"The Second Nun's Tale" (Middle English: Þe Seconde Nonnes Tale), written in late Middle English, is part of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Narrated by a nun who remains unnamed, it is a hagiography of the life of Saint Cecilia. The lack of portrait description for the second nun in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales has led some scholars to speculate that the tale is merely the second tale of the single nun or of the prioress but this idea is not widely held. Its relationship to the subsequent "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale" is to offer a serious and worthy religious-themed story before a much more irreverent tale of contemporary religious behaviour about foolish alchemists. Placement in The Canterbury Tales Although it is unconfirmed what order Geoffrey Chaucer intended The Canterbury Tales, and therefore where "The Second Nun's Tale" would place, the main scholarly consensus has placed "The Second Nun's Tale" in Fragment VIII (Group G) out of X of the Canterbury Tales. In all of the extant manuscripts, The Second Nun's Tale always occurs with The Canon's Yeoman's Tale, further indicating the two tales are to be regarded as a pair. The Second Nun's Tales was likely written for another occasion and only later inserted into The Canterbury Tales. In line VIII.62 of the Second Nun's Prologue, the Second Nun refers to herself as an "unworthy sone of Eve", indicating the tale previously has a male narrator. In addition, the attribution of the tale to the Second Nun only occurs in the rubrics of the manuscripts, not in the Prologue or Tale itself. Notable characters Cecilia – Saint, wife of Valerian Valerian – Husband of Cecilia Tiberuce – Brother of Valerian Almachius – The prefect of the district Pope Urban Prologue The Prologue of The Second Nun's Tale contains three sections: 1. four stanzas on the hazards of idleness, 2. the Invocation to Mary (nine stanzas), and 3. the "Interpretation of the name Cecilia which Brother Jacob of Genoa put in his legend". This final section comprises a series of invented etymologies about that name Cecilia. "It is a good example of a medieval method of interpretation that adds rather than discovers meaning; it aims not for one but for a variety of interpretations, all of which are right and none which excludes the others, so that the object of interpretation, here the name Cecilia, gains in