Where It All Goes Down
Rome, Babylon, Northumbria, and The Wide Open Ocean
"The Man of Law's Tale" is wide-ranging and epic in the scope of its setting, with its heroine traveling all over the known world over the course of the story.
Well, the world as it was known back then. In the tale, Rome is the center of Christendom. And our heroine, Custance, serves as Roman Christianity's unintentional ambassador, spreading its reach outward like the tentacles of an octopus.
Babylon, Woebegone
Let's start with Stop 1, shall we?
Custance dreads traveling to Babylon. Her perspective on the pagan nation reflects that of most medieval Christians. Like her, most viewed it as a "strange" and "Barbre [Barbarian] nacioun" (268, 281). The tale represents Babylon's strangeness through the Sultan's mother, whom it describes as a "feyned woman," somewhat less or other than human (362). In other words, Babylon is no good.
Northumbria, Land of Alla
Northumbria, on the other hand, is comfortingly familiar, It's people understand the "maner Latyn corrupte" in which Custance speaks The linguistic rapport that Custance shares with the Northumbrians is perhaps symbolic of a larger cultural rapport between them (519). Maybe that's why Christianity "takes" in Northumbria while it fails in Syria, a nation just too "other" to successfully share its customs.
Wide Open Ocean
Custance spends a lot of time powerlessly drifting between these three nations in a rudderless boat. Her voyage represents the journey of Christianity from Rome to the entire world. Custance is a helpless captive in the boat, so the journey is totally dependent on God's good will (of which, luckily, there's lots). Custance's helplessness in the boat symbolizes how, just as in her journey, the outcome of a Christian's attempts to convert people depends entirely on God's will.