Just Finished Reading: Wolf by Garry Marvin (FP: 2012)

Personally I think wolves are amazing creatures deserving of our admiration and respect. Apparently, as with much else it seems, I am in the minority holding this opinion and have been for the greater part of human history. This amazing little book – a mere 181 lavishly illustrated pages – covers that history of humanities relationship with the wolf. Until recently it was almost without exception an adversarial one – usually with the wolf at the wrong end of a gun.

Wolves have long been viewed as much more than mere carnivorous competitors especially after the introduction of domesticated livestock. Wolves were viewed as being especially vicious, killing for the sake of killing and enjoying themselves in the process. They became associated with the dark forest and with nature at its most savage, most cruel and most cunning. They became a personification of the chaos of the natural world in opposition to the supposed order of the human world and became an identified danger to that order and so were hunted down wherever they were found. Long after they became extinct in most of Europe their presence lingered in myth and in the idea of the werewolf – that terrifying creature who only appeared to be human until the true beast was released to wreak havoc in otherwise peaceful communities.

Times change and with them the perception of the wolf – now seen, at least in some quarters, as an indication of a healthy ecosystem. Wolves, what few remain, are protected (although not without opposition) and as often as not revered rather than reviled becoming the icon and poster child of elements of various environmental groups. Wolves are now seen to have much more positive attributes – loyalty to the in group, loving parents, clever, resourceful – than ever before. Wolves now appear positively in advertising, movies and in military organisations. The world has turned and with it the fortune of wolves.

This, and much else besides, is covered in this fascinating volume within a whole series of books looking at the cultural side of creatures that many of us take for granted or simply ignore. If the rest of this expanding series is of this high quality (I have one more to read before I start buying them wholesale) then I am in for a serious treat. Highly recommended.