SOURCE: “Reynard the Fox as Anti-Hero,” in Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English Literature, edited by Leo Carruthers, D. S. Brewer, 1994, pp. 119-23.

In the following essay, Bidard details examples of how Reynard's character runs counter to that of the typical medieval hero.

I would like first to comment on the title of this paper. Reynard the Fox is of course a convenient name to refer to the different foxes appearing in medieval literature between the XIIIth and XVth centuries. It is the name used for instance by Caxton in his 1481 translation and printing. It is also the name most commonly used by modern critics, a name that underlines the link between the British works and the French tradition of the Roman de Renart. Yet, we can find our fox under other names: in Of the Vox and Wolf, written by the mid-XIIIth century, he is called Reneuard...