A 600-year-old Chaucer mystery may finally be solved
A medieval sermon packed with 'memes' and simple spelling mistakes could explain a baffling line in 'The Canterbury Tales.'
By Andrew Paul
https://www.popsci.com/science/chaucer-canterbury-tales-mystery-solved/
Cantebury Tales at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales
A better coverage can be found here:
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/song-of-wade-lost-english-legend-decoded
@gutenberg_org I'm still a bit fuzzy, due to both accounts seeming going back and forth between various times. Is this right?
12C: The Song of Wade is created & becomes popular
late 12C: Alexander Neckham (or acolyte) writes Humiliamini sermon, quoting SoW
c1400: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales references SoW in courtly contexts (Does not reference Humiliamini?)
c1400 - c1800 SoW lost to history
1896: Cambridge Scholar M.R.James discovers Humiliamini, containing fragments of SoW.
1/n
@gutenberg_org M. R. James interprets SoW as referencing elves and sprites, making it seem like an epic fantasy, but out of place in Canterbury Tales. Later scholars accept this interpretation
2025: Dr James Wade and Dr Seb Falk re-analyse Humiliamini, interpreting SoW to be referencing wolves and sea-snakes. This makes SoW more likely to be a grounded chivalric romance, and therefore make more sense in the context it's used in Canturbury Tales.
2/3
@gutenberg_org Dr. James Wade is neither the subject of The Song of Wade, nor related to M. R. James, but does ambiguify any references to "Wade" or "James", like
> “It wasn’t clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue," Wade says.
3/3
Project Gutenberg
aspragg