INTRODUCTION xvii

this particular instance they certainly fare worse.
For the story has spread into lands where
there is no ice at all, and where, accordingly,
it could not have arisen independently. If it
could have spread to these lands, there is no
reason to suppose that it could not have spread
to lands favoured with ice in the winter. All
we need assume for the present purpose is that
it either originated in, or spread to, North-
Eastern France in the twelfth century, and was
there taken up by the original author of
Reynard into his fable.

What he did with the Iced Wolf's Tail
he must have done with other incidents of the
Cycle which are not found in earlier literary
sources, but which are found among the Folk of
to-day. In my Notes on the various incidents
given in the book before us, I have pointed
out which were probably derived from Fable
Literature, and which from the Folk. One of
the chief points of interest in the study of the
Reynard is this mixture of literature and folk-
lore. which thus gave rise to a new form of
literature. Investigation of this mixture has
been begun by the capable hands of M. Sudre,
but the investigation is by no means at an end.

So much for the present on the origin of