xiv REYNARD THE FOX

tion since his time has tended to strip his
theory of every vestige of plausibility, and it
may be now regarded as having gone the way
of all exploded theories. All the versions
referred to above are of literary origin, and
with the exception of the YVsengrimus, that
origin, even the Germanists allow, is French.
Both the Reinhart and the Retinaert are
derived from French originals, now lost, which
have been revised and extended to form the
Roman de Renard, The whole family is thus
derived from a French parent, who flourished
somewhere between 1150 to 1170, though it is
from a Flemish descendant that all modern
versions, including Caxton’s and Goethe’s, and
the one represented in the book before us,
have been derived.

But though we can trace our book to a
literary original, it does not follow that it is
entirely or solely literary in origin. Man has
been defined as a tale-telling animal; it comes
as natural to him to tell tales as to cook food.
Thus, a tale may arise naturally among the
Folk, even though it must ultimately be written
down by somebody who can write. One is,
naturally, inclined to suspect a Folk origin for
tales like those contained in .£sop’s Fades, or