About this Website

This website contains a complete and unabridged text of The Canterbury Tales in its original Middle English, alongside a transcript that updates each word into the spelling of the Oxford English Dictionary. As well as ensuring the words are easier to recognise and the stories easier to understand, this modern-spelling edition also includes a tooltip glossary for unfamiliar words and phrases, and links to Wikipedia throughout the General Prologue and some of the more popular tales. Perfect for anyone interested in reading Chaucer’s 14th Century masterpiece, it is free to read and use.

In much the same way that the spelling of William Shakespeare is updated in modern editions, these are Chaucer’s exact words, updated to make them distinguishable to modern readers. The original Middle English text is from W. W. Skeat’s edition of 1899, and the order of the tales (in the navigation bar) follows Skeat’s arrangement.

You are free to read the complete work online, if you wish to copy or print it out, please request permission here. 

Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website advises reading The Shipman’s Tale first, followed by The General Prologue, The Knight’s Tale and the remainder of Group A. The Shipman’s Tale is available as a free download below. 

There are obviously many ways to read Chaucer, snd my advice when starting out — whether in the original or the transcript (or a combination of the two) — is that the word endings “-n,” or “-en” (which have to do with plurality and tense) can be largely read over or ignored when attempting to understand the word’s meaning, for example, “weren” can be understood simply as “were,” “longen” as “long,” etc.   

Practically every word of The Canterbury Tales is definable in the Oxford English Dictionary, and most words of the transcript are definable in a standard English dictionary as well (by simply right-clicking). When hovered over, underlined words present a definition or explanation, and words coloured blue throughout the edition link to Wikipedia (in a separate tab). The search option in the navigation bar will display details of each tale that the word or phrase occurs in, but not the location. To find a word or phrase within a tale, use “Cmd F” (MacOS) or “Ctrl F” (Windows).

The text has been prepared using The Oxford English Dictionary, searchable at OED.com (with a subscription), and Wiktionary, which is an excellent alternative. W. W. Skeat’s Middle English Glossary (A-D) (E-K) (L-R) (S-Z), and Index of Proper Names were also extensively used, and are available online at Wikisource.