Fox (1)
Foxes have colonised London spectacularly in recent times, and for many city people they are the major wildlife presence. For people in England seven hundred years ago the wild was a close and surrounding reality. The poet of the great 14th. century poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was someone who knew his animals and the world of hunting very well. Here is the description of the beginning of a hunt.The translation into modern English does not carry all the specialized vocabulary of the original, but gives us a brief glimpse of wily Renard, and I recommend a complete reading of the story, which also has embedded vivid deer and a memorably fierce wild boar - More on the fox in later posts - Richard
'"Twas a fair frosty morning, for the sun rose red in ruddy vapour, and the welkin was clear of clouds. The hunters scattered them by a forest side, and the rocks rang again with the blast of their horns. Some came on the scent of a fox, and a hound gave tongue; the huntsmen shouted, and the pack followed in a crowd on the trail. The fox ran before them, and when they saw him they pursued him with noise and much shouting, and he wound and turned through many a thick grove, often cowering and hearkening in a hedge. At last by a little ditch he leapt out of a spinney, stole away slily by a copse path, and so out of the wood and away from the hounds. But he went, ere he wist, to a chosen tryst, and three started forth on him at once, so he must needs double back, and betake him to the wood again.
Then was it joyful to hearken to the hounds; when all the pack had met together and had sight of their game they made as loud a din as if all the lofty cliffs had fallen clattering together. The huntsmen shouted and threatened, and followed close upon him so that he might scarce escape, but Reynard was wily, and he turned and doubled upon them, and led the lord and his men over the hills, now on the slopes, now in the vales, while the knight at home slept through the cold morning beneath his costly curtains.-"
