A Story Teller Telling A Tale Of A Story Teller Telling a Tale of a Tale

The Millers Tale

In the Millers Tale, we are first introduced to the miller in the prologue. We have not met any narrators in the previous story of "The Knights Tale." In this tale, the Miller is our narrator, or so we are told by the narrator. We have a narrator (Geofrey Chaucer) introducing the previous narrator (the host), and then tries to introduce the Monk as the next narrator, but is then interrupted by the drunk Miller. The Miller becomes our new narrator and begins to tell us a tale about a carpenter and his wife.

3137 But first I make a protestacioun
But first I make a protestation
3138 That I am dronke; I knowe it by my soun.
That I am drunk; I know it by my sound.
3139 And therfore if that I mysspeke or seye,
And therefore if that I misspeak or say (amiss),
3140 Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I you preye.
Blame it on ale of Southwerk, I you pray.
3141 For I wol telle a legende and a lyf
For I will tell a legend and a life
3142 Bothe of a carpenter and of his wyf,
Both of a carpenter and of his wife,
3143 How that a clerk hath set the wrightes cappe."
How a clerk has set the carpenter's cap (fooled him)."

We supposedly have one narrator, the Miller, throughout the whole story. But Chaucer continuously interrupts Miller adding in his own comments. He basically says sorry to the reader for such a terrible tale, because it does not compare to the greatness of "The Knights Tale".

We can attempt to compare "The Knights Tale" and "the Millers Tale", but there is not that much to compare. There is no godly intervention in "The Millers Tale." There are two men that are fighting for the love of the woman, and there is a competition in both. But either than those two things, they are not identical in the slightest way. The Millers Tale is just a crazy romance, and "The Knights Tale" is a fight of Love VS Victory. "The Knights Tale" is more romantic than "the Miller" which is brusquer.

Chaucer presents the story of the carpenter and his young wife, as a second best story to the story of Arcite and Palamoun. Nick and Absoloun are fools just like Arcite and Palamoun, but are chasing after an already married woman. This story is not a proper one, instead it parody’s the one told by the host.


Vocabulary in the Millers Tale:
Talisman:


Primrose:



Paternoster: