The Wedding of Mrs Fox: First Story

There was once an old fox with nine tails who doubted his wife’s faithfulness. He decided to test her by stretching out under a bench, lying perfectly still and pretending to be dead.

Mrs Fox shut herself in her room to mourn. Her maid, Miss Cat, stayed by the kitchen fire, making warm beer with butter. Soon a young fox knocked at the door. After asking what Miss Cat was cooking, he asked whether he might court Mrs Fox.

The cat carried his message upstairs. Mrs Fox wanted to know one thing: did he have nine beautiful tails like her late husband? He had only one, so she told the cat to send him away.

Another fox arrived, this one with two tails. He was refused as well. More foxes came, each with one more tail than the last, but none suited Mrs Fox until a young fox with nine tails appeared.

When she heard about him, Mrs Fox told the cat to open the doors, carry old Mr Fox outside and prepare for the wedding. She still believed her husband was dead.

But just as the wedding was about to begin, old Mr Fox sprang from under the bench. He struck at the company with his cudgel and drove the guests and Mrs Fox out of the house.

About this story

The Grimms print two short stories under the title “The Wedding of Mrs Fox”; this is the first. Margaret Hunt numbers the pair 38 (in German, “Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin”). The text here is from Project Gutenberg’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales (#2591), based on the translations of Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.

In this version the suitors are all foxes, and the widow only cares how many tails they have. This retelling follows the first tale’s increasing number of fox tails and retains the violent interruption of the wedding. The animal suitors belong to the second tale.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #2591)

Reading guidance: older children with adult discussion. A husband fakes his death to test his wife, then attacks her and the wedding guests with a stick.

What does the test actually prove?

Mr Fox wants to learn how his wife behaves while believing him dead. Even a remarriage would not establish that she was unfaithful while she believed him alive. His trick produces a situation different from the one he claims to investigate, and his violent reaction does not resolve that flaw.

The tails supply a counting pattern: one, two, then upward to nine. Read the refusals aloud, leaving a pause for listeners to predict the next number. Afterward compare what Mr Fox knows with what Mrs Fox believes at the same moment.

Questions to ask

• Why did old Mr Fox pretend to be dead?
• Why do you think Mrs Fox only cared about how many tails each suitor had?
• What do you think Mr Fox and Mrs Fox said to each other after the wedding guests ran off?

Related stories

• The Wedding of Mrs Fox: Second Story — the second Grimm tale of Mrs Fox’s wedding, with a different set of suitors
• The Fox and the Horse — a Grimm fox who plays a clever trick on a sleepy lion
• Old Sultan — a Grimm animal tale full of plots, fake rescues and a surprise ending