The Tale of Mr. Tod
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''The Tale of Mr. Tod'' is a children's book written and illustrated by
Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was he ...
, first published by
Frederick Warne & Co Frederick Warne & Co. is a British publisher founded in 1865. It is known for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter, and for its Observer's Books. Warne is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...
. in 1912. The tale is about a
badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united b ...
called Tommy Brock and his arch enemy Mr. Tod, a fox. Brock kidnaps the children of Benjamin Bunny and his wife Flopsy, intending to eat them, and hides them in an oven in the home of Mr. Tod. Benjamin and his cousin Peter Rabbit have followed Tommy Brock in an attempt to rescue the babies. When Mr. Tod finds Brock asleep in his bed, he determines to get him out of the house. His initial attempt fails, and the two eventually come to blows. Under cover of the fight, the rabbits rescue the baby rabbits. The tale was influenced by the
Uncle Remus Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...
stories, and was set in the fields of Potter's Castle Farm. Black and white illustrations outnumber those in colour. The tale is critically considered one of Potter's "most complex and successful in plot and tone." Potter's publisher wanted ''Mr. Tod'' to be the first in a new series of Peter Rabbit tales in larger formats with elaborate bindings, but Potter disliked the idea. Nonetheless, ''Mr. Tod'' and its 1913 follower, ''
The Tale of Pigling Bland ''The Tale of Pigling Bland'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1913. The story describes the adventures of the pig of the title and how his life changes upon meeting a ...
'', were published in the new formats, but the idea was eventually dropped and the ordinary bindings were adopted for reprints. The two tales were the last completely original productions by Potter. She continued to publish sporadically but used decades-old concepts and sketches rather than new images and ideas. In 1995, an animated film adaptation of the tale was featured on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
television
anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...
''
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends ''The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'' is a British animated anthology television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. 14 of Potter's stories were a ...
''.


Background

Following her acquisition of
Hill Top Farm Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof. The house was once the home of children's author and ill ...
in 1905 in
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
(now
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
), Potter began her most creative and productive years as a children's author and illustrator. By the end of the decade, however, she had grown weary of writing for children. Her eyesight was failing, and the demands of operating her farm and caring for her aging parents limited the amount of time and attention she could allocate to the production of books. In 1912 however, she brought Peter Rabbit and his kin together for one last time in ''The Tale of Mr. Tod''. She thought her editors too cautious and too concerned about offending the public, and knew she was capable of creating more complex characters and plots. In ''Mr. Tod'' she offered her fans two villainous characters – Mr. Tod and Tommy Brock, a fox and a badger. ''The Tale of Mr. Tod'' and the book to follow in 1913, ''
The Tale of Pigling Bland ''The Tale of Pigling Bland'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1913. The story describes the adventures of the pig of the title and how his life changes upon meeting a ...
'', were her last completely original works. Her marriage to William Heelis in October 1913 effectively put an end to her career as a children's author and illustrator, but she continued to produce sporadically over the following years at the demand of fans and publisher, though relying upon decades-old ideas and sketches rather than new concepts and illustrations.


Composition and publication

Influenced in part by the
Uncle Remus Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...
stories, ''Mr. Tod'' is longer than Potter's earlier tales, and set in the
Sawrey Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey are two neighbouring villages in the Furness area of Cumbria, England. They are located in the Lake District between the village of Hawkshead and the lake of Windermere. The two lie on the B5285 road, B5285, which runs ...
countryside at Bull Banks and Oatmeal Crag, two fields Potter acquired with Castle Farm in 1909. Pen and ink sketches outnumber the watercolors. Potter's publisher Harold Warne received the text of ''Mr. Tod'' in November 1911, though Potter had written the tale some time in the past. Warne had doubts about the name 'tod' for a fox, but Potter responded:
" Tod" is surely a very common name for a fox? It is probably
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
, it was the word in ordinary use in Scotland a few years ago, probably is still amongst the country people. In the same way "brock" or "gray" is the country name for a badger. I should call them "brocks" – both names are used in Westmoreland. "Brockholes", "Graythwaite" are examples of place names; also Broxbourne and Brockhampton .."Hey quoth the Tod/it's a braw bright night!/The wind's in the west/and the moon shines bright"—Mean to say you never heard that?"
The tale is about undesirable elements of society. Warne objected to Potter's opening paragraph: "I am quite tired of making goody goody books about nice people. I will make a book about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod." He altered the text to read, "I have made many books about well-behaved people." Potter responded:
If it were not impertinent to lecture one's publisher—you are a great deal too much afraid of the public, for whom I have never cared one tuppenny-button. ..I have always thought the opening paragraph distinctly ''good'', because it gets away from "once upon a time".
She teased him about the name Bull Banks and his sensitivity to less than genteel expressions: "One thinks nothing of bulls and tups in the farming world; but after you objected to cigars it occurred to me to wonder." There were no objections, and the tale was finished in July. The spring of 1912 was emotionally unsettling for Potter; her father was ill and severe strikes across the country caused hardships. In April 1912, she managed to get away from London for Hill Top to execute background drawings for the tale. By July, most of the colour blocks were finished, but Potter was concerned about the anatomy of the fox, and checked photographs and reference books in the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in an attempt to distinguish the true English
red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...
(''Vulpes vulpes'') from other species. The book was finished by the end of July when she left for holiday at Lake Windermere. Completion of the tale had taken longer than usual because her time had been shared with participation in a campaign opposing hydroplanes on Lake Windermere and the proposed construction of an aeroplane factory near the lake. ''The Tale of Mr. Tod'' was published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1912, and dedicated to Francis William, the two-year-old son of her cousin Caroline (Hutton) Clark, who had married the Laird of
Ulva Ulva (; gd, Ulbha) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, off the west coast of Mull. It is separated from Mull by a narrow strait, and connected to the neighbouring island of Gometra by a bridge. Much of the island is formed from ...
and was living and farming on a small island off the coast of
Mull Mull may refer to: Places *Isle of Mull, a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides **Sound of Mull, between the Isle of Mull and the rest of Scotland * Mount Mull, Antarctica *Mull Hill, Isle of Man * Mull, Arkansas, a place along Arkansas Highway ...
: "For Francis William of Ulva – someday!" During the course of the tale's development, Warne proposed launching ''Mr. Tod'' as the first in a new series of tales in slightly larger formats with elaborate bindings to accommodate wider spines. Potter objected. She did not want to become involved in a new series; her eyesight was failing, and she had grown weary of writing. She complained of having difficulty in producing "fresh short stories", and believed children preferred little change in the books. Nonetheless, ''Mr. Tod'', and the next book, ''
The Tale of Pigling Bland ''The Tale of Pigling Bland'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1913. The story describes the adventures of the pig of the title and how his life changes upon meeting a ...
'' were published in a larger format with elaborate bindings as "Series II, New Style". Potter disliked the new endpaper depicting Samuel Whiskers sticking up a giant poster while watched by other animal characters, thinking it too like a railway advertisement. Eventually, the larger format and new designation were dropped, and the ordinary binding adopted for reprints.


Plot

The tale begins with Tommy Brock, a
Eurasian badger The European badger (''Meles meles''), also known as the Eurasian badger, is a badger species in the family Mustelidae native to almost all of Europe. It is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List as it has a wide range and a large stabl ...
, being entertained by old Mr. Bouncer, the father of Benjamin Bunny. Mr. Bouncer has been left to tend his grandchildren while his son and daughter-in-law Flopsy are away, but, after smoking a pipe of rabbit-tobacco, he falls asleep in Tommy's company. Tommy puts the bunnies in his sack and slips out. When the parents return, Benjamin sets out in pursuit of the thief. Benjamin finds and brings his cousin Peter Rabbit into the rescue venture, and the two discover Tommy has invaded one of Mr. Tod's homes. Mr. Tod, a
fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
, has multiple homes but keeps moving. Often Tommy lodges in his homes. Peeping through the bedroom window, the rabbits see Tommy asleep in Mr. Tod's bed, and, peeping through the kitchen window, they see the table set for a meal. They realise the bunnies are alive, but shut in the
oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
. They try to dig a tunnel into the house but hide when Mr. Tod suddenly arrives in a very bad temper, which has caused him to move house. The fox discovers the badger asleep in his bed, and originally plans to hit him, but decides against this due to the Badger's teeth. He decides to play a trick upon him involving a
pail A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the ''bail''. A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a ...
of water balanced on the overhead tester of the bed. Brock however is awake, escapes the trick, and makes tea for himself in the kitchen. Mr. Tod thinks the bucket has killed Tommy and decides to bury him in the tunnel the rabbits have dug, thinking Tommy dug it. When Mr. Tod discovers Tommy in the Kitchen and has
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
thrown over him, a violent fight erupts that continues outdoors. The two roll away down the hill still fighting. Benjamin and Peter quickly gather the bunnies, and return home in triumph.


Illustrations

''The Tale of Mr. Tod'' is longer than the typical Potter tale with 16 colour illustrations and a series of 42 black and white drawings, one illustration per page. The illustrations depict the wider landscape of Near Sawrey: Bull Banks, Oatmeal Crag, and
Esthwaite Water Esthwaite Water is one of the smaller and lesser known lakes in the Lake District National Park in northern England. It is situated between the much larger lakes of Windermere and Coniston Water, in the traditional county of Lancashire; since 1 ...
. The interior of Mr. Tod's house provided the opportunity to present details of the interiors of village homes. In the frontispiece, Mr. Tod stands on a stone flag floor against a timber wall of muntin and plank construction (interlocking thick and thin vertical panels) covered with a sage-green limewash. A tea caddy, a silver salt, and blue and white willow china decorate his kitchen. The beehive-shaped brick oven was drawn from the one at the Sun Inn in
Hawkshead Hawkshead is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, which attracts tourists to the South Lakeland area. The parish includes the hamlets of Hawkshead Hill, to the north west, and Outgate, a similar distance north. Hawkshead contains one ...
and serves as a place for Brock to hide the bunnies. Emphatic frames in the black and white illustrations give the impression of woodcuts. Potter believed a black frame pulled a picture together and sent back the distance. Potter made the kitchen dim to eliminate some detail of the battle between Tod and Brock. Scholar Ruth K. MacDonald argues that the black and white illustrations emphasize the mythic, permanent quality of the tale with heavy black lines that display little of the delicacy characteristic of Potter's work. She suggests these pictures are more like woodcuts in their heaviness than drawings, and points out they were not "tossed off" to satisfy fans and her publisher, but deliberately planned to give an antique, primitive quality to the story in the manner of
Caxton Caxton may refer to: Places * Caxton Street, Brisbane, Australia * Caxton, Cambridgeshire, a village in Cambridgeshire, UK ** Caxton Gibbet, a knoll near the village * Caxton Hall, a historic building in London, UK * Caxton Building, a historic ...
's woodcuts for his edition of
Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
's Fables. She notes that the colour illustrations are not vignetted nor surrounded with heavy black lines but rather with a white border that prevents the pastels from fading into the background. The lightness of the pastels and the overall green tones of the colour illustrations contrast with the heavy lines of the black and white pictures and the blocks of print, and this contrast produces a sense of fading because of antiquity yet suggest permanence, "as the greenness of nature is permanent and recurring in the cycle of seasons."


Reception

Many of Potter's tales appealed to girls, but ''Mr. Tod'' had a strong following among boys, due perhaps to the lengthy fight at the end of the book accompanied by "dreadful bad language". Six-year-old Harold Botcherby wrote to Potter asking if the fight between Tod and Brock was still raging. Potter replied; describing the end of the battle and the injuries to the combatants:
I am sorry to tell you they are still quarreling. Mr. Tod has been living in the willow till he was flooded out; at present he is in the stick house with a bad cold in his head. As for the end of the fight – Mr. Tod had nearly half his hair pulled out of his brush
ail Ail or AIL may refer to: * Illness, a state of poor health * Ail (''Sailor Moon''), a character in the ''Sailor Moon'' anime series * Acceptance in lieu, an arrangement in the UK for accepting works of art etc. in lieu of tax * Agilus, a Frankis ...
and five bad bites, especially one ear, which is scrumpled up (like you sometimes see nasty old Tom Cat's ears). the only misfortune to Tommy Brock – he had his jacket torn and lost one of his boots. So for a long time he went about with one of his feet bundled up in dirty rags, like an old beggar man. Then he found the boot in the quarry. There was a beetle in the boot and several slugs. Tommy Brock ate them. He is a nasty person. He will go on living in Mr. Tod's comfortable house till springtime – then he will move off into the woods & live out doors – and Mr. Tod will come back very, very cautiously – & there will need to be a big spring cleaning!"
In 1915, the children of an unknown family living in a
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
shire rectory wrote to express their disappointment in the lack of a sequel to ''Mr. Tod''. Potter enjoyed continuing the lives of her characters through these letters and responded:
It is sad to have caused such disappointment! ..I think I saw Tommy Brock's wife last week. I couldn't think who the person reminded me of, and when I read your letter I remembered directly! I am not sure how many of a family there are – lots! and what we call a "long" family, all ages with some long time between. I believe Tommy Brock is very grumpy with the grown-up ones, and makes them clear off into the woods; and, as you know, he is not often at home himself. Mrs. Badger is rather lighter coloured than he is, rather sandy, with little piggy eyes and a snouty nose, and a not particularly clean house, I should say – she finishes wearing out Tommy's celebrated boots. Mr. Tod has been across lately, I smelt him myself; but he had removed before the hounds came.


Critical commentary

''The Tale of Mr. Tod'' was sketched out long before its 1912 publication, and is a forbidding tale with relief only in the landscape illustrations.
Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
thought Potter was suffering some sort of emotional disturbance when the tale was composed, but Potter denied the allegation and observed only that she was suffering the after-effects of the 'flu. She deprecated Greene's "Freudian school of criticism". There are a few inconsistencies from the naturalist's view point. Foxes and badgers are not necessarily mutual enemies in nature. Badgers do not normally invade the homes of foxes, and are not typically dirty. Badgers do sometimes eat bunnies, not from a predilection for bunnies but simply because they are omnivorous. The inconsistencies are few and employed to create individual characters rather than evoke an archetypical fox and badger. The tale does have archetypical sources in the stories of Uncle Remus. There, both rabbits and foxes contend, but unlike the fox in Uncle Remus, the Potter fox is not particularly wily and the rabbits win, not by outsmarting the fox, but only because they enjoy a stroke of luck. The badger is not a typical animal in Uncle Remus, but in Potter he is the clever one. The finale reunites the rabbits, but the wily animals win nothing. ''Mr. Tod'' and the Uncle Remus stories are only similar in depicting the powerless triumphing over the powerful.


Adaptations

''Mr. Tod'' was adapted to animation and telecast as a segment of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...
, ''
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends ''The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'' is a British animated anthology television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. 14 of Potter's stories were a ...
''.
Dinsdale Landen Dinsdale James Landen (4 September 1932 – 29 December 2003) was an English actor. His television appearances included starring in the shows ''Devenish'' (1977) and ''Pig in the Middle'' (1980). ''The Independent'' named him an "outstanding ac ...
and
Don Henderson Donald Francis Henderson (10 November 1931 – 22 June 1997)Ancestry/Find My Past (his birth was registered in the December 1931 quarter) was an English actor. He was known for playing both "tough guy" roles and authority figures, and is remem ...
voiced Tod and Brock respectively. British screenwriter Mark Huckerby voiced Mr. Tod in the British/American CGI animated children's television series, and Mr. Tod and Tommy Brock voiced by
Fayssal Bazzi Fayssal Bazzi is an Australian actor. He was nominated for the 2018 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role The Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role is an award in the annual Australian Film Institute Awards ...
and
Sam Neill Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's near-50 year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one o ...
in this live-action/CGI animated film ''
Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subs ...
''.


References

;Footnotes ;Works cited * * * * * * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tale of Mr. Tod, The 1912 children's books British children's books British picture books Mr. Tod, The Tale of Children's books adapted into films Children's books adapted into television shows English-language books Books about rabbits and hares Books about foxes Fictional badgers Forests in fiction Mr. Tod, The Tale of Frederick Warne & Co books