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Foxes in popular culture

The fox appears in the folklore of many cultures, but especially European and East Asian, as a figure of cunning, trickery, or as a familiar animal possessed of magic powers, and sometimes associated with transformation. Literature, film, television, games, music, and other forms of cultural expression may reflect the folklore image and reputation.

The term in English ("having the qualities of a fox") can also connote attractiveness, sexiness, or being red-haired. The term "to " means "to beat in a competition of wits", similarly to "outguess", "outsmart", and "outwit".

In folklore and wisdom

Africa

In Dogon mythology, the fox is reported to be either the trickster god of the desert, who embodies chaos or a messenger for the gods.

There is a Tswana riddle that says that "Phokoje go tsela o dithetsenya [Only the muddy fox lives] meaning that, in a philosophical sense, 'only an active person who does not mind getting muddy gets to progress in life.'

Europe

Kuma Lisa is a female fox from Bulgarian folklore and Russian folklore who usually plays the role of the trickster. Kuma Lisa is encountered with another character known as Kumcho Vulcho – a wolf which is opposite to her and very often suffers from her tricks. Veronika Makarova writes that in Western European folklore, words relating to foxes, such as French "renard", have a masculine grammatical gender, which is why Western European foxes are usually depicted as male foxes, but the word лисa (lisa) in Russian has a feminine grammatical gender, which is why nearly all depictions of foxes in Russian folklore are female.

In Scotland, the trickster figure of the fox (or tod in traditional Scots) was represented as Lowrence, as in the Morall Fabillis of Robert Henryson.

In Finnish mythology, the fox is usually depicted as a cunning trickster, but seldom evil. The fox, while weaker, in the end outsmarts both the evil and voracious wolf and the strong but not-so-cunning bear. It symbolizes the victory of intelligence over both malevolence and brute strength. In Northern Finland, the fox is said to conjure the aurora borealis while it runs through the snowy hills. When the fox’s fur touches the snow it creates magical sparks and sets the sky ablaze. Still today, the Finnish word for the aurora is "revontulet" which literally translates to "fox-fires".

An Occitan song dating from the Middle Ages, Ai Vis lo Lop, features a wolf (lo lop), a fox (lo rainard) and a hare (lebre) dancing and circling a tree. It has been suggested that the three animals represent the King, Lord and Church who were responsible for taxation (the lyrics go on to refer to money gained over the year and how nothing was left after seeing 'the wolf, the fox and the hare').

In Europe, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, foxes, which were associated with wiliness and fraudulent behavior, were sometimes burned as symbols of the Devil. In the medieval cycle of Reynard the Fox, he is a trickster interacting with other anthropomorphic animals in a satire of medieval society.

In ancient Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox was a giantic fox destined to never be caught. When the hound Laelaps, who was destined to catch anything he hunted, tried to catch the Temessian fox, Zeus was forced to transform them both into the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor to solve the paradox.

Middle East

In early Mesopotamian mythology, the fox is one of the sacred animals of the goddess Ninhursag. The fox acts as her messenger.

The Bible's Song of Solomon (2:15) includes a well-known verse "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom" which had been given many interpretations over the centuries by Jewish and Christian Bible commentators.

To the Jewish sage Matteya ben Heresh, of the 2nd century CE, is attributed the maxim: "Meet each man with friendly greeting; be the tail among lions rather than the head among foxes". "The head among foxes" in this context is similar to the English expression "A big fish in a small pond". "Fox fables" are attributed to Rabbi Meir and Johanan ben Zakai, and appeared in a compilation under that name by Berechiah ha-Nakdan; the term in fact refers also to fables featuring animals other than foxes.

East Asia

In Classic of Mountains and Seas (edited by Liu Xiang in Han Dynasty and probably composed by people before Qin Dynasty), foxes eat people, and predict war. In Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese folklores, foxes (huli jing in China, kitsune in Japan, kumiho in Korea, and hồ ly tinh in Vietnam) are powerful spirits that are known for their highly mischievous and cunning nature, and they often take on the form of female humans to seduce men. In contemporary Chinese, the word huli jing is often used to describe a mistress negatively in an extramarital affair. In ancient Korean tales, fox spirits are portrayed as anti-deities that threaten the deity-dragons. In Shinto of Japan, kitsune sometimes help people as an errand of their deity, Inari.

Americas

The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the fox in their art. The Moche people believed the fox to be a warrior that would use his mind to fight. The fox would not ever use physical attack, only mental.

In the Uncle Remus collection of 19th-century African-American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, "Br'er Fox" is a major character, often acting as the antagonist towards the stories' main character, "Br'er Rabbit".

Vladimir Bogoraz wrote down a creation myth he allegedly heard from the Chukchi people, in which the yellow fox attempts to deceive the Creator of the world for food, but fails, and the arctic fox is cowardly.

In language

As an epithet

The Medieval Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard was nicknamed "Robert the Fox" as well as the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily – underlining the identification of such qualities with foxes.

During the American Revolution Continental Army Officer Francis Marion became so adept at attacking and ambushing British forces in the swamps of South Carolina that he became known as the "Swamp Fox".

During World War II, the German commander in North Africa, Erwin Rommel, was grudgingly nicknamed the "Desert Fox" by his British adversaries, as a tribute to his cunning and skill in operational art.

The Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) in his Trattato di Sociologia Generale (1916) developed the concept of an elite social class, which he divided into cunning 'foxes' and violent 'lions'. In his view of society, the power constantly passes from the 'foxes' to the 'lions' and vice versa.

Figures of speech

The words fox and foxy have become slang in English-speaking societies for an individual (most often female) with sex appeal. The word vixen, which is normally the common name for a female fox, is also used to describe an attractive woman—although, in the case of humans, "vixen" tends to imply that the woman in question has a few nasty qualities.

The word shenanigan (a deceitful confidence trick, or mischief) is considered to be derived from the Irish expression sionnachuighim, meaning "I play the fox."

Literature

(in chronological order)
  • 1847 – Jeon Woo-chi Story.:The protagonist, Woo-chi, and the golden nine-tailed fox are tricksters who deceive each other. Many motifs from modern Korean kumiho culture appear.
  • 1881–1883 – The Fox and the Cat () are a pair of fictional characters who appear in Carlo Collodi's book The Adventures of Pinocchio. Both are con-men who lead Pinocchio astray and unsuccessfully attempt to murder him. They pretend to have disabilities – the Fox to lameness and the Cat to blindness. The Fox is the more articulate, the Cat usually limiting itself to repeating the Fox's words.
  • 1894 – "Scrapefoot". A tale with a fox as antagonist that bears striking similarities to Robert Southey's "The Story of the Three Bears" was uncovered by the folklorist Joseph Jacobs and may predate Southey's version in the oral tradition. Some sources state that it was illustrator John D. Batten who in 1894 reported a variant of the tale at least 40 years old. In this version, the three bears live in a castle in the woods and are visited by a fox called Scrapefoot who drinks their milk, sits in their chairs, and rests in their beds.
  • 1905? – Ernest Thompson Seton, The Biography of a Silver-Fox, Or, Domino Reynard of Goldur Town: Realistic story with author's drawing, later made into a feature film.
  • 1909 – L. Frank Baum, The Road to Oz: Fox king Dox of Foxville changes a boy's head into fox's.
  • 1920 – Rudolf Těsnohlídek, LiÅ¡ka BystrouÅ¡ka (Vixen Sharpears or The Cunning Little Vixen).
  • 1922 – David Garnett, Lady into Fox is about transformation into animal, first physical then mental.
  • 1924 – Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle's Circus – Doctor Dolittle, the animals' friend, hides the vixen Nightshade and her cubs in his jacket, to save them from fox hunters.
  • 1932 – Niimi Nankichi, Gon, the Little Fox: The fox was misunderstood, and it was shot. The moral of result of revenge.
  • 1938 – B.B., Wild Lone: The Story of a Pytchley Fox: A novel about a fox's life in Northamptonshire, the home of the Pytchley Hunt.
  • 1943 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince: A fox indicates the true value of friendship.
  • 1953 – Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox.
  • 1957 – Ted Hughes, The Thought-Fox: A poem featured in Hughes's The Hawk in the Rain.
  • 1960 – Vercors, Sylva, inspired by David Garnett where a fox changes into a lady.
  • 1965 – István Fekete Vuk, about life of abandoned fox and his revenge on a hunter. Also made into an animated film.
  • 1967 – Daniel P. Mannix, The Fox and the Hound stars a fox named Tod as one of the two protagonists. Made into an animated film by Disney.
  • 1976 – John Crowley, Beasts features a genetically engineered half-human-half-fox named Reynard as one of the main characters.
  • 1977 – Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs has a protagonist named "The Tod" who helps out Snitter and Rowf along in their adventures.
  • 1986–2011 – Brian Jacques, Redwall series: Fox characters include Fortunata, Sela, Chickenhound/Slagar, Urgan Nagru, Silvamord, Nightshade, Vizka Longtooth, and Rasconza. An animated television series based on three of the books was also produced.
  • 1989 – Garry Kilworth, Hunter's Moon: The life and tragedies of a fox family which describes foxes' own mythology.
  • 1989 – William Wharton, Franky Furbo: A magical fox rescues an American soldier and then journeys in search for proof of the unusual story.
  • 1994 – Gillian Rubinstein, Foxspell, in which a fox's god propose that a young boy become a fox in favor to proper burial of dead fox's body.
  • 1995 – Lajos Parti Nagy, Fox Affair at Sunset (lit. "Fox Object at Sunset"), a postmodern death poem with nostalgic irony.
  • 1998 – Elizabeth Hand, Last Summer at Mars Hills: An Indian boy has magical amulet which allows him change into a fox.
  • 1999 – Kij Johnson, The Fox Woman, in which one of the protagonists is a fox woman named Kitsune.
  • 2001 and 2003 – Mordicai Gerstein, Fox Eyes and Old Country, in which anyone can switch bodies with fox if he looks into their eyes long enough.
  • 2002 – N. M. Browne, Hunted: A comatose girl wakes up in a fox's body in a fantasy world.
  • 2005 – Victor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of Werewolf: The kitsune A-huli searches for a path to Nirvana for were-creatures.

Children's books

Film and television

Animation

  • 1937 – Ladislas Starevich's puppet-animated feature film, Le Roman de Renard ("The Tale of the Fox").
  • 1940 – Disney's Pinocchio: J. Worthington Foulfellow (also known as Honest John, and ironically is extremely dishonest).
  • 1941–1950 – Screen Gems The Fox and the Crow: Fauntleroy Fox, one of the principal characters of the animated film series.
  • 1946 – Disney's Song of the South: Brer Fox.
  • 1960 – Hanna Barbera's Yogi Bear series had short cartoons, Yakky Doodle, in which the duckling is pursued by Fibber Fox.
  • 1964 – The Irish-accented fox from the animated interlude in Disney's Mary Poppins
  • 1972 – Ralph Bakshi's 1972 film Fritz the Cat: Winston Schwartz, the on-and-off-again girlfriend of Fritz.
  • 1973 – Disney's Robin Hood: Robin Hood and Maid Marian
  • 1973 – Zuiyo Eizo episodes Fables of the Green Forest based on a book The Green Forest.
  • 1980s – The World of David the Gnome, animated show, Swift
  • 1980s – Lis Leon, Polish animated show
  • 1981 – Disney's The Fox and the Hound: Tod and Vixey;
  • 1981 – Attila Dargay's Vuk, a young fox who is one of the most famous Hungarian cartoon characters.
  • 1982 – The Plague Dogs, based on the book.
  • 1985 – A French animated series, '.
  • 1986 – Hospital Radio's The Space Gypsy Adventures: D.C. Bones, D.C. Fusky, Gemma and Damien Mildury (animated).
  • 1986 – Dutch TV series The Bluffers: Sharpy, one of the main protagonists.
  • 1987 – Sunbow Productions' serial ': Ectar of the possessed the totem of the fox.
  • 1987 – The Little Troll Prince Towards the climax of the special a fox chases Bu's Brothers, Borch and Prag, and their friends, Stav and Ribo back up the mountain to the Troll Kingdom.
  • 1987 – Sylvanian Families: The members of the Slydale Family are Slick, Velvette, Buster, Scarlett, Skitter and Lindy from the animated TV series.
  • 1987 – Maple Town: The members of the Fox Family are Fanny, Freddy, Mr. and Mrs. Fox from the animated series.
  • 1990 – Disney's TaleSpin: several fox characters appear in the series, such as Katie Dodd, Myra Foxworthy, Muffy Vanderschmear and Buffy Vanderschmear.
  • 1990–1991 – Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (Samurai Pizza Cats): whose main antagonist Kitsunezuka Ko'on-no-Kami a prime minister in Edoropolis (in the Saban English version, he's known as Seymour "The Big" Cheese, and is a rat instead).
  • 1991 – Don Bluth's Rock-a-Doodle, based on Chantecler by Edmond Rostand, a tale about a rooster; one of antagonists of the story is a fat fox named Pinky.
  • 1991 – TV series Bucky O'Hare: Vixen Captain Mimi LaFloo; based on 1970s comics.
  • 1992/2006 – Operation Lifesaver Video Sly Fox and Birdie teaches kids about railroad safety.
  • 1993–1996 – The Animals of Farthing Wood TV series and movie: Fox and his mate Vixen.
  • 1993, 1996 and 2007 – Flemming Quist Møller's Danish animated films Jungledyret Hugo: Rita, an urban fox.
  • 1993 – Tezuka's Akuemon: Anime based on Japanese folk tale about fox-wife.
  • 1993 – Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: A TV series based on the characters Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Doctor Robotnik.
  • 1994 – Pom Poko: Ryutaro, a transforming fox (kitsune), and other transforming foxes.
  • 1996, 1997 - Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist: Fagin, an old fox who is the leader of the fellowship.
  • 1997 – Tezuka's In the Beginning: The Bible Stories: Vixy, a vixen narrator.
  • 1997-1998 Patrol 03 "Carmen"
  • 1999 – Cosgrove Hall's The Foxbusters: Cartoon series based on Dick King Smith's novel about a group of chickens defending their farm against a gang of foxes.
  • 1999–2001 – Pablo the Little Red Fox: A BBC series that revolves around the adventures of three child foxes and the misadventures they have.
  • 1999–2001 – Nelvana's Redwall series, based on the book.
  • 2000–2019 – Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer – Swiper the Fox, mischievous thief fox.
  • 2002 – ', sequel to 1995's Balto, featuring a cunning fox fooling Balto while the latter searches for his daughter. The fox was voiced by Mary Kay Bergman, in one of her final voice roles before her death in 1999.
  • 2003 – ', features an evil and villainous red fox called Farley who is the most evil Charlotte's Web character.
  • 2003–2006 – Sonic X is a TV series which focused on Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and all of their friends being teleported to the real world.
  • 2005 – A Thierry Schiel CGI film Le Roman de Renart ("Renart the Fox").
  • 2005 – Foxy Loxy from Disney's 2005 film Chicken Little.
  • 2006 – The Fox and the Hound 2, followup to the animated film The Fox and the Hound
  • 2007 – Lee Sung-gang's South Korean animated film Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox: Yobi, a young kumiho girl.
  • 2007 – TV series Skunk Fu!: Fox, on whom Rabbit has a big crush.
  • 2009 – Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book.
  • 2010 – My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox is a South Korean romantic comedy where a young girl plays a nine-tailed fox in the form of a human.
  • 2010 – Popy from CGI animation series Oscar's Oasis.
  • 2011 – Angelique from the CGI film Rango.
  • 2011-2017 - Little Redwood Fox from the SLR series Guess How Much I Love You based on Sam McBratney’s book.
  • 2015 – Ge Shuiying's CGI film Agent F.O.X.: Agent F.O.X., a super spy fox
  • 2015 – Yoyotoki HappyEars from the animated series Yoyotoki HappyEars
  • 2016 – Disney's animated film Zootopia (also known as Zootropolis in some countries) features three fox characters: Nick Wilde, one of the main protagonists, as well as Gideon Grey and Finnick, two supporting characters. Wilde and Finnick also appeared in the 2025 sequel Zootopia 2.
  • 2016 – Vix from the CGI film Spark: A Space Tail.
  • 2016 – Darma from the animated film Rock Dog.
  • 2017 – The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales.... The fox takes some eggs from a hen, but then becomes a mother figure to the chicks.
  • 2018–2020 – 101 Dalmatian Street features Fergus Fox who is recurring character in the show.
  • 2018–2020 – Unikitty! features Dr. Fox, who is the castle's resident scientist whose experiments and inventions can both create and resolve problems.
  • 2018-2019 - Becca's Bunch - Sylvia
  • 2019–2020 – ' features Rufus, a sly and cunning fox who swindles the Sweetypies of Pure Heart Valley.
  • 2019 – Swifty and Jade from the animated film Arctic Dogs.
  • 2019 - 2020 - Envie Fernandez - Kingdom Force
  • 2020 – "Tale of the Nine Tailed" features a nine-tailed fox that abdicates his position as the guardian mountain spirit of Baekdudaegan to search for the reincarnation of his one true love. Season 2 is currently under production and is expected to be released in 2023.
  • 2022 – Diane Foxington from The Bad Guys and the 2025 sequel The Bad Guys 2. Foxington also appears as a playable character in the 2023 crossover kart-racing video game DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing.
  • 2022 – The Creature Cases features Kit Casey, a yellow kit fox
  • 2022 - Tails the Fox from Sonic The Hedgehog 2
  • 2023-present - Candle Fox from Kiff
  • 2024 – Zhen, (voiced by Awkwafina) a Corsac Fox and the new Dragon Warrior from Kung Fu Panda 4
  • 2024-present – The TV series Carl the Collector features Lotta Fox, who is autistic.
  • 2025 - Pepe Zorrillo, mascot of the Real Valladolid soccer team (named in clear allusion to José Zorrilla, a poet which gives its name to the stadium), from Toledo: The Film.

Anime

Feature film

  • 1973 – Ukrainian movie director Igor Negrescul's Domino: A Life of a Silver Fox.
  • 1990 – Akira Kurosawa's Dreams: A boy goes to the forest to see where the foxes have their weddings.
  • 1994 – Russian director Ury Klimov's Once Lives a Fox: Story of a fox escaped from the zoo.
  • 2005 – Andrew Adamson's ': Mr. Fox, voiced by Rupert Everett, which is turned to stone by the White Witch.
  • 2006 – Helen the Baby Fox Seven-year-old Taichi found a baby fox named "Helen".
  • 2007 – The Fox and the Child, directed by Luc Jacquet, is about a young girl who befriends a fox.
  • 2009 – Antichrist directed by Lars von Trier has a possibly supernatural fox appearing throughout the film.
  • 2021 – The Green Knight: A fox follows Gawain and warns him to abandon his quest.
  • 2022 – ': a WW2 German soldier adopts and raises a baby fox.
  • 2022 – Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Miles "Tails" Prower, a young fox boy with two tails and the ability of flight, accompanies Sonic the Hedgehog in the sequel to his 2020 film, Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • 2024 – Kung Fu Panda 4: Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), a female Corsac Fox, who is the New Dragon Warrior.

Music

Popular music

Folk music

  • "The Fox" – 15th century folk song about the animal that has been adapted and recorded by many performers.
  • Mr. Fox – 1970s folk rock band
  • June Tabor – Reynard the Fox

Other media

Video games

Comics and visual novels

Web-comics

Webshows

Card games

  • In the trading card game ', Eight-and-a-Half-Tails is a legendary fox monk of great power and purity.

Performance arts and opera

Other

Heraldry

Sports

Ships

Sixteen ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Fox, after the animal. Also vessels of other navies and civilian ships bore such a name.

References

Further reading

  • Johnson, T. W. "Far Eastern Fox Lore." Asian Folklore Studies 33, no. 1 (1974): 35–68. Accessed 1 July 2020. doi:10.2307/1177503.
  • Krappe, Alexander H. "Far Eastern Fox Lore." California Folklore Quarterly 3, no. 2 (1944): 124–47. Accessed 1 July 2020. doi:10.2307/1495763.
  • Van Deusen, Kira. "The Fox-Wife." In Kiviuq: An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins, 234–57. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009. Accessed 1 July 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt813zv.16.
  • Ting, Nai-tung. "A Comparative Study of Three Chinese and North-American Indian Folktale Types." Asian Folklore Studies 44, no. 1 (1985): 41–43. Accessed 1 July 2020. doi:10.2307/1177982.

External links