Wolf. Cultural History

The new book by the famous French medievalist Michel Pastureau. With a foreword and edited by Mikhail Maizels, one of the authors of "The Suffering Middle Ages". Illustrated edition. Translated from French by Stanislav Mukhametzyanov. The wolf is one of the most important images in the cultural history of Europe. The wolf has inhabited human consciousness since ancient times and plays a significant role in well-known stories and myths. The Roman she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus, Fenrir the wolf, the demise of the Nordic pantheon, hundreds of plots about animal metamorphoses and werewolves are just the tip of this mountain of images.

In the Middle Ages, the image of the wolf changes, fear of it recedes into the background — in bestiaries and a number of fairy tales, it is depicted as ridiculous, deceived by other animals and constantly pursued by hunters. And only with the advent of the Modern Age does the fear of the wolf return to culture; since then, it has become not only a somewhat foolish livestock hunter but also a villain and devourer.

This book by Michel Pastureau is dedicated to the analysis of numerous cultural transformations of the wolf's image, hundreds of related plots, and ancient legends about the gluttonous beast.