'We wol sleen this false traytor Deeth': The Search for Immortality in Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale' and J. K. Rowling's 'The Deathly Hallows'

Author / Editor
Gulley, Alison.

Title
'We wol sleen this false traytor Deeth': The Search for Immortality in Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale' and J. K. Rowling's 'The Deathly Hallows'

Published
Studies in Medievalism 23 (2014): 189-204.

Description
Starting with the clear similarity between PardT and the tale of "The Three Brothers" in the last of the Harry Potter books, argues that the series as a whole, like CT, is "framed by death," and by the fear of spiritual death. The terrible condition of the Old Man in PardT, all but dead yet unable to die, has its counterpart in the self-imposed sufferings of Rowling's Voldemort in his attempts to defeat death.

Chaucer Subjects
Pardoner and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion