To Canterbury with ful devout corage!

Canterbury is the grand-daddy of English literary and Christian pilgrimage sites. Stratford-Upon-Avon is  a pilgrimage site for Shakespeare lovers, but Canterbury takes the cake. Watch the video below for a good dose of English literature to introduce yourself to Canterbury's literary heritage.

For those unfamiliar with Middle English, these awesome folks are rapping the first 25 lines of the general prologue of The Canterbury Tales. In rainy April twenty-nine people begin their pilgrimage to Canterbury to see the blessed martyr Thomas Beckett at the Tabbard Inn in Southwerk, London. There they devise a storytelling contest, and the winner will receive a free dinner upon their return. 

 Most English majors are able to recite the first 25 lines of The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English. Canterbury became part of the pilgrimage road because it is on the way from England to Rome, but it became a pilgrimage site on its own after the death of St. Thomas Beckett. 

Aside from The Canterbury Tales, which is one of the most influential pieces of literature in the English language, Canterbury has also influenced other pieces of work. David Copperfield continually travels to Canterbury in the Dickens novel of the same name. Even Dan Simmon's sci-fi novel Hyperion uses the same frame narrative as The Canterbury tales. 

Pilgrims typically walk the last two miles to the Cathedral barefoot, which some of us (me included) plan to do this weekend. It's expected to rain this weekend in Canterbury, but I expect there will be some who will brave the rain and make the trek to the Cathedral.