Spent the last week or so writing the prologues and epilogues to The Miller's and Prioress's Second Tales. It's a great feeling to get these tales out of the way once and for all, and when I got down to the actual writing it was really quite enjoyable.

What I love most about composing prologues and epilogues though is researching the characters from Chaucer's General Prologue and reinvigorating them, complete with all their traits, strengths and foibles.

By the way, for any Chaucer scholars reading this, writing Canterbury Tales is probably the best way to get into Chaucer's head. For although I started off by writing stories for specific Pilgrims and dovetailing them together, after the third tale I ceased writing epilouges and porlogues, and even occasionally changed which story was ascribed to which pilgrim on several. For instance, the story I originally envisaged as The Miller's Second Tale actually became The Knight's Second Tale.

Anyhow, enough of Chaucer. I have a St. George's Day zombie story to write. Don't ask!

Oh, and for those who wanted to read my Global Short Story winner, Harvest Season, here's the link:

http://www.globalshortstories.net/winningstoriesdec09.pdf

I finished The Prioress's Second Tale about four days ago, sent it to a trusted friend for editing, and was happy to find it coming back with only half a dozen or so edits.

It's short and sweet at just 3,850 words. All I need to do now is to find a 'witch' anthology to send it to.

In the meantime, I've started preparations for The Pardoner's Second Tale - it'll require a lot of research into the Black Death and the medieval perception of Satan as a whispering fiend.

The original Prioress's Tale was a piece of anti-semetic verse about a child being murdered in a city's Jewish quarter and thrown into a cesspit - a tale of the medieval times, I suppose.

Anyhow, more than a year ago I wrote an 'abridged' Canterbury Tale about a young peasant girl herding livestock who gets kidnapped and enslaved by a witch. Feeling this story mirrored current trends in human trafficking and the factors behind rural-urban migration, I've decided to put this Tale in the hands of the Prioress. Hopefully it'll be a less controversial Tale than her first one.

The Tale involves enchanted forests, flying broomsticks and the usual motiffs associated with witchcraft.

So far I've dedicated four solid days to The Prioress's Second Tale and I'm very pleased with the progress.

If only I could find it a market when it's finished!

I did a bit of research on the Grimm Brothers' versions of Rapunzel, recently. The 1812 version has the 'prince' on a daily basis seducing the naive Rapunzel, who later innocently asks her evil fairy captor why her clothes are getting too tight! The fairy proceeds to kick Rapunzel out, where she gives birth to twins.

So all in all we have a cautionary tale about the perils of hiding your daughters away from the world (especially once they reach puberty) and the consequences of premarital sex.
 
Another interesting scene is where Rapunzel's father agrees to give up his first born child because he's been caught stealing food from the fairy's garden. To my untrained eye this seems to be a commentry on feudalism, where a serf who dared pilfer food from his overlord's fields, even if he was starving, would face consequences far in excess of his crime.

You can read D.L. Ashliman's excellent side-by-side translation of the Grimms's 1812 and 1857 versions of 'Rapunzel' by clicking on the link below:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html