Tricksters. Reynard the Fox in verse

Yesterday I shared the Oxford World's Classics edition of the medieval French "Roman de Renart" in English prose translation, and today I wanted to share a verse translation by Patricia Terry: Renard the Fox: The Misadventures of an Epic Hero.

The English verse is delightful to read; you can get a sense of that here as she introduces us to Renard on the prowl:

A high and sharp-edged palisade

With densely planted hawthorn hedges

Clustered against its outer edges.

Sir Constant was sure it would protect

His hens. Renard went to inspect,

Head lowered to avoid exposure;

Quiet, he goes toward the enclosure.

But Renard, so skillful for the hunt,

Finds the thorns very far from blunt,

And time and again he turns away.

He can't come closer to his prey

Whether he lies low or springs out

But the hens he cannot live without.

Terry has translated four of the "branches" of the medieval French text, and in an appendix she provides summaries of the other branches. There are also very helpful notes following the text, plus a detailed introduction to help put the poem in its medieval cultural context, along with a complete list of characters.

You can find translations into English verse of other versions of Reynard's story too. For example, here is an English verse translation followed the German version by Goethe: Reynard the Fox, translated by Thomas James Arnold.

It features Wilhelm von Kaulbach's illustration for the German edition; here you can see Reynard on trial and about to be hanged:

There is another version of Goethe in verse by E. W. Holloway, Reynard the Fox, A Poem in Twelve Cantos:

The illustrations here are from the German edition illustrated by Heinrich Leutemann; this is Reynard in the court of the Lion King:

Finally, a third translation from the German by a translator only identified as "V.D." (does anyone know the full name?): Reynard the Fox, A Burlesque Poem from the Low-German.

Update. From a later edition online, I can now provide the author's name: John L. Forrest.

This one has illustrations by J. J. Mora; here is the Lion King lying sick in bed:

So, whether you want verse from the French or from the German versions, the Internet Archive has the Reynard you are looking for! You can see all this week's posts here, and I'll be back tomorrow with more: Week 71 - Reynard the Fox.