Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German

fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

s. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, as well as in

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

form throughout the

Early Modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

. The stories are largely concerned with the main character Reynard, an anthropomorphic

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

figure. His adventures usually involve his deceiving other anthropomorphic animals for his own advantage, or trying to avoid their retaliatory efforts. His main enemy and victim across the cycle is his uncle, the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

, Isengrim (or Ysengrim). While the character of Reynard appears in later works, the core stories were written during the Middle Ages by multiple authors and are often seen as parodies of medieval literature, such as courtly love stories and chansons de geste, as well as a satire of political and religious institutions.Bianciotto, G. (2005). Introduction. In ''Le Roman de Renart''. Paris: Librairie Générale Française (Livre de poche) The trickster fox, Reynard, lives in a society of other talking animals (lion, bear, wolf, donkey, etc), making the stories a beast epic. The original copies were written in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

, and have since been translated into many different languages. However, the tales of Reynard come from all across Europe and each retelling has details that are specific to its area. The tales, no matter where they take place, are designed to represent the society around them and include the structures of society around them, such as a noble court. While the authors take many liberties with the story telling, not all of the satire is meant to be rude or malicious in intent.

Characters

The main characters are anthropomorphic animals. The given names of the animals are of Old High German origin. Most of them were in common use as personal names in Duchy of Lorraine, medieval Lorraine. The characters of Reynard the Fox were based on the medieval hierarchy, and are treated as human throughout the tales. Since multiple authors wrote the text, characters' personalities often change. Throughout the stories, these characters often switch between human and animal form and often without notice. The characters who switch between human and animal form are often those of elite status, while the characters who don't change tend to be peasants. Often, the readers will find themselves able to empathize with Reynard. They find that the situations he is in are not often that different from their own lives, and this carries across the decades. The common usage of animals as characters in tales has made it so the stories that touch on morally gray areas are easier to understand and accept. *Reynard the Fox. The given name ''Reynard'' is from ''Reginhard, Raginohardus'' "strong in counsel". Because of the popularity of the Reynard stories, ''renard'' became the standard French word for "fox", replacing the

old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th goupil'' from Latin ''wikt:vulpecula">vulpēcula''. Since Reynard has been written about in many different times and places across the world, it is not uncommon to see changes in his appearance to fit the natural surroundings of his story. His fur is often used as a camouflage, meaning if the story was written in a snowy landscape he will have white fur, or yellow fur for desert areas, and in the wooded areas of a forest, he is depicted in red fur. *Isengrim the Wolf, see Ysengrimus *Tibert the Cat. See Tybalt, Prince of cats *King Noble the Lion; see king of beasts *Bruin the Bear *Grimbard the Badger *Baldwin the

Ass Ass most commonly refers to: * Buttocks (in informal American English) * Donkey or ass, ''Equus africanus asinus'' **any other member of the subgenus ''Asinus'' Ass or ASS may also refer to: Art and entertainment * Ass (album), ''Ass'' (albu ...

*Hirsent the She-wolf *Kyward the Hare, also ''Coart'', ''Cuwaert'', a coward. *Chanticleer the Cock *Bellin the Ram *Martin the Ape, who had a son named Moneke, that may be source of the word ''monkey''.

In medieval European folklore and literature

Foxes in general have the reputation of tricksters in traditional European folklore. The specific character of Reynard is thought to have originated in Lorraine

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, from where it spread to France, Germany, and the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

.Briggs, Asa (ed.) (1989) ''The Longman Encyclopedia'', Longman, Alternatively, a 19th-century edition of a retelling of the Reynard fable states definitively with "no doubt whatever that it is of German origin" and relates a conjecture associating the central character with "a certain Reinard of Lorraine, famous for his vulpine qualities in the ninth century". Joseph Jacobs, while seeing an origin in Lorraine, traces classical, German, and "ancient northern folk-lore" elements within the Reynard stories.

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

in his ''Reinhart Fuchs'' (Berlin, 1834) provided evidence for the supposition on etymological grounds that "stories of the Fox and Wolf were known to the Franks as early as the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries". From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there are around twenty-six different tales of Reynard the Fox. While there might have been more that were written, these are the ones that survive. Many of these are written by different authors and anonymous authors. An extensive appearance of the character is in the

''Le Roman de Renart'' written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud around 1170, which sets the typical setting. Reynard has been summoned to the court of king Noble (or Leo), the lion, to answer charges brought against him by Isengrim the wolf. Other anthropomorphic animals, including Bruin the bear, Baldwin the ass, and Tibert (Tybalt) the cat, all attempt one stratagem or another. The stories typically involve satire, whose usual butts are the aristocracy and the clergy, making Reynard a peasant-hero character. The Catholic Church used the story of the preaching fox, as found in the Reynard literature, in church art as propaganda against the

Lollards Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...

. Reynard's principal castle, Maupertuis, is available to him whenever he needs to hide away from his enemies. Some of the tales feature Reynard's funeral, where his enemies gather to deliver maudlin elegies full of insincere piety, and which feature Reynard's posthumous revenge. Reynard's wife Hermeline appears in the stories, but plays little active role. In some versions she remarries when Reynard is thought dead, thereby becoming one of the people he plans revenge upon. Isengrim, alternate French spelling: ''Ysengrin'', is Reynard's most frequent antagonist and foil, and generally ends up outwitted, though he occasionally gets revenge. An individual tale might span several genres, which makes classification difficult. Tales often include themes from contemporary society with references to relics, pilgrimage, confession, and the crusades. There is debate over whether or how closely they related to identifiable societal events, but there is a growing camp that see direct societal connections and even implicit political statements in the tales. The stories are told in a way that makes associations easy to make, but difficult to substantiate. Reynard stories translate difficult laws and legal concepts into common language, allowing people to both understand them and enjoy the legal predicaments and antics of the characters. The court operates just as those in medieval society. The king heard cases only on one specified date, and all disputes were heard at once. Many versions follow Reynard's fights with Ysengrin, the fox's regular antagonist throughout the stories. Violence between them and other characters is a common thematic element. It is a matter of debate whether the violence shows animals simply acting as such, or is anthropomorphically meant to reflect the violence in human society, especially the various wars that common folk endured at the time.

''Ysengrimus''

Reynard appears first in the medieval

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poem '' Ysengrimus'', a long Latin mock-epic written c. 1148–53 by the medieval poet Nivardus, that collects a great store of Reynard's adventures. He also appears in a number of Latin sequences by the early-13th-century preacher Odo of Cheriton. Both of these early sources seem to draw on a pre-existing store of popular culture featuring the character.

''Roman de Renart''

The first "branch" (or chapter) of the ''Roman de Renart'' appears in 1174, written by Pierre de St. Cloud, although in all French editions it is designated as "Branch II". The same author wrote a sequel in 1179—called "Branch I". From that date onwards, many other French authors composed their own adventures for Renart ''li goupil'' ("the fox"). There is also the Middle High German text ''Reinhard Fuchs'' by Heinrich der Glïchezäre, dated to 1180. Roman de Renart fits into the genre of romance. Roman de Renart gets its start using the history of fables that have been written since the time of Aesop. The romance genre of the middle ages is not what we think of the romance genre of today. It was a fictional telling of a character's life. The protagonist of the romance genre often has an adventure or a call to action, almost always caused by an outside force. In the 13th century, French was a standard literary language, and many works during the Middle Ages were written in French, including Reynard the Fox. Many popular works from the Middle Ages fall into the romance genre. Pierre de St. Cloud opens his work on the fox by situating it within the larger tradition of epic poetry, the fabliaux and Arthurian romance:

''Van den vos Reynaerde''

A mid-13th-century

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...

version of the story by Willem die Madoc maecte ('' Van den vos Reynaerde'', Of Reynaert the Fox), is also made up of

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

d verses (the same AA BB scheme). ''Van den vos Reinaerde'' and ''Reinaert Historie'' (referred to as R I and R II, respectively) are two poems written by two different authors with R II being a continuation of R I. With different writers comes different variations. This can best be seen with Reynard. While describing the same character the Reynard from R I has many different character traits of that in R II. While a finished and completed poem by itself, Van den vos Reinaerde does not have a set ending. Like Pierre, very little is known of the author, other than the description by the copyist in the first sentences: Reineke

''Madocke'' or ''Madoc'' is thought to be another one of Willem's works that at one point existed but had been lost. The ''Arnout'' mentioned was an earlier Reynard poet whose work Willem (the writer) alleges to have finished. However, there are serious objections to this notion of joint authorship, and the only thing deemed likely is that Arnout was French-speaking ("Walschen" in Middle Dutch referred to northern French-speaking people, specifically the Walloons). Willem's work became one of the standard versions of the legend, and was the foundation for most later adaptations in Dutch, German, and English, including those of William Caxton,

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, and F. S. Ellis.

Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

used Reynard material in the '' Canterbury Tales''; in " The Nun's Priest's Tale", Reynard appears as "Rossel" and an ass as "Brunel". Reynard (spelt "Renard") is also briefly mentioned in The Legend of Phyllis from Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women.

Early Modern tradition

In 1481, the English William Caxton printed ''The Historie of Reynart the Foxe'', which was translated from ''Van den vos Reynaerde''. Also in the 1480s, the Scottish poet Robert Henryson devised a highly sophisticated development of Reynardian material as part of his '' Morall Fabillis'' in the sections known as ''The Talking of the Tod''. In 1498, Hans van Ghetelen, a printer of Incunabula in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

, printed a

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

version called ''Reinke de Vos''. It was translated to Latin and other languages, which made the tale popular across Europe. Reynard is also referenced in the

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

poem '' Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' during the third hunt. Tybalt in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' is named after the cat in Reynard the Fox, and is called 'Prince of Cats' by Mercutio in reference to this. Jonson's play '' Volpone'' is heavily indebted to Reynard. With the invention of the printing press, the tales of Reynard the fox became more popular and started to be translated and recreated in many different languages. The tales of Reynard don't follow the typical sense of reprinting, as there is no clear chronology to the stories. Many of the original pages to these stories have been lost, so it is difficult to tell what the exact literary changes are, of which there aren't many, with the exception of the typical changes that are seen from the early days of the printing press. There are also slight changes to the wording that show modernization of the uses and differing orders of the words. While the changes might appear to be mistakes, they are not thought of as such and are often kept in the modernization of the tales. There were few many attempts to better the works during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Changes to the tales during the fifteenth century are not seen as mistakes because of specific roles in the process of printing designed to eliminate mistakes. In the early modern editions of Reynard the Fox, the characteristics of the animals were based on literary topoi, appealing to the middle class reader. Reynard-the-fox

Modern treatment

19th century

''Reinecke Fuchs'' by

is a poem in hexameters, in twelve parts, written 1793 and first published 1794. Goethe adapted the Reynard material from the edition by Johann Christoph Gottsched (1752), based on the 1498 ''Reynke de vos''. In

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

's 1889 '' The Twilight of the Idols'', Nietzsche uses Reynard the Fox as an example of a dialectician. German artist Johann Heinrich Ramberg made a series of thirty drawings, which he also etched and published in 1825."Reineke Fuchs. In 30 Blattern gezeichnet und radirt von Johann Heinrich Ramberg." Hannover 1826. New edition with colored prints 2016. Waltraud Maierhofer (ed.). Reineke Fuchs - Reynard the Fox. 31 Originalzeichnungen u. neu kolorierte Radierungen m. Auszügen aus d. deutschen Übersetzung des Epos im populären Stil v. Soltau , 31 original drawings and newly colored etchings with excerpts from the English translation of the burlesque poem by Soltau. VDG Weimar, 2016. ''Renert'' ull original title: ''Renert oder de Fuuß am Frack an a Ma'nsgrëßt''''Renert'' at the ''European Literary Characters'' website.
Retrieved on 22 April 2015. Retrieved on 22 April 2015. was published in 1872 by Michel Rodange, a

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

eois author. An epic satirical work—adapted from the 1858 Cotta Edition of

's fox epic ''Reineke Fuchs'' to a setting in Luxembourg. It is known to be a satirical mirror image of Luxembourg's social sphere after the turmoils of the Luxembourg Crisis, whereby the author transposed his criticism and social scepticism to the animal society in which his fox 'Renert' lives. Beyond that, it is insightful analysis of the different regional and sub-regional linguistic differences of the country, where distinct dialects are used to depict the fox and his companions.

20th century

Ladislas Starevich produced '' The Tale of the Fox'' in 1937. The 1962 Oscar-winning documentary Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler uses Reynard the Fox as a parallel to the main narrative. Disney's Robin Hood animated film from 1973 is partly based on Reynard the Fox.

21st century

In the SyFy fantasy television show '' The Magicians'' (which aired from December 2015 to April 2020) there is a Pagan trickster god played by

Mackenzie Astin Mackenzie Alexander Astin (born May 12, 1973) is an American actor. Early and personal life Astin was born on May 12, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Patty Duke and actor John Astin. His half brother is actor Sean Astin. H ...

named Reynard the Fox.

Notes

Bibliography

* Avery, Anne Louise, ''Reynard The Fox'' (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2020). * Bonafin, Massimo, ''Le malizie della volpe: Parola letteraria e motivi etnici nel Roman de Renart'' (Rome: Carocci editore, 2006) (Biblioteca Medievale Saggi). cf
here an abstract of this book
& cf
here a review of this book
unfortunately not yet translated in English. * Zebracki, Martin
Het grenzeloze land van Reynaerde
he boundless country of [the FoxReynaert">he_Fox.html" ;"title="he boundless country of [the Fox">he boundless country of [the FoxReynaert Geografie 20 (2011: 2), pp. 30–33. * Johann Heinrich Ramberg (artist), Dietrich Wilhelm Soltau (author), Waltraud Maierhofer (editor): "Reineke Fuchs – Reynard the Fox. 31 Originalzeichnungen u. neu kolorierte Radierungen m. Auszügen aus d. deutschen Übersetzung des Epos im populären Stil v. Soltau , 31 original drawings and newly colored etchings with excerpts from the English translation of the burlesque poem by Soltau." VDG Weimar, Weimar 2016. .

External links

Le roman de Renart
In French.
''The History of Reynard The Fox''
by Henry Morley, 1889.

Full text of the Middle Dutch poem with notes

the journal for the International Reynard Society. * Anne Lair, "The History of Reynard the Fox: How Medieval Literature Reflects Culture," in: ''Falling into Medievalism'', ed. Anne Lair and Richard Utz. Special Issue of ''UNIversitas: The University of Northern Iowa Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity''

* [http://www.leonardvanmunster.com/blog/345/ Reynard The Fox in the Vondelpark 05 03 2010]
Reynard the Fox Collection at Mitchell Library, Glasgow
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