Foxes were dog-like carnivores of woodland and farmland, distinctive for their red-orange coats and their eerie plaintive cries.
In the Second Age, in Númenor, there were foxes in a large number. Their main food were lopoldi, helping the Númenóreans to keep them in order. As they were seldom hunted or because they had enough food with the lopoldi, they never attacked the fowls of the Númenóreans.[1]
In the Third Age, a fox became puzzled at finding Frodo, Sam, and Pippin asleep in a fir-wood on the first night of their journey from Hobbiton, thinking that there was “something mighty queer behind this”.[2] Another fox was encountered by Strider and the hobbits as they hiked through the Chetwood after leaving Bree.[3]
Other names
The Quenya word for "fox" is rusco, pl. rusqui.[4] The Sindarin word was rusc.[5]
Portrayal in adaptations
1987: Middle-earth Role Playing
- The Red Foxes of Calenardhon are mentioned as a species with truly red fur, which made them a target for fur hunters. They were smarter than other fox species, rarely stumbling into death and cunningly avoiding traps and Men. The Red Foxes had colour vision and were canny thieves, stealing hens, rabbits and small, brightly coloured objects.[6]
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Carl F. Hostetter (ed.), The Nature of Middle-earth, "Part Three. The World, its Lands, and its Inhabitants: XIII. Of the Land and Beasts of Númenor", pp. 334-335
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "Three is Company"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Knife in the Dark"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XI. The Shibboleth of Fëanor", p. 353
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Etymological Notes on the Ósanwe-kenta" (edited by Carl F. Hostetter), in Vinyar Tengwar, Number 41, July 2000, p. 10
- ↑ Ruth Sochard Pitt, Jeff O'Hare, Peter C. Fenlon, Jr. (1994), Creatures of Middle-earth (2nd edition) (#2012), pp. 74