Telling a tale within a tale is a challenge for writers. Geoffrey Chaucer used the frame story technique to create legendary tales from the medieval times. Both “The Pardoners Tale” and Beowulf are tales that depict the power of greed, fame, and glory. As the stories got passed down there was and still is a lesser and lesser value but the lessons to be learned are still important in today’s society. The frame story is included in “The Pardoners Tale” by the teaching of a moral lesson and is also included in Beowulf by introducing the setting to the story. In both frame stories the characters happen to run into certain challenges and tests. Through the frames story we see the challenge that greed is the root of all evil in “The Pardoners Tale”. …show more content…
In “the Pardoners Tale” the three rioters are on their journey to seek death and run across an old wise man. The man gives the rioters advice that they will find him under an oak tree down the road. When the rioters get to the tree they see some currency sitting underneath the tree. Two of the men stay under the tree while they send one man back into town to grab a basket. While they were sitting there, they were plotting the death of the one fetching the basket; coincidentally the man in town acquires poison and dilutes it into two drinks. In Beowulf, he stays in the mead hall and waits for Grendel to invade. “Now Grendel and I are called together (lines 254-255)”, In this quote, he means that Grendel will invade and find Beowulf and will end up in a battle. There is most likely a lesson to be learned in a frame story. Just as in “The pardoners Tale”, the pardoner himself explains in the beginning that greed is the root of all evil. The quote, “God look to you, my lords, and give you quiet!(line 135)”, this quote means that there is always something that we desire so much that nothing can stand in the way of getting it. Also in Beowulf the idea of heritage and identity are important because noble heroes very high in the royal chain. The two frame stories within the legendary tales lay out the setting or lesson of the stories. Both Beowulf and “The Pardoners Tale” have problems come up and are called to