A big book too, ideal for these pandemic times.Īs we see, Reynard the Fox is alive and well today, in literature and culture, in society and in our imagination - in new books and exhibitions about him in the textual scholarship, translations and retelling of his tales in film, performance and animations of his adventures.ĭetail of a bas-de-page scene of a fox, with a mitre and a pastoral staff, preaching to several birds. A major book, for general readers and lovers of literature alike, in a rich and inspired retelling (praised by Marina Warner) that invites rereading. ![]() White’s Arthurian romance, The Once and Future King (1958). Moving the narrative forward, Avery engages with her readers in a spoken style, with great storytelling, attractive characterisation, brilliantly persuasive speeches, and intensely dramatic entanglements between Reynard and his many enemies at the court of King Noble the Lion.Įvents are narrated in long, flowing sentences, using a Caxton-like ‘in-between’ language, a seductive mix of Flemish, Anglo-Saxon, French, Middle Dutch, English and Latin words - rare and ancient or newly coined, all supported with a Glossary of words, supposedly compiled by Reynard’s wife, the linguist and translator Lady Hermeline the Vixen with a humour and feeling as infectious as T.H. So far, this four-pronged project has given us: a new scholarly impulse for Reynard studies by medievalists from Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge two exhibitions at the Bodleian, one on the fox, the other on Anglo-Dutch literary heritage an inspired prose retelling of the Reynard by Anne Louise Avery and – with thanks no doubt to Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox of 1970 and the major animation film it was made into in 2009 - two short creative animation films, made by special education needs children, in workshops at the Aardman studios where they were assisted by animation designers and filmmakers.Īt the Bodleian, meanwhile, from December 2020 till early January 2021 ( though accessible online), a smaller exhibition was held to mark the launch of Avery’s Reynard the Fox, with performances, audio plays, an interview with the author, and a showing of the two creative adaptations made with Aardman Animations – respectively, of ‘The Fox and the Wolf’ (about Sir Isengrim), and of Sir Bruin the Bear and the honey trap.įor her imaginative retelling Avery follows the order of Caxton’s narrative, expanding and embroidering it with lots of medieval Flemish couleur locale – of landscapes, places, walks, local lore on animals (very good on birds), culinary detail, playfully learned notes on ancient books, and living memories (e.g. 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. ![]() Kelmscott Press edition of William Caxton's History of Reynard the Fox(e), 1892
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