Fox Folklore

[kniteracy]

Someone out there must know something about fox folklore in Europe and the British Isles. I have done half a dozen web searches tonight, and most of the references I am coming up with relate to Japanese and Chinese folklore. While I appreciate that there is a lot of very good fox folklore out there from Japan particularly, I'm specifically looking for tales, stories, folklore, little bits of folk knowledge from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, etc. I'd be curious about American folklore that wasn't specifically related to Native American culture.

It doesn't have to be researched or in a book: if your old granny had a story about foxes you've never heard from anybody else, or your aunty believed something odd about foxes, tell me about it! :)

Comments

foxes

[rutemple.livejournal.com]

I'll second and vouch for that; there's a series of books by that name from a school project in the early 70s, doing oral histories in the Southern Apallachians:
http://www.foxfire.org/prodFFbooks.html


If you're listening to Sally Rogers this evening, Gwen, surely you're familiar with her rendition of Mister Fox. It's on her joint album with the inimitable Claudia Schmidt; While We Live.
Mister Fox
Author: John Pole
As sung by Sylvia Herold


Outside Mr. Fox's garden, three maids playing with a golden ball
Jenny threw it up and Susan caught it, Mary bounced it over the wall
The wall is high - Mr. Fox has a little red eye

In she ran to fetch it back again, the garden gate stood open wide
It silently closed and locked behind her. Mr. Fox stood just inside
The wall is high - his smile is cruel and his eyes are sly

He says, "I'll keep this golden ball, Miss Mary. I shall have it and here you will stay.
You will keep my house and be my servant, never stir out for a year and a day
The wall is high - the grasses shiver and the tall trees sigh

Spring and summer passed like shadows, she saw the green leaves fade and fall
She walked alone in the empty garden, Mr. Fox said nothing at all
The wall is high - never a soul came near nor by

But three strange things he did forbid her, "Never touch my iron box
Never go near the thirteenth bedroom, nor near the bed," said Mr. Fox
The wall is high - "Mary, don't you dare ask why."

Mary she rose up one morning, found an iron box on the shelf
But of all the rooms at Mr. Fox's, bedrooms there were only twelve
The wall is high - Mary, don't you peep and pry

One day Mr. Fox went walking - in that box she found a key
It fitted a door she'd never unfastened and when she opened it, what did she see?
The wall is high - the door said run and the key said fly

In Mr. Fox's thirteenth bedroom, a naked sword hung on the wall
In a silver bowl on the beds black counterpane, there she saw her golden ball
The wall is high - the bed said come and the sword said die

In she ran to snatch her ball again, to fetch it off that great black bed
Out jumped Mr. Fox and leapt at her, his teeth flashed white and his eyes burnt red
The wall is high.

Sally and Claudia add a final verse to bring it around:

Outside Mr. Fox's garden, three maids playing with a golden ball
Jenny threw it up and Susan caught it, Polly bounced it over the wall

Re: foxes

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have relatives in the Foxfire books, as they're basically about "my people". All my cousins always had copies of the whole set in their houses, because it was like a Who's Who for mountain country folk.

Re: foxes

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Fangirl SQUEEE!!!!

I adore those books :-) I've tried to get a full set in the UK, but it's either very difficult or very expensive and I seem to be permanently broke these days.

But still... SQUEEE!!!