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Author
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Comment
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tayva
Registered User
(7/8/02 1:17:23 am)
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wolves in whatever type cloting
By sheer chance i stumbled on this wonderful site - now, can anyone here point me to wolf mythology and/or fairy stories. I am using the wolf as a symbol in my own writing, and need solid underpinnings of knowledge here.
Cheers - tayva
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Midori
Unregistered User
(7/8/02 4:09:44 am)
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russian wolves
There is a lovely story you might want to check out in Aleksandr Afanas'ev's very old and wonderful collection of fairy tales called "Russian Fairy Tales" (it's a classic so you can probably find it in a library). The story is called "Prince Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf." The Russian tales are interesting because the wolf figures in the tales run the gambit from being large and dangerous creatures that must be made to look foolish, to the dangerous --to the hero's animal helper.
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(7/8/02 6:09:10 am)
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Wolves
Of course wolves in Three Little Pigs and Red Ridinghood. But wolves also in many Native American stories. The northern European countries also abound in stories with wolves in them though mostly as villains.
Jane
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Judith
Berman
Registered User
(7/8/02 8:53:07 am)
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Wolves as good guys
Hunter-gatherers, of course, have a different perspective on wolves than farmers and keepers of livestock. Wolves are generally admired in Native north American traditions.
There are several stories that might be interesting for you in Boas and Hunt, KWAKIUTL TEXTS and KWAKIUTL TEXTS, SECOND SERIES, especially the first volume. See also the many references to wolves, shamanic initiation and shamanic dreams in my article "Red Salmon and Red Cedar Bark," in BC STUDIES 125/126 (2000).
For both the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), the wolves were also the originators of major ceremonials. There are beautiful wolf masks from these ceremonials, and from north Pacific (a.k.a. Northwest coast) crest art in general, that you can find in the many art books covering the area.
But wolves as powerful spirits/animals also get the short end of the stick in some of the trickster stories. There are several examples of this in the above-mentioned text volumes. An Ojibwa trickster story also sticks in my mind, "Wisakehcek (sp?) preaches to the wolves," but you'd have to dig in the old Ojibwa-language text publications for it -- I've forgotten which volume.
Judith
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Jess
Unregistered User
(7/8/02 6:25:49 pm)
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Northwest Native Art
You might wish to contact the Burke Museum at the University of
Washington (206) 543-5590. They have a fine collection of Pacific
Northwest Coast works and an anthropologist familiar with the "background"
to these pieces, by which I believe he/she may be able to refer
you to specific references of wolf tales. www.washington.edu/burkem...myths.html
This site gives you a bibliography of Northwest tales and myths.
I assume you are interested only in wolf tales and not coyote tales as well.
Jess
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Midori
Unregistered User
(7/9/02 7:05:53 am)
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wolves/tricksters
Judith,
Yes, I've found that idea of trickster and power an interesting problem. I have always thought that tricksters are usually the smaller weaker animals (or humans) such as spider, rabbit, even coyote--who is small in comparison to the wolf--and wondered if it is because in narrative terms it would simple be too dangerous to have a larger powerful creature capable of such deception and trickery. There is a kind of balance to these forces and what the smaller creatures lack in strength they make up for in tricksterish behavior. Wolves would be odd characters on the border--very ambiguious--powerful--and depending as you suggest on your point of view--that power can work in a variety of ways.
tayva,
you might also look over recent studies on Lycanthropy--werewolf studies--("A Lycanthropy Reader:Werewolves in Western Culture" edited by Charlotte Otten). These might yield even more interesting ideas about how we tend to mythologize our deepest fears/attractions to the figure of the wolf. There is also a cool new movie out "Ginger Snaps" about female werewolves--as a metaphor for female rites of passage and menstruation.
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Judith
Berman
Registered User
(7/9/02 11:39:48 am)
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wolves and tricksters as mediators
It is certainly narratively more interesting to pit a weaker but clever character against a powerful antagonist. But I think there are also deeper cultural reasons for the choice of animal characters.
Because tricksters are often world-transformers and culture heroes (bringing important knowledge or goods to humans), mediating between the human world and the divine, I think they often tend to be, getting back to Mary Douglas and Victor Turner, liminal animals, that is, ambiguous and anomalous in terms of cultural classifications. Raven and the animals in his party (Mink, Raccoon, Land otter, etc.) certainly look that way in terms of traditional Kwakwaka'wakw cosmology -- falling on the boundaries between the predator/game, forest/sea categories as that culture defined them. Ravens, minks, raccoons and coyotes are alsoanimals who hang around human habitation and steal human food given the chance -- not truly wild animals, but not domesticated either.
Raven and Mink and their party were supposed to be the first animals to take off their animal masks and live as human beings, and Raven, especially, did so much to make the primordial world a fit place for humans. But their mortal enemies in Kw. myth, the Wolves, are also mediators -- between life and death, between spirit power and the ordinary realm. The Wolves are usually portrayed as powerful shamans and they originated the quasi-shamanic ceremonial that allowed the separation of humans and animals. Wolves and also killer whales (sometimes called wolves of the sea) are particularly associated with human shamanism and initiated many shamans in historical accounts thereof. Part of this no doubt stems from the acknowledged interest of wolves in the dead, but I suspect there is also a parallel being drawn between the complex social lives of wolves (and killer whales) and those of human beings. Unlike, say, the Great Plains, these are the major social animals of the north coast. (Elk and mt goats live inland.)
For hunter-gatherers, the natural world is generally the source of power and humans are more or less powerless seekers and supplicants. It makes sense that the culture hero -- the mediator between those two realms -- would combine aspects of both, and that Raven would have to resort to stealth, trickery and stratagem to obtain the riches that the powerful spirit beings like the Wolves and Salmon owned at the beginning of things: tides, daylight, salmon runs, fresh water, summer weather. How else is he going to get 'em?
Judith
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Carolyn
Dunn
Registered User
(7/9/02 6:34:37 pm)
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Re: wolves and tricksters as mediators
I second Judith's comments on the trickster aspect of animals in Native America. These are usually animals that live in both worlds, much like contemporary Native peoples today. I think this is why these stories are especially relevant to modern Natives because we do live in the Borderlands and we need to look to our Ancestors for guidance in these tricky times. It makes perfect sense that the stories are relevant in modern times as they were traditionally.
Also, in Cherokee and Choctaw societies, wolves are clan totems. The Wolf Clan of the Cherokee traditionally were the warriors and the War Chief (a man) came from this clan. Their color was red which signifies war and sacrifice. The Peace Chief (a woman) was from the Long Hair or Twister clan, and their color was white. During times of war the War Chief was basically in charge, and the Peace Chief incharge during times of peace. This speaks to the duality of nature in Cherokee cosmology.
The Choctaw traditional clans also have a Wolf Clan and I believe (I will have to ask my husband about this) their color is also red and the War Chiefs came from this clan.
Hope this helps as well!
Carolyn
PS Judith--- I just returned from Juneau (Tlingit country) and had a wonderful time. Thanks for the info on Raven stories!
Edited by: Carolyn Dunn at: 7/9/02 6:39:50 pm
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lalunesafir
Registered User
(7/10/02 11:56:00 am)
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Re: wolves in whatever type cloting
I too am interested in animal mythology and have found this link www2.h-net/msu.edu
The discussion group is called h-nilas which I believe stands for "nature in literature and art". It is a scholarly discussion group comprising both environmental symbolism and modern day environmental issues. You must subscribe to receive the newsletter but the database is searchable by topic. You can also search any of the other discussion groups on-circuit which comprise issues in anthropology and the humanities.
I wish you well!
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Midori
Unregistered User
(7/13/02 4:17:17 am)
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spiders
Judith and Carolyn,
I found your responses fascinating--they have really made me relook at the dynamic of the "border" characters in the tales in terms of that fine line of trickster/predator. I am especially curious because it has set me rethinking about the African trickster/culture heroes which are harder to define as say, marginally domesticated--in the West Coast its the spider Anasi, and among the Khoi-San of South Africa it's Mantis. Not even mammals, they seem to exemplify the notion of smallest and least of the trickster--and yet for all their small size they pack quite a predatory punch--and the artifice of the web, like human construction, manipulation, cleverness--and mantis's almost human like stance of the supplicant body. You have me wanting to go back this summer and reread all of those tales in the light of your comments--it's been years since I've looked at them...thanks for the wonderful new ideas.
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