The Caterbury Tales, Carmina Burana and The Book of Taliesin

Historical Events of the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is the period in European history from the collapse of the Roman empire in the fifth century to the period of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century. The medieval life may, at first, appear to be bleak, harsh, and dreary. But in actuality, it was a time of Kings, immense battles, disease and religious influence. From the devastation of the Bubonic Plague, briefly alluded to in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, to the legendary king and war-hero Arthur of Camelot. The Christian Church was the single most influential institution in society, with the pope taking on a role as the leader of European Christendom and education and intellectual life mostly happening through religious institutions. Through the analysis of compositions written during the Middle Ages, it is observable that significant events influenced the pages of these notable works such as Canterbury Tales, Carmina Burana, and The Book of Taliesin. The Canterb ury Tales is the most famous and critically acclaimed work of Geoffrey Chaucer, a late-fourteenth-century English poet. Chaucer was born in London in the early 1340s, in a period of history referred to as the â€Å"late Middle Ages.† Chaucer’s father became immensely wealthy when he inherited the fortune of relatives who had died in the Bubonic Plague of 1349. The Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, which tormented England during Chaucer’s childhood and remained extensive universally afterward, wiped out an