The Virtue of Magnanimity in Chaucer's 'The Knight's Tale'

“The Knight's Tale” introduces four knightly figures who epitomize the ideals of their moral code. The narrator, one of the pilgrims traveling on the pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket, and introduced by Chaucer as “a worthy man,/ Who from the very moment he first began/ To ride, searching adventure, held chivalry/ In his heart, and honor and truth, and courtesy / And grace,” wins the honor of narrating the first tale as the merry company engage in their storytelling contest to pass the time to and from their journey to Canterbury rather than “To ride in utter silence, dumb as a stone.” In his tale the Knight presents three other noble men who also embody the virtues of gallant knights who live and fight with honor.