I must have been around ten years old when I read Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. Probably everyone knows it’s main story, about the little kid Mowgli raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. I was totally fascinated by it, and must have read it a dozen times. There are some side stories that are told in between the chapters. One of these is the King’s ankus.
An ankusha, or ankus is a device used to train an elephant. A short pole with a hook on one side. The hook can be used to hurt the elephant if it doesn’t behave. In the story Mowgli finds one that is richly decorated and worth a small fortune. Being raised by wolves, he doesn’t know its value and throws it away. Exit Mowgli, enter a whole string of men that want the item for themselves. Each is murdering the other for it, as if the item is cursed.
In the Pardoner’s tale, here being read in the original Middle English, something similar is going on. Three thugs want to defy Death, who creates an ambush for them. They find a gold hoard in the forest, and decide to keep it for themselves. However, they need to carry it out in the night, or else they might not be believed that they found it. One of them fetches some wine, while the others stay behind. Each of them plots to murder the other for it: when the thug is coming back with the wine, he is killed by the other two. What they don’t know however, is that Mr Winefetcher has poisoned the wine, and the tale end with all of them killed. Death had a good day. The Pardoner finishes his tale with advice from the Bible: Greed is the root of all evil.