The Tale of Sir Thopas

The Tale Of Sir Thopas

The Tale of Sir Thopas is told by the Chaucer character in The Canterbury Tales which was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. The tale primarily focuses on the amusing and largely silly adventures of Sir Thopas, outlined in favorable terms as an attractive and chaste knight who shines at hunting, archery, and other knightly activities. Sir Thopas is on a quest to win the elf-queen because he truly believes she was the only woman with whom he would ever fall in love. The various ways the tale of Sir Thopas can be perceived is perhaps the most interesting thing about it. Chaucer is expressing the cultural criticism of social class and romantic values in a humorous way throughout the character of Sir Thopas.

Written in an foolishly and bouncy rhyme pattern, the poem is a comical parody of Middle English verse romances overloaded full of crazy details, this style isn't used anywhere else in the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer makes fun of himself, deriding this type of literature and belittling the people who actually read and truly enjoy this type of poetry. The story is intentionally left incomplete and is consciously badly written. Chaucer appears to be using a form of self deprecating humor by giving himself the least favorable story in The Canterbury Tales and presenting himself as the quietest and most hesitant of the group of storytellers.

The ideas of romance of are put in a unique way when it comes to Sir Thopas tale. Thopas is living in fantasyland. He loves elves, as an escape from any form of a real relationship, he has a whole glamourous idea of the fairy but never even has met the fairy queen. None of the mortal women who pursue Sir Thopas are worthy of his charms except for the only lady he wants to pursue, being the fairy. Sir Thopas fell in a yearning for love. As soon as he heard the thrush sing, and spurred as if he were crazy. "An elf-queen will I love, indeed, For in this world no woman is Worthy to be my make Worthy to be my mate In town; All other women I forsake,

And to an elf-queene I me take By dale and also by hill!" Into his saddle he climbed at once, And spurs over stile and stone His fair steed in his spurring So sweated that one could wring him; His sides were all blood.” (282-285 ). This childlike rhyme, like the Wife of Bath’s Tale, is set in fairyland in the time of King Arthur. Thopas had countless maids throwing themselves at him but he greatly valued love or lust. His heavy concern with virginity, meekness, and innocence finds its reflection in the symbolic significance of the Thopas an emblem of purity and in the comparison of the knight's pasty complexion with "payndemayn," a kind of bread that had once frequently been stamped with the images of the Savior and the Virgin Mary. Sir Thopas rides to fairyland on horseback, but finds the entrance blocked by a three-headed giant called Sir Oliphant who challenges Sir Thopas to fight. He then formally meets a three-headed giant who bids him depart this part of the forest because it was the kingdom of the Elf Queen. The giant threatens to end his life and the knight accepts the challenge and rides home to ready himself for the battle. At his father's castle, Sir Topas feasts out elegantly and then prepares himself for the battle with the finest armor and