The Vixen

[bnewman]

This song borrows the tune of Graham Pratt's pro-fox, anti-hunting ballad "The Black Fox" (popularized in the filk community by Heather Dale) to tell a different pro-fox, anti-hunting story — in this case, an original fairy tale. What I love about the way this song came together is that the story is original, but you can see its lineage — Pixar's Brave, Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers, Earthsea, and even the much-bememed legend about turning a werewolf human by calling it by name.

It's fair to ask if the ending here is earned, I'll merely point out that I have followed the fairy-tale rules by making sure that everyone's boasts, warnings, and foolish oaths are exactly fulfilled.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "The Black Fox" by Graham Pratt

 

listen to this song

/ A5 - / - G / A5 CGA5- / FG A5 /

 

The Earl rode back from hunting

Empty-handed to the feast

And he said unto the company

Oh, the fox is a clever beast!

 

Up stood the Earl's fair daughter

And she flicked her plaited locks

If I cannot wed the man I love

Then I'd rather be a fox

 

But if thou shalt be a vixen

Then how shall I thee know?

And by what sign shall the hunters see

Thou'rt thee, to let thee go?

 

Oh, they'll know me by my bearing

And they'll know me by my pride!

And I'll go now to my lover's bower

As quick as I may ride

 

And she's rode unto the greenwood

And she's met her lover there

A fairy knight with the eyes of a fox

And a tuft of auburn hair

 

And he's embraced her fondly

And they've plighted there their troth

And he's told her of a fox's ways

And the folly of her oath

 

If thou wouldst be a vixen

I may teach thee the spell

But a change of shape is no mere jest

So heed my words full well:

 

Remember thou art human!

Forget not thy true name!

Or thou shalt be thyself no more

And I shall bear the blame

 

And she's turned into a vixen

Just as her lover said

With clever eyes and nose and tail

And fur of auburn red

 

And they've run about the greenwood

The way that foxes do

And he's chased her and she's chased him

And such joy she never knew

 

And they've slept in his den together

Both weary from their sport

And the very next day the hunt rode out

Again from her father's court

 

They heard the horns a-blowing

As the hounds and the hunters came

But she had been a fox too long

And forgot her own true name

 

They bolted forth together

And her heart began to race

And they ran before her father's hounds

And led them such a chase

 

And when the hunters caught them

Two foxes brought to bay

The vixen stood to defend her mate

But no human word could say

 

And so the Earl saw only

A vixen standing there

But she flicked her tail in the very same way

That his daughter flicked her hair

 

'Twas then he knew his daughter

He called her by her name

And she stood no more in the shape of a fox

But human she became

 

The hunters were astonished

At length her father said:

As thou hast stood to defend thy love

How shall ye not be wed?

 

And as I have thee hunted

It wounds my heart full sore

And I shall not a-hunting go

In the greenwood ever more