The Significance of The Hare in Reynard The Fox

In the nineteenth century scholars engaged in the study of Reynard the Fox asked themselves first of all whether they should regard this epic as an invention of the Romance or of the Teutonic spirit. Subtle philological considerations were to show which of the ethnic groups concerned might claim the credit (Grimm, J., 1834, 1846; Sudre, 1893, pp. 49 ff.). Step by step the problem began to be discussed regardless of national considerations. As long ago as 1893 Sudre pointed out that on close examination the material revealed une forme première, un archétype (Sudre, 1893, p. 7), and today we cannot help seeing that the various literary products and traditions express an image which man has not invented but which he has always found and experienced all over the world. It belongs to those images which C. G. Jung refers to as the forms of a primordial image which point to particular archetypes (Jung, 1935).

The manifold and by no means uniform characteristics which are attributed to the fox, both in the East and in the West, thus reveal themselves as facets of the primordial image. These aspects in their turn are at any given time influenced by the cultural setting of the respective tales (cf. Walder, 1951, pp. 25 ff.).

In the attempt to describe the figure of Reynard, we find that we cannot attain our aim unless we take into consideration its relationship to the figures of other animals. It is borne home to us that so far research has concentrated mainly on the relationship between the fox and the wolf, the lion, the cock, and also the bear, but that the relationship between the fox and the hare has received hardly any attention (Graf, A., 1920).

In a lecture “Reineke Fuchs or the Relationship between Right and Might” recently broadcast by Radio Berlin, a lawyer, Peter Schneider, has emphasized this relationship. In this paper I shall try to present and interpret the image of the fox from that point of view, hoping thereby to bring out the significance of th