It’s well established that wolves got a bum deal in the fairy-tale world (we’re looking at you, Big Bad Wolf), but if there’s one stereotyped anthropomorphic animal I always feel a little sorry for it’s the wolf’s close relative, the fox.

Cunning, sly, wily, sometimes cruel, sometimes charming (but ultimately to satisfy its own needs), the fox hasn’t got much love in the world of stories. Even Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox is a trickster but, admittedly, one whom we all root for.

We’ve featured many fox stories in Storytime and we have The Sly Fox as the star of our latest cover (with illustrations by the brilliant Louis D Wiyono). In this classic fairy tale, the fox becomes obsessed by the thought of the tasty little chicken who keeps outwitting him, so he sets out to catch her and eat her once and for all. There are variants of this story all over the world.

What we particularly love about it is the energetic manner in which the fox catches the chicken (high-speed tail whirling no less) and the smart way in which the hen gets her revenge – always carry scissors, thread and a needle, folks!

It’s likely that the wily fox figure so dominant in Western children’s literature has its roots not just in the fables of Aesop, but another foxy trickster called Reynard who first appeared in the Middle Ages, and starred in stories in France, Holland, Germany and England. Further east, there are numerous fox tricksters, including Kuma Lisa in Russia and Bulgaria and the wonderful Kitsune fox spirits of Japan.

We thought it would be fun have a look at some of our favourite Foxy Fairy Tales and fables to see just how many similarities there are. Schools or teachers who are looking at fox stories should find this round-up interesting (and subscribing schools can download our free Sly Fox resource pack – find out more here.)

Fabulous Foxy Fairy Tales

1. Greedy Foxes

Like foxes in real life, scavenging for survival, the greedy or hungry fox features heavily in the literary world. Perhaps the first greedy fox that most children meet is the one who finishes off that edible rebel, The Gingerbread Man, who featured in Storytime Issue 2. Having charmed the little fellow into crossing the river on his back, the fox proceeds to scoff him bit by soggy bit. Another fantastic charmer appears in the fable The Fox and the Crow in Storytime Issue 5. This time, he flatters an attention-starved crow into dropping a tasty morsel of cheese. Finally, in our Storytime Issue 15 fable, The Greedy Fox, a fox’s eyes are bigger than its belly. This fox pays for its greed, but lives to feast another day. 2. Sly Foxes
As well as The Sly Fox in our latest edition of Storytime, there’s also the opportunistic fox that appears at the end of Henny Penny in Storytime Issue 19. (This story is also known as Chicken Licken and Chicken Little.) The fox craftily lures Henny and her trail of feathered friends into its den, promising that it’s a shortcut to the Queen’s house! In many versions of the story, fox and family gobble most of them up. In our version, he wasn’t successful and the bird brains get away. The fox in our Storytime Issue 30 fable, The Goat and the Fox, is another cunning creature, tricking an unwitting goat into jumping down a well with him, so he can use the goat as a means of escape.

3. Outfoxed Foxes

Brer Fox traditionally plays the antagonist in the Brer Rabbit stories and, though he tries to be smart, he invariably gets outwitted by the cantankerous bunny. He certainly does in our Storytime Issue 19 story, when Brer Rabbit decimates his vegetable garden. In Storytime Issue 25, our fable The Fox and the Cat also demonstrates that foxes don’t always win. On this occasion, the fox who boasts about his intelligence is made to look a fool by a cat. And in another fable, The Fox and the Grapes (which we’ve yet to feature), after much effort, a fox is forced to give up on a tasty snack of grapes, claiming that he didn’t want them anyway. Cognitive dissonance replaces cunning.

Okay, so that’s a lot of sly or greedy foxes. A skulk you could say (probably my favourite of the collective nouns for foxes). We tried to redress the balance a bit with the gorgeous fairy tale The Fantastic Fox in Storytime Issue 23, in which the fox is actually the wise sidekick and facilitator of the main protagonist’s success, but it’s probably about time we included a story where the fox character fits none of the usual stereotypes, isn’t it? We’ll see what we can do about that.

What are your favourite foxes in literature? Picture books and novels too? Let us know via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. We always love to hear from you.

Wishing you a wily week!

(Storytime Ed.)

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