Now, Falk and Wade think they have made a breakthrough. In a study published this week in the journal The Review of English Studies, the researchers argue that the modern English translation of the poem from the sermon contains a typo.

For more than a century, scholars had assumed that an excerpt from the poem read: “Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters.” The passage suggests the poem deals in a world of magical or mythological creatures.

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Their new translation reads: “Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water.”

Changing “elves” and “sprites” to “wolves” and “sea-snakes” “shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals,” says Falk in the statement. The images are more grounded in the tribulations of romance, which the researchers argue also better fit Chaucer’s later allusions to the poem.

“There is nothing mythological in it,” Wade says in a video released by the university. “It’s a story of human aggression, a story of chivalry, a story of courtly intrigue and a story of fin’amor. And that makes much better sense with the way that Chaucer is using this reference in his writings.”