'A Fox is a Fox is a Fox... ' The Fox and the Wolf Reconsidered

AbstractThe Middle English The Fox and the Wolf is the first piece of evidence that 'Renart' had crossed the 'linguistic channel' which separated the Anglo-Norman nobility from their English subjects. The article argues that the poet tries to take into account his audience's likely unfamiliarity with the scurrilous beast-epic hero by linking his poem with the already familiar traditions of the beast tale, the beast fable, as well as The Physiologus and the bestiary.