found it to be a lot easier to understand. They go through and summarize each part of the poem into pretty good detail. Another cool thing about this website is that it also describes each character into great detail on a separate link. --Zack Maybank

The sparknotes.com website is very useful and user friendly with easy tools to use. The website is also very easy to get around on and is not confusing like many other websites. --Justin Cooley

The site has many useful links including a character list that summarizes the characters, a plot overview, as well as chapter by chapter overviews and themes and symbols. I feel the most useful link to me will be the plot overview, as I sometimes have trouble deciphering the plot, especially with the wording being used. -- Bo Fisher

The best Chaucer/Canterbury Tales site took an exhausting amount of time and energy to locate in the cyber junk nightmare that is the internet today. That being said, the site I found, "Facultatea de Litere, Invatamant Deschis la Distanta, Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales," was either written by an anonymous person, a group of persons, or a huge fierce conglomerate of which I am not familiar. Despite the foreign title, the site proceeds on in English and reaches out to puzzled students far and wide who look at the Canterbury Tales with dead light bulbs over their heads. A formal background, character (both minor and major), and setting description are given along with the author's personal opinions and references that back up most of what he says. I was going to originally disregard this entire assignment, send off the page, and get on with my life, but invariably I am somewhat intrigued by the descriptions Mr. ? has given regarding this reading selection. -- Ashley Kissinger