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Gyokuyoutama

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Gyokuyoutama last won the day on November 19

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  1. In "The Marriage of Mrs. Fox" (Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin) Mrs. Fox's husband has nine tails and is quite proud of this fact.  You can see this in this Brothers Grimm cartoon from way back:

     

     

    I guess this is technically an anime even though I think it was primarily made for European audiences.  But the detail appears in the original fairy tale, as the very first line goes: "Es war einmal ein alter Fuchs mit neun Schwänzen" i.e. "there once was an old fox with nine tails."

     

    Anyway, this is literally the only time I've seen references to foxes having multiple tails in a western, non-influenced by Japan work.  The fact that there are nine tails specifically is stranger still, as just having multiple would be enough for the story to work.

     

    The story is basically about worrying about getting cucked and faking his death to see what happens only for his wife to be faithful to him... until she finds another fox with nine tails and then immediately decides to marry him.  The story could have had Mr. Fox get beat out with the new suitor having ten tails, but it stops at nine, like that's the max.

     

    Anyway, I'm posting this for two reasons.  One is just I thought it was an interesting tidbit.  Second, I'm curious if anyone has encountered any western stories with foxes having multiple tails, discounting stuff influenced by anime.  The closest thing I can think of outside of this is when Samson burns down a vineyard by tying pairs of foxes together by their tails.

    1. A 1970 Corvette

      A 1970 Corvette

      Maybe western stories preferred to give their mythical creatures more heads instead of more tails. Personally I see many heads as a downgrade over many tails for several obvious reasons, but unfortunately I can't take up these issues with the makers of myth since they're (probably) long dead.

       

      As an aside this entire discussion made me think of the Magic card Foxfire, which has really nice art.

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