Hersent, however, is well-known for her lust – this is probably unavoidable, since she-wolves are thought to have an insatiable sexual appetite, and lupa, the latin word for ‘she-wolf’, is a synonym for prostitute. Hersent bravely volunteers to go through the ordeal by burning fire, apparently taking the example of Iseult. The Roman de Renart became immensely popular at the end of the twelfth century and, between then and around the mid-thirteenth century, a narrative that has been customarily divided into 26 ‘branches’ was developed.įor instance, in the first branch, when Sir Isengrin – a stupid yet pompous wolf who is Reynard’s life-long enemy – accuses Reynard of violating his wife, the lady Hersent.
The stories of Reynard, the trickster fox, are generally attributed to Aesop, a slave from Samos in the sixth century BC, but the version we are familiar with really comes from the Middle Ages. Although Renart’s medieval audience did not necessarily exclude the higher classes, it is the aristocracy that often came off the worst in these stories, and by borrowing from other noted romances or chanson de geste, such passages would appear more comical in the reader’s eyes. Rather, it makes fun of chivalry and the aristocracy - William Caxton’s fifteenth century English edition, The History of Reynard the Fox, was even labelled as an ‘anti-romance’. Despite being a roman, the story of Reynard is no romance in the traditional sense.
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