The Canterbury Tales: Analysis The Canterbury Tales are a series of stories written by the late, great English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. The tales are about a group of twenty-nine pilgrims who set off on a pilgrimage to a cathedral in Canterbury, England, about five miles south of London. The cathedral was a special place. It was a shrine where the archbishop Thomas A. Becket was murdered in 1170. This was the pilgrimage the twenty nine characters would make. They would start at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, which is near London. The characters in this story tell the stories themsel