Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Map
- Introduction
- PART I COURT AND CITY
- PART II THE WORLD OF CHIVALRY
- PART III REYNARD THE FOX
- 8 Words and deeds in the Middle Dutch Reynaert stories
- PART IV THE LITERATURE OF LOVE
- PART V RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- PART VI ARTES TEXTS
- PART VII DRAMA
- Appendix A Bibliography of translations
- Appendix B Chronological table
- Index
8 - Words and deeds in the Middle Dutch Reynaert stories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Map
- Introduction
- PART I COURT AND CITY
- PART II THE WORLD OF CHIVALRY
- PART III REYNARD THE FOX
- 8 Words and deeds in the Middle Dutch Reynaert stories
- PART IV THE LITERATURE OF LOVE
- PART V RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
- PART VI ARTES TEXTS
- PART VII DRAMA
- Appendix A Bibliography of translations
- Appendix B Chronological table
- Index
Summary
To Jill Mann
In real life animals never speak. We explain their behaviour by relating it to their instincts or their nature, but there is no linguistic commentary from the animals themselves to guide our interpretation. With people, however, there is a continual interaction between behaviour and speech – between what is done and what is said about it. So it is not surprising that a major theme of beast fable and beast epic – the literary genres in which animals are endowed with the power of speech – is the relation between words and deeds, and in particular the discrepancy between the two. This study will attempt to show how this theme is developed in the Middle Dutch animal epics Van den vos Reynaerde and Reynaerts historie.
First, some general information about both poems by way of introduction. The only thing we know for certain about the author of Van den vos Reynaerde is that his name was Willem. The work was probably written in or around Ghent in the thirteenth century (before 1279). Van den vos Reynaerde is generally considered by modern critics to be one of the most accomplished animal epics of the Middle Ages, but it had only one direct imitator, Reynaerts historie. Even less is known about this poem than about Van den vos Reynaerde. Its author is unknown.
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- Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context , pp. 131 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
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