A very well-off farmer was living comfortably in a field by a village. He had money and property, and plenty of corn and millet, and the land was well plowed. His name was Lanzelin, and his wife was known as Gammer Runzela. He did have one problem, and that was the fact that he was forever trying to protect his chickens from Reynard the Fox. His farmyard did not have a proper fence, and he suffered a number of losses, about which he was very unhappy. So Gammer Runzela said to her husband: “Lanzelin, you’re an old fool! I’ve already lost ten of my hens to Reynard, and that makes me really cross and angry.” Farmer Lanzelin had been given a scolding, and he couldn't do anything about it, so he did what Gammer Runzela had told him to do and put up a solid fence, behind which he thought that Chantecler the cockerel—whom Reynard had long wanted to take—and his wives would be well protected.

One day, however, just as the sun was rising, Reynard thought that he could not resist it, and went off to the farmyard with malicious intent—he had a wicked plan in mind about Chantecler. He realized that the fence was too high and thick, so he broke off a splinter of it with his teeth and made sure he was not observed. He was happy to see that there was no one about, so he wriggled through a hedge and managed to lie down quite close to Chantecler. Reynard was the arch-enemy of Chantecler, who was asleep right by the wall. Pinte the hen spotted Reynard and shouted out, “My lord!” and flew up onto a perch, followed by the other wives. Chantecler hurried over to them and told them to go back to the wall where they had been. “You don't have to worry about any animals here in this fenced enclosure, although you should pray to God, my dear ladies, that He might protect me. Truth to tell, I had an extremely unpleasant dream. I dreamt that I was wearing a red fur coat, with bones around the collar, and I’m afraid that that spells trouble.