Canterbury Tales: Who is the Narrator? The narrator in The Canterbury Tales is an enigma. He turns his searching gaze on everyone on the pilgrimage except himself, finishing up in a rush with "Ther was also a Reve, and a Millere, A Somnour, and a Pardoner also, A Maunciple, and myself -- ther were namo" (1). Not a word about what he himself does for a living, or where he stands socially. To find out who he is and what he does, we must look for clues in the text. We know he's not just a talker who's telling a story once, but a writer who has produced a written copy of the story, and knows it may survive to be read by others. His promise to produce a word-for-word trans