Celtic Fox Art & Symbolism

28/4/2020

Beautiful Celtic Fox art prints, home decor and accessories... nature, myth, folklore, wild animals - Celtic fox meaning and symbolism...

Celtic Fox artwork by Lotti Brown

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Do you love a handsome fox? What personality do you associate with the fox?

The clever fox is a very popular wild animal and a well-loved country-dweller and now also a town-dweller that’s always lovely for us to see with her rich red fur...

The fox has always been a special animal to us, appearing in countless folk tales and known to be part of our lives for thousands of years...

Our Earliest Relationships with Foxes

Foxes feature in hunting scenes in the Camonica Valley Neolithic rock art in Italy - and Iron Age ritual burials in France and England contain foxes, showing that foxes have had some sort of sacred importance in our lives for thousands of years.

It is thought that foxes may have been sacrificed at Iron Age ritual sites including Aulnay-aux-Planches (France), Winklebury (Hampshire), Digeon (Somme), Mirebeau and Ribemont (Iron Age Gaul).

The Iron Age ‘bog body' Lindow Man who it’s thought may have been a Druid, was found with a fox-fur armlet, so that we know that foxes were important in the sacred and practical life of our human society even 2,000 years ago.

The Celtic fox is seen as a symbol of diplomacy – knowing when to appear and make his point, but also, equally, knowing when to recede back into the shadows and quietly disappear – highly-respected qualities for a diplomatic leader!

The Celtic chieftain of Gaul, Louernicus, was known as the ‘Son of the Fox’ – the name has also been discovered on third and fourth century items in the UK.

The tenth century Scottish king, Ua Leochann, was called ‘An Sionnach’ (The Fox) for his diplomacy skills.

Starting my fox drawing in pencil

Another Celtic Fox and Brigid of Ireland

In the Celtic tale, ‘Brigid and the Fox’, Brigid of Ireland was known to be able to talk with the animals. Brigid went to intercede with the King of Leinster who was preparing to take the life of the man who had accidentally killed his pet fox.

Brigid brought the king a little fox and made the fox do tricks to make the king happy. She offered the king the fox in exchange for the unfortunate prisoner’s life and the king took the fox to be his new pet.

But the fox became unhappy living in the king’s castle without Brigid and he escaped back to the woods. The king’s men searched far and wide but the little fox could not be found again...

The fox is always a wild creature – and can only be truly ‘tamed’ by Brigid.

Drawing my fox in black fineliner drawing pen

Foxes are certainly seen as belonging to forests and the wild and in their self-sufficient nature, we see how the tales of their intelligence, adaptability and cunning have grown up around them…

The Clever Folktale Fox

Many folk tales feature the fox playing tricks on other animals, such as running around a chicken until the chicken gets dizzy and falls down, or burying itself in the earth to surprise the crows who come to eat him!

In a tale from Aesop’s Fables, ‘The Fox and the Crow’, a crow is eating a piece of cheese on a branch. The fox calls out to the crow, flattering it and wondering whether the crow’s voice is as beautiful as the crow itself…

The crow opens its mouth to caw, the cheese falls out and the fox eats the cheese!

The fable is seen as a tale of caution against listening too earnestly to flatterers – something we would all be wise to heed! In later versions of the tale, the fox is punished for this false flattery.

In a Germanic folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, ‘The Wolf and the Fox’, the fox and the wolf live together but the wolf makes the fox do all the work…

In the end, the fox and the wolf go to steal meat together in a farmer’s cellar. The fox keeps an eye on his escape route but the wolf just eats greedily.

When the farmer comes, the wolf has eaten too much to escape – but the fox is able to run away and live without the wolf – the fox’s wily intelligence saves the day!

Adding colour to my fox drawing with Promarkers

In Finnish folk tales, the fox is seen as a trickster where intelligence outwits both strength and evil intent.

Whilst in Bulgarian and Russian folk tales, the fox is known as Kuma Lisa, a she-fox trickster.

In Siberia, the fox is sometimes shown as a black fox – seen as a messenger from the world of death…

Whilst in Breton folk tales, a white fox often represents the soul of the dearly departed.

The trickster cunning of the fox is a common theme in folklore – but the word ‘cunning’ comes from the same root as the Old English word ‘ken’ meaning ‘to know’ – an air of wisdom, intelligence, or ‘knowingness’ about the fox which I think we can all agree we can surely see in the fox’s handsome face and those expressive eyes.

Sometimes the tricks get the better of the wily fox. There are a series of folk tales, including stories of ‘The Fox and the Cat’ from Aesop’s Fables and the Brothers Grimm, ‘The Seven-Witted Fox and the One-Witted Owl’ from Romania, ‘The Fox and the Bagful of Wits and the One-Witted Hedgehog’ (Romania), and ‘The Fox and the Hedgehog’ from both South Slavonic and Greek tales…

In all these stories, the theme centres on the fox holding many tricks and wiles in his repertoire, with the other animals having very few or perhaps just one. But in a situation of real danger, it’s the fox that now comes off worse!

According to Aesop, the moral of the tale is:
“One sure trick is better than a hundred slippery ones”

And:
“One safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon.”

French fable collector Jean de la Fontaine advises:
“Avoid too many schemes; there ruin lies,
For while we choose, the happy moment flies,
Have but one plan and let that plan be wise!”

D. L. Ashliman

Wise advice for the clever fox, indeed!

Fox drawing with markers and coloured fineliner pens

I complete my fox drawing with fineliner pen

The Lucky Fox

The fox is thought to be lucky – it used to be viewed as a lucky charm to have a fox’s tail (not so much for the fox!)...

And in Wales, seeing one fox was seen as lucky – but more than one would bring bad luck.

Some traditions say that a fox carried a magic pearl that would bring you luck if you found it.

Foxes were also sometimes seen as shape-shifting witches – often viewed as unlucky.

The Floral Fox

Bluebells and foxgloves are traditionally associated with foxes.

Folklore says that fox cubs would wear foxglove flowers to keep their little paws warm – did you ever hear anything so cute?

It is said that foxes were given bluebells by God after they complained that they were being hunted for their tails…

God created the little blue bells in the woodlands, which would ring when hunters came near.

Bluebells were called ‘Fox Bells’ in many parts of the UK until relatively recently.

Celtic fox artwork created digitally in Adobe Illustrator

On-screen photo - My drawings are scanned into the computer together with my Celtic knotwork drawings and I use Adobe Illustrator to create the artwork

Working on the artwork digitally to amend colours and add the background

On-screen photo - I work digitally to amend the colours and add a background made of hand-painted fabric

The completed Celtic fox artwork

Wisdom of the Celtic Fox - Celtic Fox Meaning & Symbolism

In spite of (or perhaps because of) their clever tricks, we certainly have a lot of affection for the clever fox…

Celtic fox meaning - the fox represents intelligence, adaptability, fast thinking, a sense of humour and the capacity to learn from mistakes, the ability to observe and remain unobserved…

Above all, I think it’s for her survival skills that we most admire the fox!

In Finland, the northern lights are called ‘revontulet’ – ‘fox fires’ – or ‘The Light of the Fox’ – such a beautiful image of our fox to leave us with…

The lithe and graceful night-time fox, thriving in the forces of nature and the beauty of the wilderness - a true wild-child.

Showing detail from the Celtic Fox artwork

Where to Buy my Celtic Fox Art

Celtic Fox art prints, home decor and accessories

Celtic Fox art prints & other products

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Further reading:

Miranda Gray: Beasts of Albion
P & S Carr-Gomm: The Druid Animal Oracle
Penguin Reference: Dictionary of Symbols
Jane Struthers: Red Sky at Night
D. L. Ashliman (accessed 9th April 2020)
Wikipedia: Foxes in Popular Culture

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