11/09/2026
We passed this curious little creature on a walk today. She wasn't too bothered by us, seemingly preoccupied with her own foxy affairs.
After snapping a quick picture of her from across the road, we found ourselves wondering about fox folklore. We don't have much in our files, probably from a lack of looking rather than a lack of it existing, but we did turn up a story from Charlotte Latham, often called the 'godmother' of English folklore studies, and West Sussex has a strong claim on her. She was born in Ashington, West Sussex, and lived most of her adult life in Fittleworth, near Petworth.
Her method was straightforward: she wrote down what the people around her said and did, and, where she could, who said it. The result was 'Some West Sussex Superstitions Lingering in 1868', a list of around 195 items, published a decade later, in 1878, in the first volume of The Folk-Lore Record, which also makes it the founding paper of what became the Folklore Society.
The fox belief is listed in her book, but without a named source or an explanation. It seems to be a very specific, slightly absurd act of mental discipline: avoiding a particular thought at a particular moment.
Now that we've heard the belief, we might actually struggle not to think of a fox tail while cutting our nails on a Monday (despite never having thought of one at that particular moment before 😂)
We also found a vague mention of foxes being associated with witches, though witches seem to have had a whole menagerie of animal associates, conveniently the ones people found mysterious or bothersome.
What fox folklore have you heard? Are there any other rabbit holes...ahem, fox holes...we should investigate next?
🏷️
