Dear Friends,
Here I will share my notes which I jotted down during the tutorial with Timo on Friday between 2 and 3.30 p.m. I decided to share my notes with you in order to reach the most effective result at the exams. Now I will write down my notes which I noted today on the 13th of March during the tutorial.

To give the historical backbone:
English is a Germanic language. We can only talk about the English language after the Germanic tribes came to the British Isles. So we can make such a table:
a) Germanic Tribes
b) During this period there exists oral literature
c) Latin exists as well ( from the Romans and missionaries.)
d) As a result, Old English is mostly in oral language. Only real text left is the Beowulf. We have no idea who wrote this story. It is about a monster whose name is Grendel. Grendel gives fear to the king of Denmark. The hero at first fights against Grendel and then against his mother, and he saves the King from his fears. It is a heroic epic. Epic means long story. Heroic epic is a technical term in the English Literature studies. So we should learn this term by heart. By the way, Beowulf was written on paper for the first time in the tenth century. Until that time it was told orally.

Old English period begins in the mid- 5th century as the Germanic tribes came to the British isles for the first time and it lasted until the mid-12th century. As the Germanic tribes which are Jutes, Angels and Saxons began to invade the British Isles, the native folk of the isles, whom were Celts, were banished to the fringes of the isles. It means, they were driven by the newcomers to Scotland, Ireland which are the mountainous parts of the isles.
In 1066 King Harold lost the war against his enemy who was William the Conqueror. This war is called the Battle of Hastings. As the King lost this war, the isles began to be invaded by Norman French people. Norman French is a different dialect of the French. We may roughly appoint 1066 as the end of the Old English period. Of course the social changes in the life do not happen like a knife cut.
As we should talk about the Middle English period, we can roughly say that Middle English is equal to Old English + Norman French.
Middle English period is between 1066 and 1485. The end of this period is 1485, because it is the end of the war of the roses. War of the roses was between the dukes of Lancaster and York. They both wanted to have the throne of England. For this reason, they have been fighting to each other for a long time. On that year, the war ceased. The end of the war is the end of the period.
Now, i will talk about the political situation and give some information about the Kings. By doing this we will try to understand the relationships between Geoffrey Chaucer and aristocracy. First I will talk about Edward III.
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377) was one of the most successful English monarchs of the Middle Ages. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into the most efficient military power in Europe.
His oldest son`s name was also Edward. However he died at the same time with his father. For that reason, Richard II became the King at the age of 10. As he was still a little boy who could not reign like mature kings, his uncle John of Gaunt became his protector. John of Gaunt is the other son of Edward III. He was the Lord Protector. Until Richard II could give the decisions as an adult, he administrated in England.
Our topic who is Geoffrey Chaucer, was married to the sister of John of Gaunt`s third wife. I explain it again. John of Gaunt had three wives, and G. Chaucer was married to the sister of this third wife, so he had indirectly relations with the aristocracy. Chaucer had all the knowledge of his time. Although he comes from bourgeoisie - his father was a middle-class wine merchant- he was well educated thanks to his close relations with the aristocracy. He was well educated in French, Italian and classical Roman literature. He has been to Paris as an envoy, and as the spy of the Richard II.
In Canterbury Tales, he mixed all his knowledge from Italian, French and classical Latin. Even this makes him very genius, because until that time, no one had ever done such a thing.
Canterbury Tales has a complex structure. We have a frame story which is pilgrimage. Pilgrimage derives from the Latin word periginos. Pilgrimage is the frame of the Canterbury Tales. More than 20 pilgrims decide to visit Canterbury, because the church of Saint Thomas is there. At those times only pilgrims were allowed to travel around England. The purpose of the journeys could only be religious reasons. Someone had to join pilgrims if he wanted to travel from one place to another. These pilgrims have to tell a story, and their tales are embedded into the frame. For example, Miller and Carpenter are the two of the story tellers. Miller tells a story in which he tells bad things about Carpenter`s wife, and then Carpenter tells a mean story and he insults Miller`s wife. There are 24 stories in the Canterbury tales. They are in the same story. He mixes different works of literature and combines a new one.
Chaucer makes up these stories from his own mind. In fact these pilgrims never visit Canterbury. All of these stories are the products of his imagination. At this stage, we should talk about Fabliau. It means a brief narrative which is comic and had sexual contents. It is also politically incorrect. It comes from France.
Knight`s Tales: They belong to the Germanic middle ages. It is a completely different tradition.
In the Canterbury Tales Chaucer combines these two things. Fabliau reflects the reality of the life as it tells about the ugly wives. However, Knights are the warriors of the ideals. Chaucer mixes these two things in his stories. The frame and the embedded stories interact.
I underline again. The structure is a complex narrative structure. It is the combination of different literary traditions as he is aware of different works of literature..
Chaucer writes these stories in Middle English. He uses English as a literary language to give it prestige.  He reevaluates English as a literary language.

In the Old English Period: Latin and Old English were spoken.
In the Middle English Period: Latin, Middle English and Norman French were spoken. Latin was the language of the church and the king was using French at the court. Norman French was the language of aristocracy. Normal folk used to speak English at home. It was a vernacular language. Vernacular means native language.
We can underline three important points about Chaucer again:
1) Reevaluation of English language as a literature language.
2) Using and combining literary tradition to do something new.
3) He is a real artist in creating and designing his texts.

Knight`s tale is the tradition of idealism. Fabliau shows the realist and negative sides. Realism and idealism are literary traditions.  ´Fabliau` is singular, ´Fabliaux` or ´Fablieaux` are plural.
The people who affected Chaucer are:
Ovid: Classical Latin literature affected Chaucer.
Roman de la Rose. It is the name of the text, and we do not know who its author is, and it affected Chaucer. Some people think that de Lorris is the author of Roman de la Rose.
Chaucer read Roman and Greek texts in French translations, and also read Latin texts in their originals.
This is the end of the notes which were jotted down on the tutorial of March the 13th 2009.
If you find my mistakes either grammatical or about the things I wrote, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards.