Sin, Sight, and Sanctity in the Miller's Tale: Why Chaucer's Blacksmith Works at Night
- Author / Editor
- Novelli, Cornelius.
Sin, Sight, and Sanctity in the Miller's Tale: Why Chaucer's Blacksmith Works at Night
- Published
- Chaucer Review 33 (1998): 168-75.
- Description
- The blacksmith is an ambiguous figure. Medieval blacksmiths often worked at night because the temperature was cooler, but ordinances forbade them to do so. Furthermore, although the medieval blacksmith was a symbol of the devil, he was also a symbol of the preacher and of St. Gervasius, who restored sight to the blind. In MilT, a burlesque preacher has left a burlesque penitent, Absolon, spiritually blind.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Miller and His Tale.