The Book of Beasts - Chapter 3

Medieval fables by Ramon Llull, translated and adapted from the Catalan

[For the start of this tale, see Part 1]

How the Crafty Fox betrayed the Lion King and got in a fable battle

Reynard the wily Fox was most displeased not to have been chosen for the Lion King’s royal council, as we have related. Now he began to plot betrayal and assassination of the Lion King. So he said the following to the Urifant:

Look, there’s going to be a lot of bad blood between the meat-eaters and the plant-eaters, being as the Lion King and all of his counsellors are meat-eaters and there’s no plant-eater to speak for you in that royal council of theirs.

The Urifant said:

I think maybe Mr Rooster isn’t a meat-eater… and he was chosen above you for a place on the council. Hey Mr Fox, aren’t you a meat-eater?

The wily Fox didn’t answer that directly. He said:

Once upon a time there was a Christian man who had a Saracen slave, and he trusted his slave very much, but the Saracen wasn’t a Christian, so naturally all the time in his heart he was plotting against his master. So it is with the Rooster, who isn’t really of your grass-eating type and so therefore will turn against you as soon as he can.

The Urifant was most upset to hear that, and started to think very hard about all the damage the Rooster might do to him and his companions by being on the royal council. But the Fox reassured the Urifant, and said that if the Urifant wanted to become king instead, the Fox could probably swing it for him.

But the Urifant felt a bit anxious about that, thinking that Reynard the Fox was a bit wily after all, and most likely would stick with the other meat-eaters and betray the Urifant when it suited him. So he thought of his own parable and it went like this:

Once upon a time there was a hermit living in the woods, and a falcon landed on a branch with a live rat in its beak. The hermit prayed to God that the rat would fall out of the bird’s mouth and land on his lap. God made that happen. Then the hermit prayed to God that the rat he’d caught in his lap would turn into a lovely maiden. God made that happen too, and the rat become a beautiful woman. Then the hermit asked the girl:
“Hey lady, do you want to marry the Sun?”
“No, sir, because the Sun could be covered by clouds and then what?”
“So, would you marry the Moon?”
“No sir, because the Moon doesn’t make light itself, but merely reflects the Sun’s light.”
“So, would you marry a cloud?”
“Indeed not! The cloud is just blown wherever the wind blows.”
“The wind, then?”
“Marry the wind? But the wind is blocked by the mountains!”
“Marry the mountains, then?”
“But the rats gnaw through the mountains!”
“So, final offer, would you marry a man?”
“No, because humans hunt and kill rats, and I was a rat!”
So in the end the lady and the hermit both prayed hard to God, who answered their prayers and turned the woman back into a rat, which scurried off to find a boy rat to marry.

The Fox thought long and hard about the Urifant’s tale. After quite a long time contemplating it, he thought it meant that the Urifant didn’t trust him, and was saying no. Now he regretted not trying to turn the Boar against the Lion King, as he might have been a far easier mark. But he persisted with the Urifant anyway, and thought of yet another fable to try and convince him:

Once upon a time there was an old widowed knight who had a fine son, and the knight thought that he might remarry. Which he did. But the second wife, who was much younger, hated her new stepson. So she told the father that his son had tried to sleep with her. The old knight bought the story and kicked his son out of the castle for evermore.  The son, unjustly cast out from his inheritance, was quite angry.

That fascinating story somehow did the trick. The Urifant was now convinced of the Fox’s sincerity and his intention to make the Urifant king. But he wondered how the Fox, a rather feeble individual, might be able to kill the Lion, who after all was the most deadly of beasts.

The Fox responded with a very wily and very wise parable:

Once upon a time all the beasts, who were very tired and inconvenienced by being hunted by the great Lion King, agreed to sacrifice one of their own and give the victim up to him. So they drew lots at random each day, and the unlucky animal gave himself up to be eaten. One day the short straw fell to the Hare, who was sore afraid of death and didn’t present himself to be eaten at the designated time. The Lion King was full wroth, and when the Hare finally showed up, complained that he was very hungry and that the Hare was now in big trouble. But the Hare said he’d been delayed by another lion who said he was the king, and the Lion King demanded to be taken to see this new lion impostor. The Hare led the Lion King to a cliff overlooking a limpid lake and showed him his reflection.
‘There he is, your majesty, there’s the usurper! Pounce on him and kill him since you have the high ground.’
The Lion King leapt on the reflection in the lake and drowned. The Hare took full credit for wacking the Lion King and soon became the Hare King.

But the Urifant concocted another tale to express his own doubts and fears:

Once upon a time there was a king who had two manservants. One day he was sitting in the throne room with all his nobles, and the nearest servant noticed a flea on his cloak. So he asked permission to approach the royal person and catch the royal flea, which he did. The king wanted to see the flea, and he picked it up and said:
“Absolutely incredible that such a small creature should dare to approach a king!”
He gave his servant  a hundred gold pieces. So the other servant was envious, and so next day he put a moth on the king’s cloak. He approached and caught the moth, but the king mistakenly thought he just put it there, which in fact he had, and he was angered that this servant was making his clothes all moth-eaten. So he gave that second guard a hundred lashes.

The Fox marvelled that such a great huge beast as the Urifant could be so fearful as to worry about a little Lion, and sought to relate to him some comforting words to make him less of a namby-pamby coward. Finally he said:

Consider how the Serpent, just a small weak creature, worked his wicked magic on Eve and brought about the wrath of God on Adam and all the terrible consequences of that. In much the same way, I can make the Lion King hated by his subjects and then we can do what we want with him.

That did it. The Urifant was finally convinced to join the conspiracy. He, the Urifant, would become king once the Fox had taken care of the Lion, and in return he would concede great honours and titles to Reyard the wily Fox. It seemed like a very sweet deal to the Urifant.

NEXT TIME: Things get real as the foxy plot swings into action