| The wolf is an animal of which many
stories have been told.
Part 1 - Ancient
Times
1. First, we will start with what is said to have
happened. All these are based on what Muggles call legend.
In Greek mythology, Charon, the ferryman, wore wolf ears. Hecate, the
goddess of Death, was shown as wearing three wolf heads. In another Greek
myth, a king named Lycaon was turned into a wolf by the god Zeus. (the
name Lycaon survives today, in the gray wolf subspecies Canis Lupius
Lycoan, the eastern timber wolf.) The Athenians had great respect for the
wolf and decreed that any man who killed one had to pay for the funeral
for the animal.
2. In the Epic of
Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar had the power to turn enemies into wolves.
Obviously, Ishtar
might have seemed for Muggles a goddess but our records show she was just
a plain powerful witch and she used, of course, her knowledge of
Transfiguration.
3. Another story tells us about the
twins Romulus and Remus. Please read the following:
The story of the twins, sons of the god of War, Mars. In the legend
Romulus and Remus are orphaned when their mother, Silvia is imprisoned and
the infants are cast into the Tiber River. They are set ashore under a fig
tree and found by a she wolf and a woodpecker, animals that are sacred to
Mars. The twins are fed and nursed by the animals, until Faustulus, the
king's herdsman finds them and raises them with his wife. They left home
to found their new kingdom on the shores of that same river where they had
many years before begun their legendary lives.
As children will often do, Romulus and Remus could agree upon
neither the location of the new city nor a name for it. It was during this
strife that Romulus killed his twin, and thereupon built the new
settlement.
Lacking for inhabitants, the new king called upon outcasts
from outlying communities to come to his new homeland and to settle upon
the Capitoline Hill where Romulus built a sanctuary for misfits of other
communities.
But, alas, Romulus soon discovered that his city was lacking
for women, and he announced that games were to be celebrated in honor of
the god, Consus, and he thereby invited the Latins and the Sabines to his
celebration. It was during this event that the Romans lashed out upon the
virgins of the community and carried them away.
Romulus' reign was tainted with this story of the rape of the
Sabine women, whose tribe, under the leadership of Titus Tatius, allegedly
infiltrated the new Latin lands and battled with the inhabitants of Latium,
thus forming a union of the two tribes early in the history of ancient
Rome.
During the ensuing war, the Sabine women prayed for peace,
and they begged that the two tribes unite and form one people, one nation.
Unfortunately, the peace was short-lived, and Titus Tatius, who was at
this time co-reigning with Romulus, was killed in a confrontation. Thus,
Romulus continued his reign alone not only over the Latins but also over
the Sabines.
His 37-year reign as the first king of Rome ended when his
father, Mars, carried him away to heaven in a chariot of fire. Henceforth,
Romulus demanded to be known as " Quirinus," the guardian god to the
Romans.
Homework:
1.
Make your comments on the
story, underlining the importance of the she-wolf in the Romulus and Remus
legend.
Part
2 - Middle Age
About the wolf in the Middle Age
period - myths. This is what Muggles thought and what it is known by the
wizardry world as being WRONG concepts.
* Wolves
were ascribed magical powers and wolf parts became an important part of
many early pharmacies. Powdered wolf liver was used to ease birth pains. A
wolf's right paw, tied around ones throat, was believed to ease the
swelling caused by throat infections.
* It was widely believed that a horse that stepped in a wolf print would
be crippled
* The gaze of a wolf was once thought to cause blindness
* Others believed that the breath of the wolf could cook meat.
* Naturalists of the day believed wolves sharpened their teeth before
hunting
* Dead wolves were buried at a Muggle village entrance to keep out other
wolves (a bizarre belief echoed today by Muggle farmers who continue to
shoot predators and hang them on fence posts to repel other predators.)
* Travelers were warned about perils of walking through lonely stretches
of woods, and stone shelters were built to protect them from attacks. Our
modern word "loophole" is derived from the European term "loup hole," or
wolf hole, a spy hole in shelters through which travelers could watch for
wolves.
Homework:
Take
notes on the above. Try to remember three of them.
Werewolves
There are a number of
cultures which have were-creatures in their mythology, usually involving
large predators that hunt by night. Often the were-creatures takes the
form of the most dangerous animal found in the area. India has weretigers,
Africa has wereleopards, but the most famous of all are the werewolves of
medieval Europe.
It is
important to notice that each of the above creatures are thought to be
legend by Muggles, but they do exist.
The term "were" is from the old English word "wer" meaning
man. Thus, werewolves, man-wolves, are half human and half animal.
References to wolf-men arose in Europe at around the time of
Christ. In book Ten of Homer's Odysseus , the grandfather of the hero
Odysseus is named Autolykos, meaning "he who is wolf." The people of
Arcadia believed some members of their culture had the ability to turn
themselves into wolves. If they tasted human flesh during the
transformation they were doomed to live out their lives as wild beasts
unless they abstained from human flesh for nine years.
The Roman poet Virgil wrote in the first century B.C. about a sorcerer who
took poisonous herbs to turn himself into a werewolf. It is obvious that
the Ministry of Magic back then was not able to cover it. All they could
do was try to make it look like a story. Sorcerers should know that yes,
it is possible to transform into a wolf by using certain herbs.
Homework:
1.
What does the term "wer" mean.
2. Give examples of were-creatures.
3. What did the people of Arcadia believe?
Muggles believed
that werewolves had two origins, voluntary and involuntary :
* Many voluntary werewolves were believed to be people who had made
a pact with the devil. Most werewolf tales describe men who turned into
werewolves at night, when they devoured people and animals, and then
returned to human form at daybreak. Night was a time of the devil.
*
Involuntary werewolves were those whose actions had inadvertently
caused a horrible transformation. Persons born on Christmas Eve were often
thought to be werewolves. In Sicily, a child conceived during a new moon
was thought sure to grow up to be a werewolf. German folk tales told of a
mountain brook whose waters turned humans into werewolves.
* Tales in Serbia created werewolves from people who drank water collected
in wolf footprints
* People with slanted eyebrows were also automatically assumed to be
wolfmen. In Greece, all epileptics were thought to be werewolves.
* Some werewolves were believed to be sinners transformed by god for their
actions. Certain saints were thought to have the power to change sinners
into werewolves. In Armenia, it was believed that an adulterous woman
would be visited by the devil, who would bring her a wolf skin to wear. To
pay for her sins, she had to wear the skin for seven years before she
could return to human form.
Homework:
1. How were people becoming werewolves voluntarily? What about
involuntarily?
2. Keep in mind the ways in which you become a werewolf
involuntarily.
Part
3 - Texts to Read
Werewolf
Account
1125
The plague was raging in Europe, and werewolves and Vampires
roamed the night looking for clean victims to fulfil their blood-lust. It
was in this time that people were fleeing their homes in the towns to
avoid the plague. Most took refuge in the Forests, while others in the
Transylvanian Alps. It was in this time and these dark and foreboding
mountains that a grizzly event took place...
Bala Bideski and his family had fled their home into the mountains
as the plague took a firm grip of their town (they were the last to
escape, and some would say later that it was unfortunate that they did).
Bala, his wife Chelitha, his two sons Christopher and Thengal, and his
daughter Tahlia had set up a comfortable home in the forested hills that
surrounded the mountains. One day Bala and his two sons (Chris 14 and
Thengal 16) were cutting and gathering wood for the fire as it was almost
Winter and they'd need a large stock-pile to get through the freezing
conditions. Chris had wondered off from his father and was getting closer
and closer to the steep incline of the mountains rough surface. He was
about to return to his father when he heard the whimpering of what sounded
like pups. He moved towards the sound, until he came upon a den in a small
clearing. There in the mouth of the den were two beautiful pups, one of
which looked strangely human. Chris came close to the pups and picked one
of them up. After a while of petting the wolf-pup he put it back on the
ground and left the area to find his father and brother.
Not long after the young boy had left, the she-wolf returned to her
den to find one of her pups covered in the smell of humans. The father of
the pups was a lycanthrope who preferred to stay in wolf form, and he was
livid...The lycanthrope had no choice but to kill his pup that had been
handled by a human. After he did the deed, the werewolf went looking for
the human perpetrator...It wasn't long before he found the trail and
followed it to a small hut on the hills in the forest.
It was getting quite late when the family decided to turn in for
the night. Chris layed down and his mother doused the lights. In the early
hours of the morning came a "howling " that pierced the night. Chris awoke
with a start. He looked around the room he shared with his older brother.
The moon outside was full so a stream of silver light poured in through
the window above his bed, he could see the shadow of a small tree just
outside his window against the far wall...But the shadow of the tree
changed, in a second, into the shadow of a wolf standing on its hind legs.
Except this wolf was huge...Bigger than any man Chris had ever seen.
" Thengal!!!!" Chris whispered, "Wake up!!!"
Thengal stirred under his bed covers then opened his eyes... There
at the window, silhouetted by the full moon was a wolf-man...Its eyes
burned red and glowed. Thengal sat up in his bed...As he did the creature
dived through the window frame and landed on Thengals bed. The werewolf
tore at Thengals chest and neck, ripping out vital organs and his
wind-pipe as he did so. By the time the wolf-creature was through the
sixteen year old boys body lay in tatters on the bed. The wolf turned to
Chris, but as it did the door to the room (a long piece of material) was
thrown open and Bala and Chelitha bounded into the room. The werewolf
flung its huge body out the window once more. Chelitha ran to her dead
sons bed and screamed her sorrow, while Bala grabbed his pitch-fork (which
he kept at the huts door) and ran out the door... As Bala left the hut a
massive claw knocked him into their winter stock-pile of wood, knocking
him unconscious. Moments later he awoke to find the wolf towering over
him. The werewolf bent down and let the nail of its index finger to touch
Bala's Adams-apple. Then, with one quick flinch of its finger, the
wolf-thing sliced along Bala's neck, making him choke on his own
blood...Now the wolf-man entered the house once more, this time through
the door...
Chelitha's sobs could be heard as the werewolf moved silently
through the house to Tahlia's room. The twelve year old girl was sound
asleep in her bed as the wolfs shadow moved over her body. Tahlia awoke
and looked at the creature...She gave a scream as its jaws closed in on
her face and slammed shut, in one swift movement, on her face...The
wolf-creature stood and spat blood and pieces of flesh and bone onto the
dirt floor. Chelitha ran into the room to find her daughters faceless body
laying dead on the floor (where she had ended up), and the beast that did
it standing there looking at her. Horror and fear shot through her
distraught body. She ran back to her son's room and grabbed Chris. They
were about to flee the hut, when the wolf-creature stood in the door-way.
Chelitha pulled her last remaining child to her breast. Chris closed his
eyes and prayed...All remained silent, so he looked up at his mother's
face...But her head was gone...Her body fell to the ground with a thud...
Chris looked about his room... Death was everywhere...But there was
no wolf-thing...He stumbled through the house and out the door to exit the
hut... There he found his dead father...Shocked and frightened, Chris
stumbled into the forest, his breath making plumes in the air...
1126 - 1136
The next Summer a group of woodsmen found the rotting corpses in
the hut. They new that the family had consisted of two son's so they
searched the area, but found no trace...For years the rumour circulated
that the young boy, Chris, had gone crazy due to the isolation the family
endured and had killed them all...Until over ten years later a group of
children playing in the forest found the decayed body of a young boy...The
authorities found a necklace around the boys neck, this made
identification of the body easier as the necklace was very
distinctive...They found that the body was of Chris, the missing child of
the massacred family.
This story was reportedly told to a Publican who swore he was told
by the thing that did these horrible crimes. Apparently after he was told
the story, the Publican was attacked by the man, who "changed" into a
wolf-like creature...The thing was frightened off, before it could inflict
any injury bar a bump on the head, by a group of hunters who'd heard a
commotion behind the pub.
(This story was then told through the ages
in many different countries, until my Nanna from Wales told it to
me... submitted by Wolf Country Visitor)
The
Wolf and
the Sea
Once a man found
two wolf pups on the beach, he took them to his home and raised them. When
the pups had grown, they would swim out in to the ocean, kill a whale, and
bring it to shore for the man to eat. Each day they did this, soon there
was too much meat to eat and it began to spoil. When the Great Above
Person saw this waste he made a fog and the wolves could not find whales
to kill nor find they way back to shore. They had to remain at sea, those
wolves became seawolves (Orca).
Ankakumikaytin the Nomad Wolf - Siberian
(Russian Wolf Fable)
One
summer the fox heard that Ankakumikaityn the nomad wolf was courting his
neighbor, the elder she-dog. So the wily fox made himself an outfit of
wolf's clothing: a grey fur cloak, boots and cap. Then, when the she-dog's
brothers were away and she was at home with her younger sister, he called
upon her.
"I have two herds of fat reindeer," said the fox to the elder
sister, as he sipped the bilberry tea she offered him. "I have come to
seek your hand."
Thinking that this was, indeed, Ankakumikaityn the nomad wolf, the
she-dog treated him to reindeer meat, hot mare's-blood sausages, raw
walrus liver and pickled fish, the very choicest pieces. All the while,
the fox sat in his cap, unwilling to take it off lest he be recognized.
"Being a wealthy person," he explained, "I keep my cap on that
people might respect me."All of a sudden, the sound of dogs barking could
be heard from afar."It is my brothers returning from hunting," the she-dog
said."Oh dear," exclaimed the fox, "they will likely scare my herds. I
must run to caution them."
Once away from the tent, the fox quickly dashed up the nearby hill
and loosened some rocks. When the dog brothers came in sight, he pushed
the boulders down the hillside and crushed them all. Thereupon, he
returned to the tent and finished his tea, charming the sisters with his
oily-tongued tales. As dusk fell and the sisters were busy about their
housework, he made off with all their food supplies.
Early next morning, the sisters became most alarmed on discovering
their supplies gone and their brothers still absent. As they searched the
valley and found their poor brothers dead, they wept in despair.
"Who could have done us such harm?" they wailed. In their sorrow,
they decided to go to Ankakumikaityn to seek his counsel. The nomad wolf
was puzzled. "But I never came to you yesterday!" he exclaimed.
It was not long before the sisters realized they had been tricked
by the fox. With the wolf's help, they worked out a plan to get their
revenge.
Next day, the fox, unaware that he had been discovered called on
the sisters again dressed as Ankakumikaityn. But this time they were
expecting him. While the fox drank bilberry tea and exchanged
pleasantries, the nomad wolf stealthily entered the tent, grabbed the
treacherous fox and tied him up.
"What shall we do with the scoundrel?"asked the wolf. "Let's put
him in a sack and leave him in the tundra," suggested the two sisters.
That they did. The poor fox almost fainted from fright, wondering what his
fate would be. At last, he was set down with a bump; the younger sister
collected a heap of dry grass and brushwood for a fire, piled it round the
sack, surrounded the tinder with stones and then lit the fire. Poor fox.
He at last burst out of the burning sack, his wolf's clothing aflame, and
rushed headlong over the tundra like a burning torch. Satisfied at their
revenge, the dog sisters and the wolf returned to the tent.
Ankakumikaityn wed the elder sister, and the younger dog looked
after their children. Some time later, she found herself a husband too.
Since that time red foxes began to appear in the tundra. So it seems that
wily old fox, scorched and fiery red, managed to survive his roasting
after all.
Homework:
Make sure you read the
stories carefully and understand them. Questions from these stories might
come for your exams and tests.
Part 4 -
Wolf as Spirit Guide
Native peoples called him 'brother'. Great warriors, medicine men
and chiefs took their name and wolf-tales were recounted around fires
until the ashes grew cold. So powerful was the medicine of the Wolf, elite
warrior societies believed that by donning their pelts and making
themselves to resemble wolves before riding into the camps of their
enemies, they would be unseen and virtually invincible.
Medicine of the Wolf - what Wizardry world knows
it is true
* Facing the end of one's cycle with dignity and courage
* Death and rebirth
* Spirit teaching
* Guidance in dreams and meditations
* Instinct linked with intelligence
* Social and familial values
* Outwitting enemies
* Ability to pass unseen
* Steadfastness
* Skill in protection of self and family
* Taking advantage of change
Homework: try to remember as many 'medicines' as you can.
Information copyrighted by:
http://www.wolfsource.org/folklore.html
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