Reynaerts Historie crossed the Channel to Britain in 1481.
The version ends with an explicit moral message: watch out for Reynards amongst political rulers (Fig. This time, however, the story does not end with Reynard’s freedom he even gets appointed to a high post at court. Aernout added a second part to it with a similar structure. This version is called Reynaerts Historie (‘Reynard’s History’). In the fourteenth century, this story is rewritten in prose by another Flemish writer, Aernout.
#REYNARD FOX POEM FREE#
Noble sets him free and, after murdering some more, Reynard escapes. However, using his wit and smooth talk once again, he manages to deceive the king and the queen, exploiting their greed for gold and their lust for power. Heavy charges are laid upon him and he is convicted to be hanged. With the third messenger, however, Reynard’s cousin Grimbard the badger, Reynard is brought to court. Tibert the cat is known for his intelligence, but Reynard traps him as well, using his greed for mice. Bruin the bear is known for his physical strength, but Reynard traps him, using his greed for honey. When he does not turn up, Noble sends three messengers to fetch him. The story can be defined as a satire in which cleverness triumphs over physical strength and social power: Reynard the Fox is summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion, because he has committed many crimes: thievery, betrayal, abuse and rape. It was written down in Middle Dutch in the thirteenth century by an author known as Willem and, as it was rooted in the oral folklore tradition, it was recorded in verse. The first version of the story, Van den Vos Reynaerde (‘About Reynard the Fox’), was based on a French animal epic: the Roman de Renard. Did this scoundrel change his attitude in the adaptations for children, or did he just hide his slyness under a new shiny red, furry and child-proof disguise? Footnote 2
#REYNARD FOX POEM SERIES#
I will show how Reynard tricked his way into the realm of English and Dutch children’s literature, how he managed to survive through a series of disguises and a very smart use of language and how Reynard’s iconic status in Dutch literary heritage caused Dutch rewriters to use different adaptation strategies from those used by English rewriters. I will try to draw the family tree of Reynard’s British descendants and compare them to their Dutch counterparts. They ‘would be surprised to learn,’ wrote Varty ( 1999), the English Reynard specialist, ‘that he was once the leading character in a book meant for adults which became a best-seller in the fifteenth century and remained popular for more than 200 years, a book characterized by violence, murder, adultery, rape and corruption in high places’ (p. Even if they do, they will probably not know him through the original Reynard story, but through one of the illustrated adaptations for children. Although Western European literature is still haunted by this trickster fox figure, only a few people will know him by name. Footnote 1 He often vanishes in the repository of the oral tradition of folklore, or is drowned out by the tradition of written folklore developed around characters like Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver and Don Quixote. Fox ( 1970), it is surprising that Reynard the Fox is seldom mentioned by name in scholarly writing on classical figures in children’s literature. Tod ( 1912) and Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Being the forefather of famous descendants like Beatrix Potter’s Mr.
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