![]() ![]() Initiative for special education innovation in Oxford. Renewed interestįrom 2017-18 onwards, there has been an exciting new development around Reynard in Great Britain: the North Sea Crossings project - sponsored by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, a collaboration between the universities of Bristol and Oxford, animation studios Aardman Animations (the creators of Wallace & Gromit), the Bodleian Libraries and the Flash of Spendour Thus we see how today, both in the Low Countries and far beyond, people everywhere do like this medieval beast epic in which the cunning fox outwits and holds his own against all comers. Online since 2003, Henry Morley’s 1889 edition of Caxton’s Reynard is available in The Medieval Bestiary while in 2015 a new translation into contemporary colloquial English was published in New York by Harvard professor James Simpson, with a preface by Stephen Greenblatt. Foxes can be very bold about stealing from humans and other, larger animals.Kelmscott Press edition of William Caxton's History of Reynard the Fox(e), 1892 ( Image source)Ī fox cub making off with a bird feeder from someone’s garden. ( Image source)Ī statue of Reynard erected in the Netherlands in the 1930s. An interesting note: by now, kids reading these illustrated books would be familiar with giraffes, elephants, and other animals that don’t appear in earlier Reynard stories but seem to have been included in these illustrations. The fox and the wolf, still mortal enemies, duke it out in front of the lion and his courtiers. This comes from a Dutch version of the story and looks like it might have come from a kids’ book. Like I said in the episode, I haven’t read it yet, but it does seem that despite Reynard’s more nuanced moral character there are still plenty of dirty jokes in this one. ( Image source)Ī scene from Goethe’s version of the story. ( Image source)Ī German version of the story from the very early 1700s, with woodcut illustrations. ![]() ( Image source)Ī carving from the 1300s or 1400s depicting a version of the Renard story. Whether this is real fox behavior or a bit of folklore is a matter of some debate. ![]() Although this may not be a direct illustration of a Reynard story, Reynard does play dead very often and pulls a similar trick on a crow in some versions of his adventures. ![]() ( Image source)Īn illustration from a late 1200s bestiary of a fox playing dead in order to entice a tasty meal to approach him. ( Image source)Īn illustration from a 1200s manuscript of animals at the court of King Noble the lion. This one shows a scene with Reynard and a hound. ( Image source)Īnother illustration from a very early copy of Roman de Renart created in the 1100s. In this version of the Reynard stories, the animal characters ride horses, hold titles and castles, pay homage to their lion king, and interact with humans like farmers and monks but still retain their beastly natures and appetites. There is a detailed discussion of a trial revolving around a fictional situation that modern audience would probably consider a charge of sexual assault, but medieval audiences may have read as a false accusation.įeatured image: An illustration from a version of Roman de Renart published some time between 12. How did our vulpine antihero go from a murderous rapist to a cuddly kids’ character? Why did Walt Disney keep trying to make a movie about one of fiction’s nastiest criminals? And how long is Isaac willing to listen to descriptions of medieval butt jokes before he begs Demetria to wrap up this episode?Ĭontent note: This episode is marked explicit for discussions of fictional sex, violence, animal deaths/murder, scatological humor, and very crude use of religious symbols. We’re exploring the history of crime fiction with Reynard, a rascal whose exploits are definitely not the sort of behavior you’d expect from a cute talking fox today. ![]()
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