![]() This Reynard is also quite distinct, in that it is the fox himself - if we are to believe that this is what the final illustrations is telling us - who, for the first time, narrates his own story for the reader. It was quite different from every version of the story I had encountered until that point, taking the didactic use of the tale - something evident in all previous tellings - and making that use a part of the main narrative itself, rather than something discussed in forewords, introductions, afterwords, or moral asides. In the final illustration the reader sees a fox tail peeking out from underneath the hermit's robe, revealing that the storyteller has perhaps been Reynard himself.Īlan Vaës' Reynard the Fox was the final text I considered in the research I conducted for my masters dissertation, written on three centuries of Reynard retellings for children in the Anglophone world. Switching back to the court of King Harald, the narrative follows the mysterious hermit as, story told, he departs for his home. Eventually he is reformed, and appointed Lord High Chancellor of the Animal Kingdom, becoming their first ambassador to the human world. He realizes that his conflicts with the other animals are pointless, and that he himself is much to blame for his current state. Here however, in stark contrast to the traditional story of Reynard, the hermit describes the fox as having a moment of truth upon the battlefield. The hermit goes on to describe the many incidents of Reynard's history, concluding with his triumph over his wolf adversary in personal combat. ![]() The hermit relates the story of another lion king, one who had to deal with a troublesome courtier named Reynard - a fox who was always starting feuds with the other animals. When the leonine King Harald has doubts about his fitness to rule, his queen calls upon a mysterious hermit living nearby to come to court, and share his wisdom. The medieval beast epic of Reynard the Fox gets the metafictional treatment in this text-heavy picture-book from author/illustrator Alain Vaës, published in 1994.
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