XXXV. REYNARD THE FOX

A humorous poem, with incidental satire, which enjoyed the favor of all medieval Europe. The earliest German attempt to weave a continuous narrative out of the animal-stories that had previously been current in Latin, and to some extent in French, was that of an Alsatian poet, Heinrich der Glichezare, who wrote about 1180 and drew upon French sources. With the exception of a badly preserved fragment this poem is lost. It was called Isengrines Not and described the pranks played by the cunning fox on the stupid wolf. Half a century later it was worked over by an unknown rimester who changed the title to Reinhart Fuchs. This is the High German version from which the first of the selections below is translated. More important in a literary way is the Low German version, of which the earliest print dates from 1498. A specimen of this is given in Simrock’s translation.