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Author
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Comment
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(9/9/02 4:53:51 am)
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For Clarissa
janeyolen@aol.com
and my website is www.janeyolen.com
I return all of you now to your regular programming! <G>
Jane
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Gregor9
Registered User
(9/9/02 6:38:30 am)
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Positive wolves
From an anthropological/sociological perspective...
There's a mention in Paul Barber's great book "Vampires, Burial, and Death" of a middle European folk belief in wolves and werewolves as positive forces, related directly to vampires. The wolves were considered protectors.
This, according to Barber, was due--as was the diagnosis of "vampire" in the first place--to misinterpretation of facts. The wolves were seen in cemeteries, digging at graves and rending bodies. Villagers who had already experienced troubles with revenants assumed the wolves were killing the vampires while they slept and therefore protecting the living from the undead.
So in this limited social framework, the wolves became magical protectors.
Greg
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Judith
Berman
Registered User
(9/9/02 6:09:00 pm)
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Nice and not-so-nice wolves
In an earlier thread (maybe in June?) I mentioned some NWC traditions regarding wolves, especially the connections between wolves, shamanism, shamanic healing and even return from death. Some of these are cited in my "Red Salmon and Red Cedar Bark," BC STUDIES Spring/Summer 2000.
The discussion of wolves jogged loose from memory a poem by Diane di Prima called "Loba," about a wolf-goddess who is *not* so nice... as in the final passage (formatting not reproduced in full):
She raises in flames the
city it glows about her The Loba
mother wolf & mistress
of many dances she
treads in the severed heads that grow
like mosses on the flood the city
melts it flows past her
treading white feet they
curl around ashes & the ashes
sing, they chant a new creation myth
ghoul lips of lovers she left
like pearls in the road she
dances see
her eyes glow the city
glows dancing in them wolf cry you hear
falls from the stars the Loba
dances, she treads the
salty earth, she does not raise
breath cloud heavenward her breath
itself is carnage.
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Terri
Registered User
(9/9/02 11:38:38 pm)
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Re: Nice and not-so-nice wolves
Judith, what a wonderful poem extract. Where can we find the whole poem?
I was recently visited by some folklorist friends from France, including Pierre Dubuois (author of The Great Encyclopdia of Faeries) who told a wonderful story about wolves in relation to a discussion we were having about hurdy-gurdy music. He said that there are legends in the French countryside about men who play the hurdy-gurdy so well that they have the ability to make wolves dance. This man might or might not be a werewolf himself, depending on the region where the legend is being told. The hurdy-gurdy player would sometimes turn up at isolated farms with his whole wolf pack. If the farmer was lucky enough to receive such a visit, and was courteous and hospitable, the musician would gift him in the following manner: The youngest child of the household and the youngest wolf would be brought together. The child would put his/her hand in the wolf cub's mouth; the wolf cub would put his/her hand in the child's mouth. Thereafter, the child would have the ability to cure wolf bites.
Pierre told it rather better than this, acting out the parts to get it across despite his rudimentary knowledge of English. We were all in my local pub at the time, and he had the entire pub enthralled.
Edited by: Terri at: 9/9/02 11:40:28 pm
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(9/10/02 12:47:38 am)
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Wow!
Wow--THAT would make a great picture book. Terri--you and Pierre should co-author it. (Otherwise I mightn be forcedto steal it!)
Jane
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Judith
Berman
Registered User
(9/10/02 6:11:02 am)
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Diane di Prima
I have it in a chapbook called "Loba: Part I," published by Capra Press of Santa Barbara (the Yes! Capra Chapbook Series, which includes work by Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Lawrence Durrell and Andre Codrescu among others). I haven't ever seen a Part II, but I haven't looked in years and in fact had forgotten all about it until now!
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Marks
Unregistered User
(9/16/02 2:59:45 pm)
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There is also....
...a new book out called "Neither God nor Devil" which
is sort of a wolf version of Brian Froud's "Faeries."
I looked through it and it seems to contain a lot of easily accessible
wolf myths and legends, maybe the most thorough (in a mass market
sense) I've ever seen. Plus it has a ton of great illustrations.
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Lizzi
Unregistered User
(9/21/02 10:19:02 am)
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Sorry if this is wrong but ...
there's a recent French film called Brotherhood of the Wolf which is worth seeing. I don't want to ruin it by giving away the plot so I am not going to say at this point if the wolves are good or bad in it.
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Marks
Unregistered User
(9/25/02 8:58:42 pm)
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Great movie!
I forgot about that one - great historical/fantasy/horror film. Very underrated. It out Burtoned Burton. If only Tim made movies like this one. Another film that deals with, well, sort of, wolves, is Wolfen, which is in my top ten list. One of the best horror/suspense films ever made, IMHO. The cinematography is great, and the scenes of the wolfen hunting and making their kills shown through their point of view is riveting. Brilliant direction, acting, dialog, all comes together to make a terrific film.
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Lizzi
Unregistered User
(9/26/02 1:53:05 am)
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Is that the one with Albert Finney? n/t
.
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MarkS
Unregistered User
(10/7/02 8:11:32 pm)
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Sorry, Lizzi!
Didn't see this until now. Yes, in fact, I think one of Finney's finest performances on film. He's funny, intense, and sympathetic. Michael Wadleigh's (Woodstock) direction may have had something to do with that, but I think Finney just plain did a great job.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(10/22/02 12:13:56 pm)
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The Debate
FYI - Anyone interested in reading about the wolf debate should pick up a copy of "Alaska" magazine Nov. 2002.
Jess
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