Reynard the Fox · Willem, 1260
Where is Maleperduis in Reynard the Fox?
~14km
From King Nobel's court, on this map. Maleperduis is made up, so its place is too.
From the bookThe map's guessReal world
Maleperduis is Reynaert's home: a burrow-castle full of tunnels, holes and back doors, where he lives with his wife Hermeline and their cubs. The name means something like "bad hole". The poem never says where it is.
The map has to put it somewhere, so it sits in the Waasland, where the story works: about 14 km from the court, three and a half hours on foot, and close to Lamfroit's yard (about 3.5 km) and the priest's barn (about 3.3 km). Those places are made up too, and so are the paths between them.
The real places in the story are nearby. Ghent, Hijfte (Ifte), Belsele and Absdale are where they really are, and most of them are in the Waasland. That's one reason people think the poet came from round here.
See Maleperduis on the map