Mr. Fox

This first folktale has French, German, and English variations, but an early, early reference can actually be traced to Act 1, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: “Like the old tale, my lord: it is not so, not ‘t was not so; but indeed, God forbid it should be so.” In 1697, Charles Perrault wrote and published a tale of an enigmatic nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives, and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. Like all good fairy and folktales, it would morph and change and travel to other cultures where it then appeared in this structure as “The Robber Bridegroom” in a collection of fairytales by the Brothers Grimm. Later, in 1890, Joseph Jacobs’ collection of English Fairy Tales would include this frightening folktale. To learn more about Donna Washington visit www.dlwstoryteller.com