![]() Full-page illustrations, lavishly painted in watercolor, take up about half of the content. The physical book itself is 12x10 inches, and contains about sixty pages. Once brought to court, the hermit tells him the story of King Noble, who had to figure out how to deal with the notorious Reynard, who was the cause of many subjects’ distress. His bride Queen Caroline offers to get the help of a wise hermit who lives in the woods. The story begins with Prince Harold, who feels he is unfit to become the new king, as he does not know how to properly rule his subjects. Piecing together some common vignettes of this fox’s literary life, Alain Vaes wrote and illustrated this children’s book in 1994, making one coherent story. A trickster at heart, Reynard can vary from a well-meaning hero, a la Robin Hood, to a strictly devious villain, depending on the writer. Satirical in nature, they often targeted the aristocracy and clergy using allegorical anthropomorphic animals. Recommended to anyone who enjoys revisionist/fractured fairy and folktales, and the fans of the Reynard story.ĭating back in written text to the 12th century, the tales of Reynard the Fox originated in France and spread to include countries of Dutch, English, and German tongues. It was also beautifully illustrated, and a pleasure to pore over. With such an unusual take on the Reynard story, both in terms of how it is told and what it means, this picture-book was fascinating to me. ![]() This is best expressed by the lion king (the one in the inset story), who declares to Reynard that "You have proved to us more than once that no other animals can match your cleverness and craft, so it is our royal pride in you as one of us to send you forth to demonstrate to the humans that animals can match wits with them and even teach them a thing or two." ![]() His purpose in doing so however, seems less to do with punishment - many of the other authors who changed the ending did so to kill the fox - and more to do with his vision of Reynard's purpose. Like some of his predecessors in the field of Reynard storytelling for children, Vaës changes the outcome of the story, having his character reform, rather than simply triumph and carry on with his wicked ways. 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |