Maleperduis

Maleperduis (/ˌmælɪˈpɜːrdjuɪs/; French: Maupertuis;

German: Malepartus; Dutch: Maupertuus; Middle English:
Maleperduys), also spelled Malperdy, is Reynard the Fox's
principal hideaway in the medieval tales of this figure of
legend. The name of the castle is most likely an old misspelling
of the French word "Millepertuis", meaning "St. John's Wort",
which was considered a sacred plant during the days the
Reynard cycle was first written.

Labyrinthine Maleperduys is full of holes, crooked and long,

Malpertuus by Frits Van den Berghe
with multiple exits, which Reynard can open and shut to elude
(Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent)
his enemies. Full of secret chambers and passageways, in
William Caxton's The Historie of Reynart the Foxe (1485) the
castle of Maleperduys is described as the "best and the fastest burgh that [Reynard] had. There lay
he in when he had need, and was in any dread or fear." (Chapter VII, How Bruin the Bear was
sped of Reynard the Fox). Over time, the word came to mean a place of refuge.

It is also the title of a horror novel, written in 1943 by the Belgian author, Jean Ray. In 1972, it was
made into a film, Malpertuis, directed by Harry Kümel and starring Orson Welles.

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This page was last edited on 15 June 2018, at 23:08 (UTC).

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