Chanticleer and the Fox the question of its origin. It has also been asserted that the tale has developed out of the basic situation in Aesop's fable of The Fox and the Crow. Early examples of the story are pithily fabular but towards the middle of the 12th century it appears as an extended episode of the "Reynard cycle" under the title "How Renart captured Chanticleer the cock" ("Si comme Renart prist Chanticler le Coq"). The work of which it was part was immensely popular and spread widely in translation. The basic situation concerns the cock Chanticleer, who lives with his three wives in
Reynard the Fox was French-speaking ("Walschen" in Middle Dutch referred to northern French-speaking people, specifically the Walloons). Willem's work became one of the standard versions of the legend, and was the foundation for most later adaptations in Dutch, German, and English, including those of William Caxton, Goethe, and F. S. Ellis. Geoffrey Chaucer used Reynard material in the "Canterbury Tales"; in "The Nun's Priest's Tale", Reynard appears as "Rossel" and an ass as "Brunel". In 1481 William Caxton printed "The Historie of Reynart the Foxe", which was translated from "Van den vos Reynaerde". Also in the 1480s, the Scottish poet Robert Henryson devised