Reynard the Fox


Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre is very popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, and in chapbook form throughout the Early Modern period.
The stories are largely concerned with the main character Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure. His adventures usually involve him 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 Isengrim.
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.

Characters

The main characters are anthropomorphic animals. The given names of the animals are of Old High German in origin, most of them were in common use as personal names in medieval Lorraine.
The figure of Reynard is thought to have originated in Lorraine folklore from where it spread to France, Germany, and the Low Countries. An extensive treatment of the character is the Old French 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 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 story of the preaching fox found in the Reynard literature was used in church art by the Catholic Church as propaganda against the Lollards. 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, although in some versions she remarries when Reynard is thought dead, thereby becoming one of the people he plans revenge upon. Isengrim is Reynard's most frequent antagonist and foil, and generally ends up outwitted, though he occasionally gets revenge.

''Ysengrimus''

Reynard appears first in the medieval Latin poem Ysengrimus, a long Latin mock-epic written c. 1148–1153 by the medieval poet Nivardus, that collects a great store of Reynard's adventures. He also puts in an early appearance in a number of Latin sequences by the 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" 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"—but from that date onwards, many other French authors composed their own adventures for Renart li goupil. There is also the text Reinhard Fuchs by Heinrich der Glïchezäre, dated to 1180.
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 version of the story by Willem die Madoc maecte, is also made up of rhymed verses. Like Pierre, very little is known of the author, other than the description by the copyist in the first sentences:
Madocke or Madoc is thought to be another one of Willem's works that at one point existed but was lost. The Arnout mentioned was an earlier Reynard poet whose work Willem 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. 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, and F. S. Ellis.

Chaucer

used Reynard material in the Canterbury Tales; in "The Nun's Priest's Tale", Reynard appears as "Rossel" and an ass as "Brunel".

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. Hans van Ghetelen, a printer of Incunabula in Lübeck printed an early German version called Reinke de Vos in 1498. It was translated to Latin and other languages, which made the tale popular across Europe. Reynard is also referenced in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight during the third hunt.
Tybalt in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is named after the cat in Reynard the Fox.
Jonson's play Volpone is heavily indebted to Reynard. figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by Michel Rodange

Modern treatment

19th century

Reinecke Fuchs by Goethe 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, based on the 1498 Reynke de vos.
In Friedrich Nietzsche's 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 30 drawings which he also etched and published in 1825.
Renert , was published in 1872 by Michel Rodange, a Luxembourgeois author. An epic satirical work—adapted from the 1858 Cotta Edition of Goethe's fox epic Reineke Fuchs to a setting in Luxembourg— it is known for its insightful analysis of the unique characteristics of the people of Luxembourg, using regional and sub-regional dialects to depict the fox and his companions.

20th- and 21st-century literature

illustrated Reineke Fuchs for children.
French artist Rémy Lejeune illustrated Les Aventures de Maître Renart et d'Ysengrin son compère, "Bibliolâtres de France" editions
Van den vos Reynaerde was an anti-Semitic children's story, written by the Belgian-born Dutch politician Robert van Genechten, and named after the Middle Dutch poem. It was first published in 1937 in Nieuw-Nederland, a monthly publication of the Dutch Nazi Party's front, the NSB. In 1941 it was published as a book.
The story features a rhinoceros called Jodocus, somewhat akin to the Dutch word ; and a donkey, Boudewijn, who occupies the throne. Boudewijn was the Dutch name for the contemporary real-world Belgian crown prince.
In the story, Jodocus is an outsider who comes to the Empire and subsequently introduces new ideas that drastically alter the natural order. The land is then declared a "Republic", where "liberty, equality and fraternity" are to be exercised, presenting a dystopian view of a socialist republic: "There was no one who kept to the rules of the race. Rabbits crept into foxholes, the chickens wanted to build an eyrie."
Eventually, Reynard and the others trick and kill Jodocus and his colleagues.
Van den vos Reynaerde was also produced as a cartoon film by Nederlandfilm in 1943, mostly financed with German money.
While lavishly budgeted, it was never presented publicly, possibly because most Dutch Jews had already been transported to the concentration camps and the film came too late to be useful as a propaganda piece, possibly also because the Dutch collaborationist Department of People's Information, Service and Arts objected to the fact that the fox, an animal traditionally seen as "villainous", should be used as a hero.
In 1991, parts of the film were discovered in the German Bundesarchiv. In 2005, more pieces were found, and the film has been restored. The reconstructed film was shown during the 2006 Holland Animation Film Festival in Utrecht and during the KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival in 2008, in the Netherlands.

In movies and television

's 1930 puppet-animated feature film Le Roman de Renard featured the Reynard character as the protagonist.
The documentary film ' parallels Hitler's rise to power with the Reynard fable.
Initially, Walt Disney Animation Studios considered a movie about Reynard. However, due to Walt Disney's concern that Reynard was an unsuitable choice for a hero, the studio decided to make Reynard the antagonist of a single narrative feature film named Chanticleer and Reynard but the production was scrapped in the mid-1960s, in favor of The Sword in the Stone. Ken Anderson used the character designs for Robin Hood such as the animal counterparts.
In 1985, a French animated series, ', was created that was loosely based on Reynard's tales. In it, the original animals are anthropomorphic humanoid animals and the action occurs in modern Paris with other anthropomorphic animals in human roles. Reynard is a young mischievous fox with a little monkey pet called Marmouset. He sets off into Paris in order to discover the city, get a job and visit his grumpy and stingy uncle, Isengrim, who is a deluxe car salesman, and his reasonable yet dreamy she-wolf aunt, Hersent. Reynard meets Hermeline, a young and charming motorbike-riding vixen journalist. He immediately falls in love with her and tries to win her heart during several of the episodes. As Reynard establishes himself in Paris, he creates a small company that shares his name which offers to do any job for anyone, from impersonating female maids to opera singers. To help with this, he is a master of disguise and is a bit of a kleptomaniac, which gets him into trouble from police chief Chantecler who often sends cat police inspector Tybalt after him to thwart his plans.
The Goethe fox epic was adapted into a 1989 German television film produced by Manfred Durniok and ZDF called Isegrim ind Reineke; animation was outsourced to Shanghai Animation Film Studio in China. Unlike other versions, this portrays Renart as quite villanous while Isegrim just tries to keep his job safe from the fox's tricks. While Reineke always tricks and beats the wolf, usually some twist of fate or accident still prevents him from winning and keeps Isegrim's job safe in the court. The movie, which is actually 6 episodes of unrelated stories strung together, is available on DVD.
Le roman de Renart is a 2005 CGI feature animated film made in Luxembourg in French with an English dub called Renart The Fox or The Adventures of Renny the Fox.
The TV show The Magicians includes a character based on Reynard. In this version, he is a violent pagan trickster god and son of Persephone who is accidentally summoned by a group of hedge witches. He ends up killing most of the summoners and taking over the body of their leader using it to rape the sole survivor of the group who summoned him. This event drives that characters plot for much of the series.

In music

Reynard the Fox is the name of a number of traditional folk songs.