An Analysis of the Legal Sense of the Word 'Fin' ('Finalis Concordia') in 'Piers Plowman', 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', Chaucer's Works and Especially the Ending of 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Author / Editor
Silar, Theodore I.

Title
An Analysis of the Legal Sense of the Word 'Fin' ('Finalis Concordia') in 'Piers Plowman', 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', Chaucer's Works and Especially the Ending of 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Published
Chaucer Review 32 (1998): 284-309.

Description
The repetition of "fin" (the settlement of a fictitious suit) at the ending of TC has many legal overtones. It evokes "landholding," "harmonization of contrary positions," and "legal fiction," as in a legal suit for which there is, as in TC, a "preordiation," a "foreknowledge of the outcome."

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.
Language and Word Studies.