The Canterbury Tales, The Miller

?The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales?
?The Miller?
?The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales? were told during
a pilgrimage journey from London to the shrine of the martyr
St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. This was
approximately 70 miles to the southeast. These Tales were
told by a group of 29 pilgrims, and a Host who met up with
them at the Tabard Inn. They left the Inn on the morning of
April, 11. The Nun’s Priest Tale was the first story
actually told, this was determined by whoever drew the
shortest straw. The pilgrim who told the best story would
win a free dinner, and the loser’s had to pay for his
dinner. Geoffrey Chaucer who was without a doubt the
greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, wrote this great
story ?The Canterbury tales?. What makes this story so
memorable is the fact that Chaucer began writing ?The
Canterbury Tales? in 1387, and had never finished , he wrote
on this story from the years 1387-1400, until he passed
away. But now that we’ve talked about chaucer and I have
gave you a little bit of background on The Prologue to The
Canterbury Tales, We are going to learn a little bit about
the Miller, who was one of the 29 pilgrims on the religious
journey. We will learn about his Physical Traits, his
Personality, and also his Professional Trades.

The Miller was a very big and strong man, that , stated
in The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, ?Could win the ram
at any wrestling show?. He was Broad, Knotty , and
Short-Shouldered. It also says he could ?Heave any door off
hinge and post, Or take a run and break it with his head.?
The Millers’ beard was red, and very big and thick, and his
nose had a wart on the end, with red hairs protruding out of
it. His nostrils were black and very wide. He wore a sword
and a buckler at his side, also the Miller wore a blue hood
and a white coat. This is it for the physical traits of the
Miller, I think you know by now, that he was big, and he was
strong. Now we’ll talk about the Millers’ personality.

The Millers’ personality was very distinct, It matched
his physical traits almost exactly. the Miller was very
boastful in his ways, he would boast to people about how he
could bust any door down and off the hinges, or take a run
and break it with his head, he was also a very greedy man,
He would steal from the poor, or the rich without even
thinking twice. his thumb of gold was how he did this,
meaning, he pressed on the scale with his thumb to increase
the weight of the grain that he sold to his customers, or so
they thought he was selling them. The Miller also had a
filthy mouth, and told tavern stories quite often. Also, he
liked to play the bagpipes, in fact he was the pilgrim that
led all the pilgrims out of town playing the bagpipes. Well,
now that we know the greediness, dishonesty, and
boastfullness of the Miller, we’ll talk a little bit about
his professional trades.

Of course, I think we all know what his trade is, it’s
obviously a miller, He weighed corn and wheat, which he
ground up into meal and flour for his customers. But most
importantly when he would weight the people’s corn and wheat
out on the scale , he would press down on the scale to make
it seem like he was selling them more meal or flour than he
actually was. the Miller was very skilled in cheating the
scale. but, overall the miller was very good at his job,
even though he cheated his customers.

In this review of the Miller, we talked about his
physical traits, personality, and his professional trades.

As we know the Miller was very big and strong, his beard was
red, and had a big wart on the end of his nose. We also
learned of his boastful personality, how he bragged about
busting down doors with his head, and running through them
knocking the door of it’s hinges. The Miller was also a very
dishonest and immoral person, the Millers’ trade was
obviously a miller, he weighed peoples corn and wheat, and
ground it up for them into meal and flour. He was very good
at this trade, but, he had one flaw, he cheated his
customers out of money, by making them pay for more meal or
flour than they were