Some Uses of Number

Author / Editor
Lindahl, Carl.

Title
Some Uses of Number

Published
Journal of Folklore Research 34 (1997): 263-73.

Description
Folklorists' recent interest in performance tends to neglect the chronological context of storytelling, for which now-maligned type and motif indexes remain useful. A change in pattern usually signals a change in meaning. For example, the ending of PrT is "singularly vicious" compared to the bulk of surviving analogues, suggesting the hypocrisy of the narrator, who has praised Mary's mercy.

Chaucer Subjects
Prioress and Her Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.