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Author
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Comment
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Eien
Unregistered User
(9/27/05 9:53 pm)
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Looking for stories with foxes.
Hello.
I learned of this site a few days ago and have since been scowering it for reference material for a story idea of mine, and though it doesn't relate to my work, I was wondering if anyone new of any good stories involving foxes (I'm a huge fan of them).
Thus far, I've found the alternate version of Puss In Boots (Don Joseph Pear, I think, though I hated the ending), as well as the co-star of The Cat Who Wanted to be Head Forester, and I was wondering if anyone new of any others.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(9/27/05 10:14 pm)
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Re: Looking for stories with foxes.
Are you looking for traditional or modern stories? There's a Japanese tradition of the fox-wife, a kind of demon. A nice modern twist on it is "The Fox Wife" by Ellen Steiber in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears edited by Datlow and Windling. There's also a Bluebeard variant called "Mr. Fox" collected by Joseph Jacobs.
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Eien
Unregistered User
(9/27/05 10:26 pm)
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Thanks
Well, I'm mostly looking for more obscure tales, like the two I mentioned above. I'm already familer with all of Grimm's, for example, though most are a little too short for my liking.
As I understand it, Mr. Fox is merely a name, and the actual character is a human (and a psycho).
As for "The Fox Woman", I don't know why, but from everything I've heard it doesn't really interest me. I loved Neil Gaiman's "Sandman: The Dream Hunters", however.
I guess this really is a rather stupid request, though...
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(9/28/05 2:54 am)
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fox as mentor
There's a structured Northern European tale where a fox helps a young man to get some items. Each time the fox gives good advice, the young man blows it and gets sent for another item. The fox is very patient. Iirc he keeps saying "Ride on my tail."
There's also a set of stories that Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit came from. Southern European?
The search at the Lang site found 35 items.
search.freefind.com/find....T=+Find%21
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DerekJ
Unregistered User
(9/28/05 3:23 am)
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Re: fox as mentor
Quote:
There's a structured Northern European tale where a fox helps a young man to get some items. Each time the fox gives good advice, the young man blows it and gets sent for another item. The fox is very patient. Iirc he keeps saying "Ride on my tail."
...Or "The Golden Bird", as it's known in Grimm.
(One of those stories where, every time a rule is mentioned as part of the procedure, you just sit back and wait for it to be broken--
One of my favorites of the obscure BG's.)
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Daniel
Unregistered User
(9/28/05 4:56 am)
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Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
The most famous and obvious example would be the collection of tales surrounding the character "Reynard the fox". He can be found in French and German folklore dating back to the 12th century. Jean de la Fontaine wrote a tale based on his exploits. In English folklore there is also a similarly named figure called "Reynardine", who was a somewhat licentious were-fox!
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janeyolen
Registered User
(9/28/05 5:42 am)
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Re: Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
Then Reynerdine stories are related to "Mr. Fox" and really variants of the Bluebeard tales. Killing pretty maidens and mutilating them.
Jane
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(9/28/05 7:11 am)
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Re: Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
You may have read them, but there are a number of Aesop's fables that feature the fox. LaFontaine wrote a large number of poems, several also featuring a fox.
Best,
Alice
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(9/28/05 7:15 am)
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Re: Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
Oh, and of course, there are a large number of Brer Fox stories in the Brer Rabbit tales--many obscure. My favorite collection is The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit by Julius Lester, with gorgeous Jerry Pinkney illustrations.
Best,
Alice
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(9/28/05 8:43 am)
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Re: Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
There are many Native American stories that use the fox.
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(9/28/05 1:32 pm)
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Re: Re:Looking for stories with foxes.
As a fox fan, you really ought to pick up Peter S. Beagle's novel THE INNKEEPER'S SONG, which features a fox as a viewpoint character.
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bielie
Unregistered User
(9/28/05 2:29 pm)
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South African Fox
The archetypal trickster in Cape Dutch folktales is a fox, or rather a jackal. He is probably a descendant of Reynard, but has a uniquely South African character. His main antagonist is the wolf. Of course Africa does not have wolves, so Wolf is an immigrant who came with the Dutch to Africa.
One morning early Wolf came to Jackal's den. He had found a barrel of butter that fell off the farmers cart, and he needed the Jackal to help him roll it out of the road to hide it. Jackal agreed, but only if he could have half the butter.
After they had carefully hidden the barrel, Jackal told Wolf that butter had to age before you ate it, otherwise it would make you sick. They agreed to open the barrel after a week. During that week Jackal opened the barrel and secretly started eating the butter.
When Wolf came back at the end of the week Jackal told him that they could not open it just then, since his wife just had a baby called First Hoop. Wolf had to come back a week later, only to be told that Mrs Jackal now had a baby called Second Hoop. The third time Wolf came to open the barrel, Jackal told him his wife had another baby called Bottoms Up.
Wolf became very annoyed and insisted that they open the barrel, which by now was empty (Bottoms Up!) He immedeately suspected foul play from Jackal, who in turn accused Wolf of eating the butter behind his back. In the end Jackal suggested a test: They would both lie in the sun. The heat would make the butter boil from the culprit's mouth.
Wolf fell asleep in the sun, and Jackal took a stick, scraped the last bit of butter from the barrel and smeared it around the sleeping Wolf's mouth. Then he called the farmer who found the wolf with a face full of butter next to his empty butter barrel.
No wonder Jackal and Wolf aren't friends any more!
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dlee10
Registered User
(9/28/05 5:05 pm)
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Re: South African Fox
The Old Country is a fairly recent publication that featured a young girl trading lives with a fox.
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Eien
Unregistered User
(9/28/05 6:49 pm)
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Thanks, everyone!
I wasn't expecting so many replies, and I got a lot of good reccomendations.
I'd like to add, one series of recent books that kind of inspired my request were the Redwall series. The first novel was great, and I enjoyed the TV series, but reading summeries and the online encyclopedia revealed that foxes were always the scum of the story's world, and I kinda gave up on reading further. (*SPOILERS* It was especially bad for vixens in those stories; from what I read, not a single one survives the book they're introduced in).
But thanks again, everyone. I enjoyed the link to Lang's site; the story of The Fox and the Wolf was especially cute, and I'll be sure to rtesearch the others.
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(9/29/05 10:58 am)
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Re: Thanks, everyone!
I highly recommend Kij Johnson's magical novel The Fox Woman.
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(9/29/05 4:01 pm)
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blue feather, giantesses' colt
Derek:
...Or "The Golden Bird", as it's known in Grimm.
(One of those stories where, every time a rule is mentioned as part of the procedure, you just sit back and wait for it to be broken--
One of my favorites of the obscure BG's.)
----------------------------------------------------
I know what you mean about waiting for the rule to be broken. Vladimir Propp noticed that too. :-)
There's an interesting version where someone is geased to go after a blue feather, or blue bird. He steals a giant colt and a princess. I think this was in Jacobs.
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DividedSelf
Registered User
(9/29/05 5:00 pm)
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Re: blue feather, giantesses' colt
There's a book called "Hunted" by N.M. Browne - about a girl who gets trapped in the body of a fox about a 1000 years ago.
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Eien
Unregistered User
(9/29/05 5:39 pm)
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One more thing.
Does anyone know which story it is where the fox and the wolf go ice fishing, only for the water to freeze around the wolf's tail? I thought it was from the Grimm tale "The Wolf and the Fox", but the scene was absent from the version I read on the site, so I'm assuming it's a different one?
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(9/29/05 9:33 pm)
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bear?
I thought it was a bear that dangled his tail in the water ice-fishing, and that's why bears don't have tails any more.
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Eien
Unregistered User
(9/29/05 10:00 pm)
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Maybe...
I only know the story from two animated adaptations I've seen, one aparently merging it with "The Wolf and the Fox", and the other only adapting that one scene.
I could've sword I heard someone mention a story called "How the Wolf Lost his Tail" on these boards when I was searching...
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HPA
Registered User
(9/30/05 12:44 am)
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Norwegian folk-tales.
It's the bear in the versions I've read as well.
Stories about Bear and Fox are more or less an entire sub-genre of Norwegian animal folk-tales. I can name 5-6 without even thinking about it, but I don't know if any are translated or available online. Do a search for Asbjornsen (Asbjørnsen) & Moe, though. You might find some.
There are also many stories with other animals and even people. Fox usually plays the traditional trickster-character, doing mischief and getting away with it.
There's also a slightly different tale about a widowed vixen who
rejects three suitors, a hare, a bear and a wolf, before being visited
by another fox and accepting him. It was beautifully animated in
1962 by Ivo Caprino. www.caprino.no/en-UK/movi...-enka.html
Edited by: HPA at: 9/30/05 12:45 am
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