SOURCE: “Reynard the Fox in England,” in Aspects of the Medieval Animal Epic, edited by E. Rombauts and A. Welkenhuysen, Leuven University Press, 1975, pp. 53-65.

In the following essay, Blake examines several Middle English fox tales and concludes that there is not enough evidence to show a direct connection between them and the Roman de Renart.

The Roman de Renart is such an important text in medieval French literature and exerted such an influence on several other medieval vernacular literatures that it has usually been assumed it was also known in medieval England and influenced Middle English writers. Two attempts have been made to document this influence: one by F. Mossé and the other by J. Flinn¹. Since both scholars were intent on tracing the influence of the Roman de Renart, their surveys excluded some Middle English works containing stories of foxes in which the fox is not...