Abstract The Middle English The Fox and the Wolf is the first piece of evidence that 'Renart' had crossed the 'linguistic channel' which separated the Anglo-Norman nobility from their English subjects. The article argues that the poet tries to take into account his audience's likely unfamiliarity with the scurrilous beast-epic hero by linking his poem with the already familiar traditions of the beast tale, the beast fable, as well as The Physiologus and the bestiary.