All his life, Professor Frits van Oostrom has followed the trail of the medieval fox Reynaert with his cunning pranks. He wrote De Reynaert, an unparalleled book about the crown jewel of the Dutch literary heritage, which was not averse to a sadistic or (homo)sexual act.
In 1925, a third-year student of Dutch, Helena Antoinette Kroon, while studying medieval Van den vos Reynaerde something special. If you read the first letters of the last lines of the work, they form the words BIWILLEME (by William). Her professor, JW Muller, had studied the text from cover to cover for years, but never saw the acrostic, nor did any of the scholars before him.
With the appearance of De Reynaert Frits van Oostrom marks the end of his professorship in Utrecht. On the day that Van Oostrom said goodbye in the Domkerk, in the presence of half the academic world, this almost 600-page book was in the shop.
The writer’s name is Willem, but that’s all we know about him
Naturally, Van Oostrom would also have liked to make a major discovery. That Willem was the writer is already stated in the first line: Willem die Madocke maecte. But then we don’t know much more, because who Willem was is unknown and the book Madocke that he apparently wrote earlier is also untraceable. How wonderful it would have been if Van Oostrom had been the first to discover that unknown book, and he hoped to do so with the help of the current search engines on the computer, but he too remains in the dark.
Censorship in school expenses
Reynaert is not particularly popular. This becomes apparent when all kinds of complaints about the fox are brought forward during King Nobel’s court day: adultery, theft, murder, you can’t call it that crazy or Reynaert is responsible for it. He is summoned to court so that justice can be administered.
Bruun the bear goes to fetch him from his castle Maupertuus, but his gluttony kills him. Reynaert lures him into a trap and laughs as the villagers beat him up.
Then it’s the turn of Tybeert the tomcat, who unfortunately is also a bit too hungry and also gets stuck. In the fight with the same villagers, the pastor loses a ball. A scene that was regularly censored in school editions.
Grimbeert the badger eventually manages to lead Reynaert to the king. While Reynaert’s enemies are already tying up a noose, Reynaert manages to fool the king and queen with one last great ruse and, supposedly on a pilgrimage to Rome, leaves the court as a free man.
De Reynaert is more than just a study of the medieval fox outsmarting its enemies. Van Oostrom also shows the full breadth of the Dutch subject. From the first scientists who tried to convert the manuscripts into readable texts as accurately as possible, to the scientists who are still interpreting certain passages, lines and even words to this day.
For example, scientists have puzzled over a bird that flies towards Tybeert and which the tomcat hopes will fly by on the right side, but the bird does so on the left, a bad omen. What bird are we dealing with here? A column in the program in 2020 Early birds offers, after comparison with the Old French example of de Reynaert , a solution: we are dealing with the hen harrier.
Several Reynaert stories
Reynaert stories have been around for much longer. In French Roman de Renard there are episodes on which ‘our’ Reynaert is based. Van den vos Reynaerde was only discovered around 1800 in the Comburg manuscript, named after a monastery in southern Germany. The manuscript dates from the period between 1370 and 1420. The second complete manuscript of de Reynaert is also in Germany. It was discovered in 1907. The Dyck manuscript was found on a castle in Rhineland-Westphalia and is dated around 1340.
Is “making chaplain” a homosexual scene, or maybe masturbation?
Van Oostrom knows how to tell very entertaining, but with respect, about all those professors who pondered the text and all the interpretations that followed from it. Most striking are the scabrous interpretations. Because what should we think of Reynaert who the hare Cuwaert made chaplain by him fixed between sine beene to clamp? Is it a gay scene, a masturbation scene? Van Oostrom shows how the different interpretations came about and adds his vision.
De Reynaert is also a personal story. If Van Oostrom hadn’t had a teacher who had enthusiastically told about Van den vos Reynaerde and supplemented all the lewd innuendos that were missing from the school edition, he might have chosen another course of study.
That Dutch teacher, now very old, was also present in the Domkerk. He takes pride in his work, because De Reynaert will for a long time remain the standard work on this medieval fox. Until someone Madocke discovered of course.
During the day Summer phrases at FestivalderAa in Schipborg on Friday 7 July author Frits van Oostrom will be interviewed by Annette Timmer.
Title De Reynaert – Living with a medieval masterpiece
Author Frits van Oostrom
Publisher Prometheus
Price 35 euros (592 pages)
★★★★★