White and Red in the 'Knight's Tale': Chaucer's Manipulation of Convention

Author / Editor
Blanch, Robert J., and Julian N. Wasserman.

Title
White and Red in the 'Knight's Tale': Chaucer's Manipulation of Convention

Published
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 175-91.

Description
The iconographic meaning of the colors red and white had been lost in folk traditions by the time Chaucer wrote KnT. Meaning comes from the joining of the two colors--a symbol of unity. Palamon's and Arcite's choices of colors for their banners represent the division between them.

Alternative Title
Chaucer in the Eighties.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.