Bordalejo.Īround 16,000 people downloaded the app within the first week, according to Dr. “We always intended it for the general reader, for those approaching Chaucer for the first time,” says Dr. An “appetite” for the Middle Agesīesides Chaucer enthusiasts, the app targets the general public. Robinson leads at the University of Saskatchewan funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The transcription comes from a broader project Dr. The project was funded by University College London and the National Library of Wales, which provided a digitized version of the manuscript.
#CANTERBURY TALES IN MIDDLE ENGLISH PLUS#
Robinson, plus $2,000 for recording the audio. Making the app took about three years cumulatively and roughly $20,000, estimates Dr. “It really helped me convey the humour to the modern audience in a way that they would understand.” “We had Terry Jones’s translation, which has his unmistakable Python-esque humour, that was a helpful inspiration,” explains Mr. Gibbings memorized the General Prologue before recording it in studio to hone its cadence and to play with the words. Then an MA candidate in English at U of S and now a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary, Mr. The final piece of the puzzle, the narration, comes from Colin Gibbings’s lively rendition of the original Middle English text. Robinson oversaw the app design and provided a wealth of supporting information included in the app. North authored a new biography of Chaucer for the app. Bordalejo established the transcription of the text, while Dr. To celebrate his memory and the work he did on the translation, the team decided to launch the app on February 3, two days after Jones’s birthday.ĭr. He passed away on January 21 of this year. ” It is at the Red Lion that the project really took shape.Īside from his work in the comedy group Monty Python, Jones was a respected scholar who had authored two books on Chaucer. North recalls, “Peter announced that Terry Jones was also in and we all had a pub evening and dinner with Terry in the Red Lion in Highgate in May. North brought the idea of the app to Drs. Screenshot of the General Prologue on the dedicated website. In a box that appears over the manuscript, users can read both the Middle English transcription of the verse being read and the Modern English translation, which was written by Jones.
The screen scrolls through the digitized manuscript to the rhythm of the narrator’s voice. The app certainly succeeds in immersing the user in the text. North explains that the idea for the app emerged in the early 2010s when he and a former student realized that multimedia apps are “a better way for readers to encounter Chaucer’s works than the paperback edition.” Often ironic and comic, they shed a critical light on late medieval English society.ĭr. The Tales recount 24 stories that a group of pilgrims exchanged as part of a storytelling contest on their journey to Canterbury. Robinson, citing manuscripts indicating the text was performed live. “We have several direct evidences that Chaucer was intended to be read out loud,” says Dr. The 45-minute performance of the opening section of the Tales brings users back to the roots of the text. The international team of scholars leading the project include Richard North, a professor at University College London in England Peter Robinson, a professor in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan, colleague Barbara Bordalejo, a senior lecturer also at U of S, along with the late Monty Python comedian Terry Jones.
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The app, which launched on February 3, is available for iOS and Android users, and through a dedicated website. The strange Middle English words comprise the opening verse of the medieval masterpiece composed by Chaucer more than 600 years ago. “Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury,” says the expressive voice of the narrator. Four historians from Canada and England have launched the General Prologue app, the first app featuring an audio performance of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in its original 14th-century English.
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