"The aged minstrel drew his harp still closer to his breast,
Gazed at the jeweled coronets as this thought he expressed:
'Fair queens, I bid you wear them until your locks turn gray;
Those crowns, alas! are fleeting, but song will live alway.'"
NIENDORF (H.A.G.'s tr.).




CHAPTER III.



REYNARD THE FOX.


Among primitive races, as with children, animal stories are much enjoyed,
and form one of the first stages in literature. The oldest of these tales
current in the middle ages is the epic of Reineke Fuchs, or Reynard the
Fox. This poem was carried by the ancient Franks across the Rhine, became
fully acclimated in France, and then returned to Germany by way of
Flanders, where it was localized.

After circulating from mouth to mouth almost all over Europe, during many
centuries, it was first committed to writing in the Netherlands, where the
earliest manuscript, dating from the eleventh or twelfth century, gives a
Latin version of the tale.

[Sidenote: Origin of animal epics.] "The root of this saga lies in the
harmless natural simplicity of a primeval people. We see described the