Final answer:
In Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', the host suggests each pilgrim tell four tales, two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return journey, although the actual number of completed tales is fewer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question "How many tales are the pilgrims required to tell on their pilgrimage?" refers specifically to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a cornerstone of English literature. In the prologue of this collection of stories, the host of the pilgrims, who are on their way to Canterbury, proposes that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more tales on the way back. The idea was for the tales to serve as entertainment during the journey, and the pilgrim who told the best tale would receive a meal at the other pilgrims' expense upon their return. However, there are far fewer than the proposed number of tales in the extant work, as Chaucer never completed the full complement of tales he set out to write.