Reynard the Fox, a well-known popular epic the characters of which are animals instead of men. It belongs to the series of Beast-fables (q.v.) which have delighted the popular imagination from early ages and in all lands, from India to the Bushmen's country in South Africa (see FABLE). The stories that relate the knaveries of Reynard the Fox seem to have originated for the most part in northern France and Flanders from the 10th century onwards, and to have been composed and recomposed repeatedly in various forms in the 12th and following centuries. The authors or editors, so far as they are known, belonged chiefly to the ecclesiastical orders. The several versions differ not only in respect of language and of style, but also in the choice and arrangement of the episodes and incidents narrated. All turn upon the knaveries of Reynard the Fox, as practised by him in his quarrel with Isengrim the Wolf, who in all encounters generally comes off second best. The best versions, as the typical Flemish and Low German (to be referred to in detail lower down), reach a high level of literary excellence. The episodes are woven together into a veritable epic; the versification is agreeable and easy; the characters are consistent and well-sustained; the contemporary manners, and the localities and circumstances, that make the background of the story are true and realistic; and the story is told without any other obvious purpose beyond that of affording honest amusement. These features do not, however, characterise all the versions: some have been clearly written for a satirical purpose, some are loosely-connected strings of ill-told adventures, others drag out a long and weary length through innumerable indifferent verses, whilst in others still the characters are simply men disguised as animals. The earliest versions were in Latin; but they seem to have been soon supplanted by French in the 12th century, and in their new dress the stories attained a much wider popularity. Since the beginning of the 16th century nearly all the editions printed can be traced back to one of two sources, a Flemish or a Low German, both of which, however, are based upon French forms of the epic. The task of tracing the connections between the numerous versions that exist in the different tongues is one of great complexity and difficulty. It will suffice in this place to enumerate the more important, with mention of one or more trustworthy recent editions. The best Latin version, Isengrimus (ed. by Mone as Reinardus Vulpes, Stuttgart, 1832; and by Voigt, Halle, 1884), which possesses considerable literary merit, was written in Flanders about 1146-48 by an unknown author. The Isengrimus printed in J. Grimm's Reinhart Fuchs (Berlin, 1834) is not an older, but a later and abbreviated, form of the same poem. The best French versions that survive were edited by Méon (4 vols. Paris, 1826), with a supplement by Chabaille (1835), and by Martin (4 vols. Strasburg, 1882-88). They were written between the middle of the 13th and the middle of the 14th century, and run to enormous length, the separate cycles or groupings of the episodes being called 'branches.' Méon's work includes three cycles: (1) Roman du Renart, apparently the work of three if not more authors, Pierre de St Cloud, a priest of Lacroix in Brie, and a Norman priest Robert de Lison; (2) Le Couronnement de Renart, attributed to Marie de France; and (3) Renart le Nouvel, by Jacquesmars Gielée of Lille, about 1290. The last two are transparent satires upon certain of the monastic orders. There is a fourth cycle, a voluminous compilation or imitation by a priest of the neighbourhood of Troyes, made near the middle of the 14th century, and entitled Le Renart Contrefait (ed. F. Wolf, Vienna, 1861). The oldest extant High German version, Reinhart Vuhs or Fuchs (ed. Reissenberger, Halle, 1886), more usually called Reineke Fuchs, was adapted by some one unknown, early in the 13th century, from a still older version, Isengrimcs Nôt, itself a translation made from old French sources about 1180 by an Alsatian, Heinrich der Glichesaere. The Flemish version which has been the basis of most of the translations, continuations, and editions that have been made since the invention of printing is entitled Reinaert de Vos (ed. Martin, Paderborn, 1874). It was written by one William, but whether William de Matoc, William Utenhove, or more probably an unknown William, is uncertain, and dates apparently from the middle of the 13th century. The source upon which it is built is the nineteenth 'branch' in the Roman de Renart (last in vol. i. of Méon). The text that has been almost exclusively used in the later translations, &c., is that of a second edition, deviating in some respects from William's own, notably in the infusion of a didactic, satirical tendency; the author of this second edition is not known. It was from a prose version of this second edition, published at Gouda in 1479, that Caxton made his translation of The History of Reynard the Fox (1481; reprinted Edin. 1884). Upon this same edition was based the Low German version, Reinke de Vos (ed. Prien, Halle, 1887), which has been more often translated perhaps than any other version. Who the Low German translator was is not known, in spite of the question having greatly exercised many specialists. The editio princeps of Reinke is that of Lübeck (1498), and next to it stands that of Rostock (1517). There are Danish (by A. H. Weigere, Lübeck, 1555), Swedish (Stockholm, 1621), and several other High and Low German editions, for which, however, see the bibliography prefixed to Prien's Reinke. Nevertheless special mention must be made of Gottsched's High German prose version (1752) and Goethe's well-known High German poem, with Kaulbach's scarcely less known illustrations to the same. Popular High German translations are contained in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher (vol. i. 1845) and Marbach's Volksbücher (vols. xv.-xvii.).
The outline of the story, according to the Flemish Reinaert, is as follows: Nobel the Lion, king of animals, was holding court one Easter-tide. All the animals, great and small, came and paid homage to him except Reynard the Fox. Several amongst them complained of the knavery of Reynard, the loudest being Isengrim the Wolf, Reynard's old comrade and enemy. He was followed by Tibert the Cat and Pancer the Horse; but Grimbart the Badger spoke up for his uncle Reynard. Then came Chanticleer the Cock, bringing his dead daughter slain by Reynard. For this and his other misdeeds the Fox shall, it is resolved, be cited to appear before the Lion and be tried. Bruin the Bear is sent to summon him. Reynard received him with soft words, told him of some honey hidden in a split tree, and contrived to get Bruin caught fast in the cleft of the tree; there the peasants found him and nearly beat him to death, but at last he got away and went back to court. The next messenger sent was Tibert the Cat. Him, however, Reynard persuaded to catch mice in a place where a noose hung, in which the Cat got caught; and he too was terribly beaten before he got away. At last Grimbart the Badger offered to undertake the office of messenger; and he persuaded Reynard to go with him to court. On the way the Fox makes a sort of private confession of his rascalties and misdeeds to his relative the Badger, especially of the tricks he has played off upon the Wolf. The animals again came forward with their accusations. Reynard defended himself, but was condemned to death. As he was about to be hanged on the gallows, he begged leave to make a public confession of his evil deeds. In the course of his speech he dropped a hint that he knew where an immense treasure was hidden, and then, at the Lion's request, tells all about it. His father, old Reynard, and Isengrim the Wolf, and Bruin the Bear had conspired together to slay the Lion and make Bruin king in his stead; but he (Reynard) had stolen their treasure, with which they thought to hire soldiers, and had gone and hidden it. He could not suffer the noble Lion to be slain and the wicked Bear to be made king in his place. The Lion thereupon pardoned him, and caused Bruin and Isengrim to be seized and evilly entreated. But when he asked Reynard to go and show him where the treasure was, Reynard excused himself, saying he was under an oath to make a pilgrimage to Rome. The Lion then let him go; and Reynard, taking with him Cuwaert the Hare and Belin the Ram, set out on his pilgrimage. On the way he passed his own home, and induced Cuwaert to go into the house with him, and there killed him. And he put his head in a satchel (made from the skin of the Bear) and gave it to Belin, and bade him carry it back to the Lion, telling him it contained valuable letters. When the Lion saw Cuwaert's head he was exceeding wroth, and bade them let the Wolf and the Bear go free out of prison; and he gave the Ram into their power, and decreed Reynard to be an outlaw.
To this the Low German version adds a continuation, partly a repetition of the same incidents under disguise and partly an actual continuation of the story, ending in a single combat between the Fox and the Wolf, in which the former by trickery beat his antagonist. Finally he returned to his own home, honoured with the favour and protection of the Lion.
English readers should consult the Introduction to W. J. Thoms' edition of Caxton's Reynard (1845), Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essays (not quite accurate), and F. S. Ellis's History of Reynard the Fox (1894). See also L. Sudre, Les Sources du Roman de Renart (1893).