to the wolves

werewolf bar mitzvah - spooky scary - boys becoming men - men becoming wolves

Nov 20, 2024

You may be wondering why I’m doing this theme when I don’t even like animals. I may not enjoy animals but I do enjoy folklore and fables1 and wolves play some big roles there like2 Fenrir3, the many versions of Big Bad, The Wolf of Gubbio who was friends with St. Francis4 and, of course, Romulus and Remus’ mom5 just to name a few. In the vast majority of these stories the wolf is the villain. But, does it deserve to be?

Even outside of folk texts, myths about wolves abound which resulted in their complete eradication in many areas6. The Big Bad Myth is that they are a direct threat to humans when in reality they are not.7 Their elimination has led to the destruction of many ecosystems because now there are too many herbivores, like deer, eating too many plants resulting in… less plants. We need plants guys! Some of the villainizing of the wolf seems to have come from the Middle Ages with the spread of Christianity and its tendency to align the wolf with the devil. Yet another example of the enduring power of story and superstition. Though, as we’ll see, indigenous cultures seemed to have a much more nuanced view of the wolf.

I’m on a journey of curiosity, one where I want to quest beyond the usual anecdotes and tired tales, one where I question what I’ve been told or have assumed to be true to see what else is out there.8 So, today we’ll be setting aside the prescribed, narrow narrative of the wolf, the animal and its literary representations, to see what else we can learn from legends, lore and science and perhaps even reclaim a little bit of the wild within ourselves along the way. After all, in the stories wolves are often clever, loyal, tenacious, ferocious and mischievous; qualities I’ve been known to enjoy in my protagonists.

“Wolves are the ultimate symbol of untamed wilderness, and Robinson suspects that wolves represent everything humans fear. They symbolize the deepest parts of ourselves that we have rejected: namely our connection with nature.”

Today’s shelf includes stories about literal and symbolic wolves within an atmospheric literary mystery, a Hungarian folktale inspired fantasy and an Inuit/Viking mythological mashup. And darn it, I had another book on my list to read (Women Who Run with Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype) but I didn’t get to it before this post so will report back.

As the moon rises in the night sky slip out of your red riding hood, gather your pack and go wild with one of these.

ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy

Inti arrives in the Scottish Highlands with her sister, a team of fellow biologists and a pack of wolves. Though the locals are wary, she hopes that re-introducing these predators will help to reforest and revitalize the land as they keep the ever growing, and ever ravenous, deer population in check. Though the wolves and Inti begin to flourish in their new home, her sister remains traumatized by the past they left behind, unable to adapt. When a farmer is killed and the wolves are blamed, Inti resolves to protect the pack and search for the true killer, hoping it isn’t the man she’s falling in love with. (tw: sexual assault)

“In Scotland, as early as the 2nd Century BC, King Dorvadilla decreed that anyone who killed a wolf would be rewarded with an ox.” 9

I was immediately hooked by the book’s bracing first line and loved its dreamy, mysterious tone. Inti’s character is introspective, wise, passionate and stubborn while her unique neurological condition adds a dash of magical realism even though it is a real thing. Her deep emotional connection to the wolves, in particular the restless Female Number 10, was always compelling and that arc always aligned with her own personal arc which I appreciated. I was very invested in Inti’s journey as she wrestled with her own demons and learned when to lean into her wildness and when to lean into her humanity. The reverence and excitement around nature pushed me to think about it differently and I especially enjoyed reading about women embracing their primal natures.10

The science of the project isn’t heavy handed and is always narratively important, told in a wistful, magical voice so I never felt bored even though I am an avid indoorswoman. It was maddening and fascinating to learn about the domino effect that killing all the wolves generations ago has had upon the land and how re-wilding the wolves can improve so much. This is inspired by real re-wilding projects, though none have been in Scotland yet as far as I can tell. Inti’s observations of how the wolf pack interacts with the region were suspenseful, heart tugging and completely engrossing. I found myself very invested in this fictional wolf pack, which is a truly insane thing for me to say, but hey crazier things have happened!

Known as a trophic cascade, it’s the process by which the activity of an apex predator at the top of the food chain eventually stimulates the growth of several other animal species and enriches biodiversity.11

Along with the animal/science-y elements, I appreciated the themes of sisterhood, trauma, community, bonding, our relationship to nature and the bit of romance that swirl around the central murder mystery. Violence, both human and animal, plays a large role and so does the inner work of accepting one’s whole self. The setting is gorgeous and romantic with exciting, witchy descriptions of the moody Scottish Highlands. There are a few intense, dark moments here but ultimately this is a beautiful, powerful story of love and hope that weaves its many threads together quite well. I appreciated learning the wolf facts in narrative form because the information was fascinating and timely but I was never going to like watch a National Geographic documentary series about it.

This cover is whatever.

Not long ago, not in the grand scheme of things, this forest was not small and sparse but strong and bursting with life. Lush with rowan trees, aspen, birch, juniper and oak, it stretched itself across a vast swathe of land, coloring Scotland's now-bare hills, providing food and shelter to all manner of untamed thing.

And within these roots and trunks and canopies, there ran wolves.

Today, wolves once again walk upon this ground, which has not seen their kind in hundreds of years. Does something in their bodies remember this land, as it remembers them? It knows them well; it has been waiting for them to wake it from its long slumber.

THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN by Ava Reid

Though she lives in an isolated village with the wolf-girls, Évike does not have their magic so for this, and her Yehuli heritage, she is mocked, reviled and eventually given over to The Woodsman as a ritualistic sacrifice for the king. When the group is attacked and everyone is killed but Évike and a one eyed Woodsman, they are forced to rely on each other to survive. As it becomes clear she is not a real wolf-girl and he is not a real Woodsman, their mission evolves to include the legendary turul hawk, a ruthless usurper and an untamable magic within a brutal world intent on stamping out the old ways. But this tenuous alliance will be tested once they get to the capital and Évike is finally faced with what happened to all the other wolf girls before her.

I was especially drawn to this book because I grew up in Hungary and I throughly enjoyed reading the very Hungarian names of people, places and food that pepper its pages. It is inspired by Hungarian and Jewish mythologies but creates something completely new with those ingredients so don’t @ the author like some of the other Goodreads reviewers do for not sticking to the ‘script’. Fantasy should be about reinvention in service of reflection and I think this accomplishes that.

This has many instances of body horror and violence so is not for the squeamish, though the enemies to lovers vibes are top notch. We get a slow building connection over circumstance and stories with a few swoon worthy romantic declarations to get us through some intense, stressfully brutal moments. I enjoyed the world building, the fairy tale elements and the real world grounding of religious persecution and the embrace of one’s inner shadow. Sometimes the political power struggles bogged down the pacingf, but perhaps it was because I was just impatient to get to the juicy, emotional, sexy stuff. Interesting themes of a new religion violently replacing the old along with struggles of identity, faith and devotion make this a solid romantic fantasy that is bloodier than is typical.

I love this cover.

"If girls can be wolves, can't men be beasts?”

THE WOLF IN THE WHALE by Jordanna Max Brodsky

During a time of tragedy, Omat is born with the spirit of her dead father and also The Wolf Spirit. An uiluaqtap12, she is raised as the male apprentice to her grandfather, eventually becoming the angakkuq, the leader of her tribe. She is a fierce hunter, a spiritual conduit and dreamer who desperately hopes to evade the future that being female in this world means. When a new group joins theirs, everything is changed and Omat is thrust into her darkest nightmare. When she comes across Brandr, an injured Norseman seeking to escape his own fate, they settle into an uneasy alliance that grows into something more. But, the arrival of the Norse means the arrival of their warriors, their gods and perhaps even Ragnarok itself. (tw: sexual assault)

This does an incredible job of feeling very human inside of a broader, cosmological tale. Omat’s story is poignant, rich and immersive as it plays out amongst the gods of myth and legend and, somehow, it always worked for me. The setting and world was fascinating and how the spirit and earth realms combined in the Inuit and Norse cultures was endlessly interesting. This is an epic; it is romantic, mythic, weird and moving for its entire 500+ page run and I dare you not to care about Omat as she wrestles with her identity while her entire world’s fate hangs in the balance. I haven’t read anything in this setting before and was completely absorbed by it and invested in its survival as I learned more about the lore, culture, initiation rites and survival techniques of the Inuit people. I loved witnessing Omat and Brandr’s relationship and their specific battles between expectations and identity as they work to embrace their truest selves and if they can still belong in their home. This can get fairly violent and detailed so is not a quick and easy read, but definitely a terrific one.

It must be noted that this is not written by an Inuit author, as she discusses in her end notes and acknowledgments. I appreciated all she shares about her research, sources, the places she traveled and who she spoke with as she gathered inspiration and information for this novel.

The Wolf in the Whale is not an Inuit story. It is a fictional creation by a non-Inuit writer profoundly inspired by Inuit history, culture, and myth. Given my status as an outsider and our incomplete knowledge of the distant past, I have no doubt made mistakes. I am novelist, not an anthropologist. A Qallunaat, not an Inuk. With those limitations in mind, I hope this story is received as it is intended: as an attempt to honor the Inuit past, not to claim it.

This cover is fine.

There is a very old story, rarely told, of a wolf that runs into the ocean and becomes a whale. It is said that the two animals share a spirit. The wolf is not bound to its shape. It can change form at will, transforming to a whale when it must swim in the sea.

Seeing the whale, no one would ever suspect it had once been a wolf.