Jonty Claypole

There's this whole category...

summoners, pardoners, strange jobs who all just had their fingers in the public purse and were getting money out of people.

It is.

There's a summoner, a partner, and a miller, all of whom are going to tell important stories in the whole cycle of the Canterbury Tales.

At the end of the prologue, the host, Harry Bailey, local MP, owner of the Tabard Inn, explains that the pilgrimage is going to be a storytelling contest.

Britain's got talent.

Pilgrims have to tell two stories out and two stories back.

And the person who tells the best story gets, unfortunately, the prize isn't that great.

It's not that good, really.

They get dinner bought for them by everyone else.

And everyone who doesn't play by the rules has to pay for all the drinks they've had on the trip.

And they draw straws to see who has to go first.

And very conveniently for the narrator, the shortest straw is taken by the knight, which means he can also let the knight, who's highest in rank, also have the first story.

So Chaucer's definitely a winner at the end of the general prologue.

Sophie, it's time for the Chaucer voice.

And I do want listeners to know that it's very hard to read Middle English or medieval English.

And Sophie knows exactly how it's done.

It was prior to something, an event known as the Great Vowel Shift of the 15th century, not to be confused with the Great Bowel Shift, which was an entirely different affair.

And the great vowel shift was a fundamental change in the English language and the sound of vowels.

And if you don't know much about the great vowel shift, you can't do what Sophie's about to do for us now.