Muttley is quite right that 'fox' in French is _le renard_ with no letter y, but this is not relevant to the question of a possible connexion with 'Reynardine' in English. (Let me emphasize that I put no more stock in this connexion than does Muttley--the issue is not there.) The French word comes from the prevalence of the fable in which Renard is the name of the personified fox (the title role), as Chanticleer is of the rooster etc.; compare Italian, where the Latin word is preserved in Romance form (I can't explain what happened in Spanish; _zorro_ is not Arabic; maybe Basque?). The disappearance of the _y_ in French is of no more moment than the same disappearance in 'Ronald' (Scots < Norse), or its survival as a silent letter in 'Reynold'(Middle English < Old English). The song could simply have preserved an older form of the word than the modern French word. But I vote with those who trace its occurrence in the song to the Robin Hood literature, where it is a name of Old English origin.

Stephen