List of fictional badgers

This is a list of fictional badgers. Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. The personality and behavior of the real badger has greatly informed the development of personality and characteristics of the badger character in fiction. Specifically, authors of fictional works employing badgers have often emphasized their natural reclusive privacy and their ferocity and courage when protecting themselves (this aspect drawing its origins from the early tradition of badger-baiting).

The badger's role as a character in fiction can be traced back to the folklore of Europe and Asia where their nocturnal habits have given them an air of mystery. In Chinese and Japanese folklore, the badger character is a shapeshifter. Sax, Boria. ''The Mythical Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature - Beaver, Porcupine, Badger, and Miscellaneous Rodents''. ABC-CLIO. Pp.32-33. 2001. In European folklore the badger character is intimately associated with the bear and is considered a forecaster of the arrival of spring. Older versions of these stories ascribed similar powers to the bear, but as bear populations dwindled, the folklore shifted to use the badger (in Germany and England), and the groundhog (in the United States). In England, the badger character has been adopted in many quarters as a mascot—an evolution from the historic practice of using the badger in heraldic design.

Anthropomorphic badgers have frequently appeared in children's literature, although their personalities have never settled in one particular manner. Characters like Beatrix Potter's Tommy Brock represent the negative side of badgers and reflect the farmer's view of the real badger as a predator of small livestock.De Castella, Tom.
Badger cull: Are we silly to be so sentimental?
'. BBC News Magazine. 19 November 2010. On the other hand, characters like Kenneth Grahame's gruff and ascetic Mr. Badger or Susan Varley's Badger (''Badger's Parting Gifts'') represent the positive side of badgers and reflect the real badgers' purposeful privacy in a way that allows authors to project human characteristics on them. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme fellow, Dr. Angela Cassidy, has noted that the literary figure of the "good badger" has become dominant since the early 20th century, but that more recently the figure of the "bad badger" (now a verminous character usually defined by stench and disease) has made a slight resurgence.Flood, Allison.
Badgers' fate influenced by books, research discovers
'. guardian.co.uk. 24 April 2012. Children's book critic, Amanda Craig, has also noted a modern trend away from any instances of the badger character in literature and has identified the lessening of interaction between humans and badgers in modern times as the underlying cause.

In more recent years fictional badger characters have become increasingly abstract, with thoroughly human characteristics and only the appearance of the badger. Indeed, Dr. Cassidy has noted that since 1990, the tendency with badger characters has "accelerated into surrealism and comedy" with the most prominent example being the " Badger Badger Badger" meme arising online in 2003.Cassidy, Angela.
Vermin, Victims and Disease: UK Framings of Badgers In and Beyond the Bovine TB Controversy
'. Sociologia Ruralis. Volume 52. Issue 2. pp.192-214. April 2012. Modern badger characters have shown up in numerous visual media including animation, commercials, live-action film, the internet, and in video games.

Badgers in mythology and religion

* Mujina, shapeshifting badger in Japanese mythology

Badgers in literature, poetry, and comics

* Archibald "Archie" LeBrock, a British anthropomorphic badger who is the main character of the 2009 graphic novel series '' Grandville'' by Bryan Talbot.
* Badger, a character from ''One Snowy Night'' and '' Percy the Park Keeper'' by Nick Butterworth Hunt, Peter. "Introduction" in ''The Wind in the Willows'' (OUP Oxford; New edition). Pp.xxviii. . 8 July 2010.
* Badger, Shadow, and Frond, from the children's novel ''The Animals of Farthing Wood'' and its components ''The Fox Cub Bold'' and ''Battle for the Park'' all by Colin Dann.Krishna, Rachael.
The 9 Best Fictional Badgers
. '' Sabotage Times''. 10 October 2013.
* Badger, Dougherty, John.
John Dougherty's top 10 fictional badgers
. ''The Guardian''. 9 October 2014. the title character in Susan Varley's '' Badger's Parting Gifts'', a Mother Goose Award-winning children's story that was showcased on ''Reading Rainbow'' in season 18.
* Badger, from Roald Dahl's ''Fantastic Mr. Fox''.
* The badger that Arthur meets when he is transformed into a badger by Merlin in '' The Sword in the Stone'' (collected into ''The Once and Future King'').
* "Badger", poem by John Clare
* Badger Lords and Ladies of Salamandastron in the ''Redwall'' book series by Brian Jacques
* The badgers from ''The Disgusting Sandwich'' by Gareth Edwards and Hannah Shaw
* The badgers from '' Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Badness of Badgers'' by John Dougherty
* The old male badger from ''Brock'' by Anthony McGowan
* The mother badger from '' Incident at Hawk's Hill''.
* Bill Badger, friend of Rupert Bear in the ''Rupert Bear'' comic strips, originally created by Mary Tourtel
* Bill Badger in the ''Bill Badger'' series (1957-1969) by Denys Watkins-Pitchford
* Boomer Badger from the magazine Ranger Rick.
* Brock the Badger in ''The Epic of Brock the Badger'' (1960) by Henry Williamson
* Brock the Badger in ''Yours Ever, Sam Pig'' by Alison Uttley
* Brock and his family from E. H. Shepard's ''Ben and Brock''
* "The Combe", a 1917 poem by Edward Thomas
* Frances, a preschool-aged badger in a seven-book series by Russell Hoban
* Hazel from '' Hazel's Amazing Mother'' by Rosemary Wells
*James Barkley from the first issue of '' The Adventures of Sly Cooper''
* Meles Brock, Esq. from the '' Owlglass'' chronicles by Will Nickless
* Mr. Badger, in ''The Wind in the Willows'' by Kenneth Grahame (1908), and later sequels such as '' The Willows at Christmas'' by William Horwood
* Mr. Badger, the main character in "Mr. Badger to the Rescue"
* Old Brock, a badger from the tale of "El-ahrairah and the Lendri", and the lendri seen near the river (Ch 7), in ''Watership Down''.
* Tommy Brock from '' The Tale of Mr. Tod'' (1912) - Kidnaps the Flopsy Bunnies and gets into a scuffle with Mr. Tod.
* Trufflehunter is a talking badger from C. S. Lewis's '' Chronicles of Narnia'' series, particularly ''Prince Caspian''.
* Martin Badger, from ''The Love of Simon Fox'', by Jonathan Schork (sms2, 2016), introduced in chapter 6 as an unnamed, ill-mannered, semi-wild beast, returns in chapter 7 with "a cane & good manners", and emerges as one of the heroic, ferociously loyal characters of the book.
*The Badger-folk in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
*Midnight the Badger, from the '' Warriors'' novel series.
*Badger, one of the titular characters from the Skunk And Badger book series by Amy Timberlake.

Badgers in animated movies and TV series

* Badger from '' Bodger and Badger''
* The badger that launches an attack on all humans and nearly disembowels Homer in " A Tale of Two Springfields", an episode of ''The Simpsons''.
* Clive Badger, Mr. Fox's lawyer voiced by Bill Murray in the 2009 Wes Anderson film ''Fantastic Mr. Fox''
* Dante, the racist badger from " The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox" from ''The Mighty Boosh''
* Edwina Badger, appeared in ''Bear in the Big Blue House''. She is a musician who also goes by the name "The Great Bandini". She was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg.
* Leesdas, a badger from the Dutch educational puppet show with the same name.
* Mr. Badger, a badger from several film adaptations of Kenneth Grahame's ''The Wind in the Willows'', including '' The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'' (1949), ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1983), ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1987), ''Wind in the Willows'' (1988), ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1984 TV series), and '' Oh, Mr. Toad''
* Mr. Digger, a minor character in the Walt Disney Animation movie ''The Fox and the Hound''. An old badger who hates animals barging into his home.
* Sticks the Badger, a supporting character in the animated series ''Sonic Boom''.
* Badgerclops, one of the main characters from the Cartoon Network animated series '' Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart''.
* Egbert, the main antagonist of the animated series '' Poppy Cat''.
* Cornelius the inventor, and his niece, Michelle whose poisoning propels the plot and the protagonists' quest in the Hanna Barbera 1993 movie '' Once Upon A Forest''.
* Several badgers were featured in British comedian Harry Hill's 1996 TV programme Saturday Live. The badgers (glove puppets) were expected to take part in a badger parade -- somehow always averted. The named badgers included Gareth Southgate Badger, Tasmin Archer Badger, Jools Holland Badger, Windsor Davies Badger, Gazza Badger, and Michael Owen Badger. There were also several unnamed badgers.

Badgers in tabletop, card, and video games

* Captain Bayback, Bronco, Sery, Grandpa Ruskin, Chubb Chubb, and Pup, from the Wales Interactive release ''Gravity Badgers''
* Gulo, the rare golden honey badger of the Kyrat region of ''Far Cry 4'',LaBella, Anthony.
Far Cry 4 Animal Guide
. '' Game Revolution''. 18 December 2014. as well as the nameless badgers in the Oros region of ''Far Cry Primal'' and honey badgers in the Kyrat and Oros regions of ''Far Cry 4'' and ''Far Cry Primal''.

Badgers in music and spoken word

* The badgers from the '' Badger Badger Badger'' internet meme and the badger from the Badger phone internet meme.
* Chunt, a shapeshifter in the popular podcast '' Hello from the Magic Tavern'', is most commonly in the form of a Badger.

See also

* Badger (disambiguation)#Fictional characters - other non-badger characters named Badger
* List of fictional animals
* List of miscellaneous fictional animals - including some fictional hyraxes (which are translated as badgers in the King James Bible)
* '' Badger Badger Badger''
* Hufflepuff - One of the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the '' Harry Potter'' series has a badger mascot. The mascot features on the school's coat of arms.

References

{{Fictional biology

Badgers
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