First Things First…
I don’t know this fairy tale at all. Frankly, I just needed something short, that I could write about quickly, so I went to my Brothers Grimm collection, and this is only two pages. So we’ll see…
2 Things I Like
2. The Fox’s Hidden Agenda?
The story starts with a fox telling a wolf that the only way an animal can defeat man is with cunning. And the point is proven when the wolf tries to use brute force against a huntsman and fails.
But is the fox using its cunning to goad the wolf into this fight in the first place?
I’m only speculating, but it seems curious that after the wolf responds to the fox’s assertion about cunning by saying he’d attack man anyway if he saw one, the fox eagerly says…
“Well, I can help you with that. Come to me early tomorrow, and I will show you one!”
And sure enough, the fox knows of a road that a huntsman walks along every day. It’s almost as if he already had this scouted.
Maybe the fox figures it’s a win-win…
Either the wolf manages to overpower the man, in which case there’s one fewer person out there with superior strength than him, or it goes as expected, and the wolf is humbled.
Seems like a fox’s type of plan.
1. The Wolf’s Persistence
The intended lesson of this story may be about relying on cunning (i.e. your mind) rather than strength (i.e. your body). Or it might be that you shouldn’t brag about something when you don’t know what you’re talking about. And considering the wolf has to ask three times before he correctly identifies a man, he obviously doesn’t know shit about them.
That said, he lives up to his word and attacks, even though he doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. He clearly doesn’t know what a gun or a hunting knife is, since he later misidentifies both. But he still puts up a fight!
When the wolf first attacks, the man shoots him in the face with buckshot.
But is he deterred? Nah…
“The wolf made a wry face, but he was not to be so easily frightened, and attacked him again.”
Sadly for the wolf, this attack doesn’t go much better, and he gets shot a second time. You’d have to think two rounds of buckshot would send him scurrying away, but instead…
“The wolf swallowed the pain, and rushed at the huntsman…”
Swallowed the pain!
That’s a fighter I can get behind!
It’s only after his third attack, which the huntsman staves off by slashing the wolf with his hunting knife, leaving him “streaming with blood,” that the wolf finally retreats.
So, sure, he lost the fight. But here’s the rub…
If the man was unarmed, he’d be no match for the wolf. It’s only because he wields deadly weapons that any opposing animal would have to employ cunning, as the fox taught him, to even stand a chance. Hopefully the wolf learned this lesson better than I did, as I’m sitting here praising him for having the balls to persist in fighting what’s clearly a losing battle.
0 Things I’m Mixed On
1 Thing I Don’t Like
1. The Final Line
It’s fine that the story ends with the fox basically telling the wolf “I told you so.” I just don’t like how he says it. He calls the wolf a braggart and then uses a metaphor I’ve never heard…
“You throw your hatchet so far that you can’t get it back again.”
I don’t know how I would change it, but it’s not a compelling line to end the story.
Tim Matassa
