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54 Transporting Chaucer two similes: ‘[a]s Hurlewaynes meyne in every hegg that capes’ and ‘as the leves grene’ (8–9). To be a member of Hurlewaine’s retinue is to be neither living nor dead. In medieval French texts, Hurlewain, or Hellequin, is a figure from charivari. He leads processions of cavorting tricksters who wear disguises or masks and dress up in outlandish costumes. Illustrations show Hellequin as a leader of the ‘undead’.2 Prior to any formal introductions on first-name terms, the pilgrim assembly of The Canterbury Interlude is become a harlequinade
of such places with the undead ( draugr ), inhabiting tombs that also contain grave-goods. Into what appears to be a northern folk tradition of these haunted places, the poet has introduced a weapon linking the place with those rebellious primeval giants that he mentioned in the family tree of monsters when introducing Grendel earlier in the poem. The giants’ war with God is not an explicit element