Reading Notes: Marriage Tales, Part A

Alaska Red Fox by Gregory Smith. Web source: Wikimedia commons. 

The Fox-Woman

Hunter- he lives by himself and has been away from his home for a long time. When he finally comes back, he finds that everything is nice and orderly. He thinks that this is how a dutiful wife would take care of her home. I don't get why a clean home is necessarily associated with a wife, but anyway.

So he decides that he is going to leave his house. Except, he does leave. He decides to hide out in order to find out who has been cleaning his house. THE NERVE!

The Hunter waits and waits outside of his house. He finally sees a fox goes into his home, for what he assumes is to scavenge for food. When the Hunter sneaks back into into the house, he sees...a beautiful woman? And a fox skin hanging up??

The woman says that she is his wife...which is pretty strange. The two live together until one day when the Fox-Woman started producing an odor. She then puts back on her fox suit and leaves. 

My thoughts: 

The plot of this story really interested me. I think that if I were to rewrite it, I would definitely create a gender-bent version. It would be kind of cool to have a male character in a more domestic role. 

Bibliography: 

The Fox-Woman from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929). Web source: The UN-Textbook.