SOURCE: “Trickery as an Element of the Character of Renart,” in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, 1986, pp. 34-52.

In the following essay, Bellon examines Renart's ability to innovate, his tactics, and the nature of his defense arguments.

If trickery is defined as a “means of obtaining from others that which cannot be obtained by force, work or right”, it clearly emerges from the full text of the Roman de Renart¹ that trickery is vitally important to Renart, both as animal and man, for several reasons:

—to obtain food. Without trickery, a predator of Renart's size and strength would almost certainly die of hunger.

—to avenge himself.² His hereditary enemies all have a decisive advantage over him: Isengrin for example possesses the physical strength which Renart lacks, while Tibert can climb trees.

—to defend himself. At the Court, where he has been taken because of his earlier...