81-783: Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch , English , French and German fables . The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages , as well as in chapbook form throughout the Early Modern period . The stories are largely concerned with the main character Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox , trickster figure. His adventures usually involve his deceiving other anthropomorphic animals for his own advantage, or trying to avoid their retaliatory efforts. His main enemy and victim across
162-423: A dog cone after he gets stitches in his arm. The PBS Kids animated series Let's Go Luna! centers on an anthropomorphic female Moon who speaks, sings, and dances. She comes down out of the sky to serve as a tutor of international culture to the three main characters: a boy frog and wombat and a girl butterfly, who are supposed to be preschool children traveling a world populated by anthropomorphic animals with
243-402: A one hit wonder on a popular 1990s sitcom Horsin' Around , living off the show's residuals in present time. Multiple main characters of the series are other animals who possess human body form and other human-like traits and identity as well; Mr. Peanutbutter , a humanoid dog lives a mostly human life—he speaks American English , walks upright , owns a house , drives a car , is in
324-405: A romantic relationship with a human woman (in this series, as animals and humans are seen as equal , relationships like this are not seen as bestiality but seen as regular human sexuality ), Diane , and has a successful career in television—however also exhibits dog traits —he sleeps in a human-size dog bed , gets arrested for having a drag race with the mailman and is once forced to wear
405-704: A circus run by their parents. The French-Belgian animated series Mush-Mush & the Mushables takes place in a world inhabited by Mushables, which are anthropomorphic fungi, along with other critters such as beetles , snails , and frogs . Sonic the Hedgehog , a video game franchise debuting in 1991, features a speedy blue hedgehog as the main protagonist. This series' characters are almost all anthropomorphic animals such as foxes, cats, and other hedgehogs who are able to speak and walk on their hind legs like normal humans. As with most anthropomorphisms of animals, clothing
486-616: A finished and completed poem by itself, Van den vos Reinaerde does not have a set ending. Like Pierre, very little is known of the author, other than the description by the copyist in the first sentences: Willem, die Madocke maecte, daer hi dicken omme waecte, hem vernoyde so haerde dat die avonture van Reynaerde in Dietsche onghemaket bleven – die Arnout niet hevet vulscreven – dat hi die vijte dede soucken ende hise na den Walschen boucken in Dietsche dus hevet begonnen. Willem who made Madocke , which often kept him awake,
567-426: A greater size than the original, Oldenburg created his sculptures out of soft materials. The anthropomorphic qualities of the sculptures were mainly in their sagging and malleable exterior which mirrored the not-so-idealistic forms of the human body. In "Soft Light Switches" Oldenburg creates a household light switch out of vinyl. The two identical switches, in a dulled orange, insinuate nipples. The soft vinyl references
648-583: A highly sophisticated development of Reynardian material as part of his Morall Fabillis in the sections known as The Talking of the Tod . In 1498, Hans van Ghetelen, a printer of Incunabula in Lübeck , printed a Low German version called Reinke de Vos . It was translated to Latin and other languages, which made the tale popular across Europe. Reynard is also referenced in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and
729-439: A noble court. While the authors take many liberties with the story telling, not all of the satire is meant to be rude or malicious in intent. The main characters are anthropomorphic animals. The given names of the animals are of Old High German origin. Most of them were in common use as personal names in medieval Lorraine . The characters of Reynard the Fox were based on the medieval hierarchy, and are treated as human throughout
810-401: A normal dog in other ways; for example, he cannot resist chasing a ball and barks at the mailman, believing him to be a threat. In a similar case, BoJack Horseman , an American Netflix adult animated black comedy series, takes place in an alternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, and centers around the life of BoJack Horseman ; a humanoid horse who was
891-592: A number of Latin sequences by the early-13th-century preacher Odo of Cheriton . Both of these early sources seem to draw on a pre-existing store of popular culture featuring the character. The first "branch" (or chapter) of the Roman de Renart appears in 1174, written by Pierre de St. Cloud, although in all French editions it is designated as "Branch II". The same author wrote a sequel in 1179—called "Branch I". From that date onwards, many other French authors composed their own adventures for Renart li goupil ("the fox"). There
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#1732844252196972-541: A setting in Luxembourg. It is known to be a satirical mirror image of Luxembourg's social sphere after the turmoils of the Luxembourg Crisis , whereby the author transposed his criticism and social scepticism to the animal society in which his fox 'Renert' lives. Beyond that, it is insightful analysis of the different regional and sub-regional linguistic differences of the country, where distinct dialects are used to depict
1053-481: A stage", Fer interprets the artists in Eccentric Abstraction to a new form of anthropomorphism. She puts forth the thoughts of Surrealist writer Roger Caillois , who speaks of the "spacial lure of the subject, the way in which the subject could inhabit their surroundings." Caillous uses the example of an insect who "through camouflage does so in order to become invisible... and loses its distinctness." For Fer,
1134-402: A sub-culture known as furry fandom , which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism. This can often be shortened in searches as "anthro", used by some as an alternative term to "furry". Anthropomorphic characters have also been a staple of the comic book genre. The most prominent one
1215-496: A yellow sea sponge , living in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his anthropomorphic marine life friends. Cartoon Network 's animated series The Amazing World of Gumball (2011–2019) are about anthropomorphic animals and inanimate objects. All of the characters in Hasbro Studios ' TV series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010–2019) are anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, with most of them being ponies living in
1296-464: Is a human activity and to attribute it to nature misconstrues it as humanlike. Modern criticisms followed Bacon's ideas such as critiques of Baruch Spinoza and David Hume . The latter, for instance, embedded his arguments in his wider criticism of human religions and specifically demonstrated in what he cited as their "inconsistence" where, on one hand, the Deity is painted in the most sublime colors but, on
1377-481: Is also the Middle High German text Reinhard Fuchs by Heinrich der Glïchezäre , dated to c. 1180. Roman de Renart fits into the genre of romance. Roman de Renart gets its start using the history of fables that have been written since the time of Aesop. The romance genre of the middle ages is not what we think of the romance genre of today. It was a fictional telling of a character's life. The protagonist of
1458-404: Is available to him whenever he needs to hide away from his enemies. Some of the tales feature Reynard's funeral, where his enemies gather to deliver maudlin elegies full of insincere piety, and which feature Reynard's posthumous revenge. Reynard's wife Hermeline appears in the stories, but plays little active role. In some versions she remarries when Reynard is thought dead, thereby becoming one of
1539-434: Is debate over whether or how closely they related to identifiable societal events, but there is a growing camp that see direct societal connections and even implicit political statements in the tales. The stories are told in a way that makes associations easy to make, but difficult to substantiate. Reynard stories translate difficult laws and legal concepts into common language, allowing people to both understand them and enjoy
1620-762: Is of little or no importance, where some characters may be fully clothed while some wear only shoes and gloves. Another popular example in video games is the Super Mario series, debuting in 1985 with Super Mario Bros. , of which main antagonist includes a fictional species of anthropomorphic turtle -like creatures known as Koopas . Other games in the series, as well as of other of its greater Mario franchise, spawned similar characters such as Yoshi , Donkey Kong and many others . Claes Oldenburg 's soft sculptures are commonly described as anthropomorphic. Depicting common household objects, Oldenburg's sculptures were considered Pop Art . Reproducing these objects, often at
1701-732: Is often referred to as a mythos . Anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals. Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphization derive from
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#17328442521961782-699: The Canterbury Tales ; in " The Nun's Priest's Tale ", Reynard appears as "Rossel" and an ass as "Brunel". Renyard (spelt "Renard") is also briefly mentioned in The Legend of Phyllis from Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women . In 1481, the English 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
1863-467: The Genesis creation myth : "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them". Hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems. The Bhagavad Gita , Chapter 12, Verse 5, states that it is much more difficult for people to focus on a deity that is unmanifested than one with form , remarking on
1944-655: The Low Countries . Alternatively, a 19th-century edition of a retelling of the Reynard fable states definitively with "no doubt whatever that it is of German origin" and relates a conjecture associating the central character with "a certain Reinard of Lorraine, famous for his vulpine qualities in the ninth century". Joseph Jacobs , while seeing an origin in Lorraine, traces classical, German, and "ancient northern folk-lore" elements within
2025-543: The fabliaux and Arthurian romance : Seigneurs, oï avez maint conte Que maint conterre vous raconte Conment Paris ravi Elaine, Le mal qu'il en ot et la paine, De Tristan que la Chievre fist Qui assez bellement en dist Et fabliaus et chançons de geste Romanz d'Yvain et de sa beste Maint autre conte par la terre. Mais onques n'oïstes la guerre Qui tant fu dure de gran fin, Entre Renart et Ysengrin. Lords, you have heard many tales, That many tellers have told to you. How Paris took Helen , The evil and
2106-706: The prophets , who explicitly rejected any likeness of God to humans. Their rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, which Maimonides codified in the twelfth century, in his thirteen principles of Jewish faith. In the Ismaili interpretation of Islam , assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God ( via negativa ) both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected, as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to Him or taking them away. The 10th-century Ismaili philosopher Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani suggested
2187-686: The 1920s to the present day. In the Disney/Pixar franchises Cars and Planes , all the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles, while in Toy Story , they are anthropomorphic toys. Other Pixar franchises like Monsters, Inc features anthropomorphic monsters and Finding Nemo features anthropomorphic sea animals (like fish, sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals from DreamWorks franchise Madagascar , Timothy Laurie suggests that " social differences based on conflict and contradiction are naturalized and made less 'contestable' through
2268-511: The 1960s, anthropomorphism has also been represented in various animated television shows such as Biker Mice From Mars (1993–1996) and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron (1993–1995). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , first aired in 1987, features four pizza-loving anthropomorphic turtles with a great knowledge of ninjutsu, led by their anthropomorphic rat sensei, Master Splinter. Nickelodeon 's longest running animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present), revolves around SpongeBob ,
2349-500: The Fox), is also made up of rhymed verses (the same AA BB scheme ). Van den vos Reinaerde and Reinaert Historie (referred to as R I and R II, respectively) are two poems written by two different authors with R II being a continuation of R I. With different writers comes different variations. This can best be seen with Reynard. While describing the same character the Reynard from R I has many different character traits of that in R II. While
2430-569: The Green Knight during the third hunt. Tybalt in Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet is named after the cat in Reynard the Fox, and is called 'Prince of Cats' by Mercutio in reference to this. Jonson 's play Volpone is heavily indebted to Reynard. With the invention of the printing press, the tales of Reynard the fox became more popular and started to be translated and recreated in many different languages. The tales of Reynard don't follow
2511-710: The Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testaments , as well as in the texts of some other religions. Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well-established literary device from ancient times. The story of " The Hawk and the Nightingale " in Hesiod 's Works and Days preceded Aesop 's fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the Jataka Tales and Panchatantra , also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of
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2592-497: The Idols , Nietzsche uses Reynard the Fox as an example of a dialectician . German artist Johann Heinrich Ramberg made a series of thirty drawings, which he also etched and published in 1825. Renert [full original title: Renert oder de Fuuß am Frack an a Ma'nsgrëßt ], was published in 1872 by Michel Rodange , a Luxembourgeois author. An epic satirical work—adapted from the 1858 Cotta Edition of Goethe 's fox epic Reineke Fuchs to
2673-543: The Rabbit as research. Adams returned to anthropomorphic storytelling in his later novels The Plague Dogs (1977) and Traveller (1988). By the 21st century, the children's picture book market had expanded massively. Perhaps a majority of picture books have some kind of anthropomorphism, with popular examples being The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969) by Eric Carle and The Gruffalo (1999) by Julia Donaldson . Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to
2754-466: The Reynard stories. Jacob Grimm in his Reinhart Fuchs (Berlin, 1834) provided evidence for the supposition on etymological grounds that "stories of the Fox and Wolf were known to the Franks as early as the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries". From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there are around twenty-six different tales of Reynard the Fox. While there might have been more that were written, these are
2835-504: The Tank Engine and other anthropomorphic locomotives . The fantasy genre developed from mythological, fairy tale, and Romance motifs sometimes have anthropomorphic animals as characters. The best-selling examples of the genre are The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), both by J. R. R. Tolkien , books peopled with talking creatures such as ravens, spiders, and
2916-648: The Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908); Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) by A. A. Milne ; and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) and the subsequent books in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis . In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character. As John Rowe Townsend remarks, discussing The Jungle Book in which
2997-492: The aging process as the sculpture wrinkles and sinks with time. In the essay "Art and Objecthood", Michael Fried makes the case that " literalist art " ( minimalism ) becomes theatrical by means of anthropomorphism. The viewer engages the minimalist work, not as an autonomous art object, but as a theatrical interaction. Fried references a conversation in which Tony Smith answers questions about his six-foot cube, "Die". Q: Why didn't you make it larger so that it would loom over
3078-476: The anthropomorphic qualities of imitation found in the erotic, organic sculptures of artists Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois , are not necessarily for strictly "mimetic" purposes. Instead, like the insect, the work must come into being in the "scopic field... which we cannot view from outside." For branding , merchandising , and representation , figures known as mascots are now often employed to personify sports teams , corporations , and major events such as
3159-637: The basis of their story. Examples include Squid Girl (anthropomorphized squid), Hetalia: Axis Powers (personified countries), Upotte!! (personified guns), Arpeggio of Blue Steel and Kancolle (personified ships). Some of the most notable examples are the Walt Disney characters Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck , Goofy , and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ; the Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny , Daffy Duck , and Porky Pig ; and an array of others from
3240-472: The bear, Baldwin the ass, and Tibert (Tybalt) the cat, all attempt one stratagem or another. The stories typically involve satire , whose usual butts are the aristocracy and the clergy , making Reynard a peasant-hero character. The Catholic Church used the story of the preaching fox, as found in the Reynard literature, in church art as propaganda against the Lollards . Reynard's principal castle, Maupertuis ,
3321-402: The boy Mowgli must rely on his new friends the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera , "The world of the jungle is in fact both itself and our world as well". A notable work aimed at an adult audience is George Orwell 's Animal Farm , in which all the main characters are anthropomorphic animals. Non-animal examples include Rev. W. Awdry 's Railway Series stories featuring Thomas
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3402-529: The characters in Walt Disney Animation Studios ' Zootopia (2016) are anthropomorphic animals, that is an entirely nonhuman civilization. The live-action/animated franchise Alvin and the Chipmunks by 20th Century Fox centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singing chipmunks . The female singing chipmunks called The Chipettes are also centered in some of the franchise's films. Since
3483-508: The classificatory matrix of human and nonhuman relations ". Other DreamWorks franchises like Shrek features fairy tale characters, and Blue Sky Studios of 20th Century Fox franchises like Ice Age features anthropomorphic extinct animals. Other characters in SpongeBob SquarePants features anthropomorphic sea animals as well (like sea sponges, starfish, octopus, crabs, whales, puffer fish, lobsters, and zooplankton). All of
3564-525: The cycle is his uncle, the wolf, Isengrim (or Ysengrim). While the character of Reynard appears in later works, the core stories were written during the Middle Ages by multiple authors and are often seen as parodies of medieval literature, such as courtly love stories and chansons de geste , as well as a satire of political and religious institutions. The trickster fox, Reynard, lives in a society of other talking animals (lion, bear, wolf, donkey, etc), making
3645-584: The divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality; they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain natural phenomena, creation, and historical events. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons, and rode horses and chariots. They feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific human concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty, or
3726-468: The dragon Smaug and a multitude of anthropomorphic goblins and elves . John D. Rateliff calls this the " Doctor Dolittle Theme" in his book The History of the Hobbit and Tolkien saw this anthropomorphism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth : "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them
3807-576: The earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault . The Tale of Two Brothers (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and in Cupid and Psyche (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus , the west wind, carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest. Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, children's literature began to emerge in
3888-536: The earliest known evidence of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is an ivory sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine , Germany, a human-shaped figurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about 32,000 years old. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent. A more recent example is The Sorcerer , an enigmatic cave painting from the Trois-Frères Cave , Ariège, France:
3969-441: The early modern editions of Reynard the Fox, the characteristics of the animals were based on literary topoi , appealing to the middle class reader. Reinecke Fuchs by Goethe is a poem in hexameters, in twelve parts, written 1793 and first published 1794. Goethe adapted the Reynard material from the edition by Johann Christoph Gottsched (1752), based on the 1498 Reynke de vos . In Friedrich Nietzsche 's 1889 The Twilight of
4050-474: The figure's significance is unknown, but it is usually interpreted as some kind of great spirit or master of the animals. In either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. He proposes that these are the product of a change in the architecture of
4131-453: The fox and his companions. Disney's Robin Hood animated film from 1973 is partly based on Reynard the Fox. List of literary cycles A literary cycle is a group of stories focused on common figures, often (though not necessarily) based on mythical figures or loosely on historical ones. Cycles which deal with an entire country are sometimes referred to as matters . A fictional cycle
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#17328442521964212-473: The gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have. ... Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed [ σιμούς ] and black Thracians that they are pale and red-haired. Xenophanes said that "the greatest god" resembles man "neither in form nor in mind". Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension. Judaism's rejection of an anthropomorphic deity began with
4293-432: The human mind , an increasing fluidity between the natural history and social intelligences , where anthropomorphism allowed hunters to identify empathetically with hunted animals and better predict their movements. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings. Ancient mythologies frequently represented
4374-475: The idea of a separate inside; an idea mirrored in the human form. Fried considers the Literalist art's "hollowness" to be "biomorphic" as it references a living organism. Curator Lucy Lippard 's Eccentric Abstraction show, in 1966, sets up Briony Fer 's writing of a post-minimalist anthropomorphism. Reacting to Fried's interpretation of minimalist art's "looming presence of objects which appear as actors might on
4455-406: The legal predicaments and antics of the characters. The court operates just as those in medieval society. The king heard cases only on one specified date, and all disputes were heard at once. Many versions follow Reynard's fights with Ysengrin, the fox's regular antagonist throughout the stories. Violence between them and other characters is a common thematic element. It is a matter of debate whether
4536-457: The method of double negation; for example: "God is not existent" followed by "God is not non-existent". This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension. In secular thought, one of the most notable criticisms began in 1600 with Francis Bacon , who argued against Aristotle 's teleology , which declared that everything behaves as it does in order to achieve some end, in order to fulfill itself. Bacon pointed out that achieving ends
4617-525: The nineteenth century with works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll , The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Carlo Collodi and The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling , all employing anthropomorphic elements. This continued in the twentieth century with many of the most popular titles having anthropomorphic characters, examples being The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901) and later books by Beatrix Potter ; The Wind in
4698-450: The observer? A: I was not making a monument. Q: Then why didn't you make it smaller so that the observer could see over the top? A: I was not making an object. Fried implies an anthropomorphic connection by means of "a surrogate person – that is, a kind of statue." The minimalist decision of "hollowness" in much of their work was also considered by Fried to be "blatantly anthropomorphic". This "hollowness" contributes to
4779-501: The ones that survive. Many of these are written by different authors and anonymous authors. An extensive appearance of the character is in the Old French Le Roman de Renart written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud around 1170, which sets the typical setting. Reynard has been summoned to the court of king Noble (or Leo), the lion, to answer charges brought against him by Isengrim the wolf. Other anthropomorphic animals, including Bruin
4860-577: The only thing deemed likely is that Arnout 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
4941-578: The other, is degraded to nearly human levels by giving him human infirmities, passions, and prejudices. In Faces in the Clouds , anthropologist Stewart Guthrie proposes that all religions are anthropomorphisms that originate in the brain's tendency to detect the presence or vestiges of other humans in natural phenomena. Some scholars argue that anthropomorphism overestimates the similarity of humans and nonhumans and therefore could not yield accurate accounts. There are various examples of personification in both
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#17328442521965022-467: The pain he felt Of Tristan that la Chevre Spoke rather beautifully about; And fabliaux and epics; Of the Romance of Yvain and his beast And many others told in this land But never have you heard about the war That was difficult and lengthy Between Reynard and Isengrim A mid-13th-century Middle Dutch version of the story by Willem die Madoc maecte ( Van den vos Reynaerde , Of Reynaert
5103-414: The people he plans revenge upon. Isengrim, alternate French spelling: Ysengrin , is Reynard's most frequent antagonist and foil, and generally ends up outwitted, though he occasionally gets revenge. An individual tale might span several genres, which makes classification difficult. Tales often include themes from contemporary society with references to relics, pilgrimage, confession, and the crusades. There
5184-425: The perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism , or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy , particularly prominently with Audianism in third-century Syria, but also fourth-century Egypt and tenth-century Italy. This often was based on a literal interpretation of
5265-529: The pony-inhabited land of Equestria . The Netflix original series Centaurworld focuses on a warhorse who gets transported to a Dr. Seuss -like world full of centaurs who possess the bottom half of any animal, as opposed to the traditional horse . In the American animated TV series Family Guy , one of the show's main characters, Brian , is a dog. Brian shows many human characteristics – he walks upright, talks, smokes, and drinks Martinis – but also acts like
5346-480: The romance genre often has an adventure or a call to action, almost always caused by an outside force. In the 13th century, French was a standard literary language, and many works during the Middle Ages were written in French, including Reynard the Fox. Many popular works from the Middle Ages fall into the romance genre. Pierre de St. Cloud opens his work on the fox by situating it within the larger tradition of epic poetry,
5427-413: The seasons. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty , wisdom , and power , and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed , hatred , jealousy , and uncontrollable anger . Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically, anthropotheism . From
5508-421: The several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent. Apollonius noted that the fable was created to teach wisdom through fictions that are meant to be taken as fictions, contrasting them favorably with the poets' stories of the deities that are sometimes taken literally. Aesop, "by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told
5589-533: The situations he is in are not often that different from their own lives, and this carries across the decades. The common usage of animals as characters in tales has made it so the stories that touch on morally gray areas are easier to understand and accept. Foxes in general have the reputation of tricksters in traditional European folklore . The specific character of Reynard is thought to have originated in Lorraine folklore , from where it spread to France, Germany, and
5670-536: The stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections. Aesop 's anthropomorphisms were so familiar by the first century CE that they colored the thinking of at least one philosopher: And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of
5751-466: The stories a beast epic . The original copies were written in Old French , and have since been translated into many different languages. However, the tales of Reynard come from all across Europe and each retelling has details that are specific to its area. The tales, no matter where they take place, are designed to represent the society around them and include the structures of society around them, such as
5832-437: The tales. Since multiple authors wrote the text, characters' personalities often change. Throughout the stories, these characters often switch between human and animal form and often without notice. The characters who switch between human and animal form are often those of elite status, while the characters who don't change tend to be peasants. Often, the readers will find themselves able to empathize with Reynard. They find that
5913-482: The truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events". The same consciousness of the fable as fiction is to be found in other examples across the world, one example being a traditional Ashanti way of beginning tales of the anthropomorphic trickster -spider Anansi : "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go." Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from
5994-407: The typical sense of reprinting, as there is no clear chronology to the stories. Many of the original pages to these stories have been lost, so it is difficult to tell what the exact literary changes are, of which there aren't many, with the exception of the typical changes that are seen from the early days of the printing press. There are also slight changes to the wording that show modernization of
6075-632: The usage of anthropomorphic icons ( murtis ) that adherents can perceive with their senses. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. The earliest known criticism was that of the Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) who observed that people model their gods after themselves. He argued against the conception of deities as fundamentally anthropomorphic: But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict
6156-441: The uses and differing orders of the words. While the changes might appear to be mistakes, they are not thought of as such and are often kept in the modernization of the tales. There haven't been many attempts to better the works in during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Changes to the tales during the fifteenth century are not seen as mistakes because of specific roles in the process of printing designed to eliminate mistakes. In
6237-613: The verb form anthropomorphize , itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos ( ἄνθρωπος , lit. "human") and morphē ( μορφή , "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God . From the beginnings of human behavioral modernity in the Upper Paleolithic , about 40,000 years ago, examples of zoomorphic (animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent
6318-405: The violence shows animals simply acting as such, or is anthropomorphically meant to reflect the violence in human society, especially the various wars that common folk endured at the time. Reynard appears first in the medieval Latin poem Ysengrimus , a long Latin mock-epic written c. 1148–53 by the medieval poet Nivardus, that collects a great store of Reynard's adventures. He also appears in
6399-535: The whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'." Richard Adams developed a distinctive take on anthropomorphic writing in the 1970s: his debut novel, Watership Down (1972), featured rabbits that could talk—with their own distinctive language ( Lapine ) and mythology—and included a police-state warren, Efrafa . Despite this, Adams attempted to ensure his characters' behavior mirrored that of wild rabbits, engaging in fighting, copulating and defecating, drawing on Ronald Lockley 's study The Private Life of
6480-510: Was Neil Gaiman 's the Sandman which had a huge impact on how characters that are physical embodiments are written in the fantasy genre. Other examples also include the mature Hellblazer (personified political and moral ideas), Fables and its spin-off series Jack of Fables , which was unique for having anthropomorphic representation of literary techniques and genres . Various Japanese manga and anime have used anthropomorphism as
6561-573: Was so extremely annoyed that the tales of Reynaert – which Arnout has not finished – remained unwritten in Dutch that he had the life looked for and, following the French books he began it in Dutch as follows. Madocke or Madoc is thought to be another one of Willem's works that at one point existed but had been lost. The Arnout mentioned was an earlier Reynard poet whose work Willem (the writer) alleges to have finished. However, there are serious objections to this notion of joint authorship, and
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