The Cat and the Fox

Russia · Episode 1 · Russian folk tale

Tonight, the caravan stops in Russia.

A scruffy old tomcat tells a young fox that he is the new Head Forester, and she takes him for a very important beast.

About the tale

Alexander Afanasyev printed four versions of this tale in his “Russian Folk Tales” (first published 1855–1863; Nos. 40–43 in the standard modern edition), one of them recorded in the Vologda province. Folklorists count 30 Russian, 26 Ukrainian and 9 Belarusian versions, and similar tales are told by Finns, Lithuanians, Germans, Serbs, Greeks and Turks.

A Russian folk tale, retold from “The Cat who became Head-Forester” in Arthur Ransome’s “Old Peter’s Russian Tales” (1916).

Language of the video: English

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A grey tabby cat, hero of “The Cat and the Fox”