Canis lupus lupus

The Eurasian Wolf is the wolf of Middle Asia to Western Europe. They are a large subspecies that have many different eating habits, based on region. They have a melodious howl compared to North American wolves. Their facial features make them look more sneaky then North American wolves, which is a part of why they're tricksters in some Eurasian religions. Wolves started being exterminated in the Middle Ages and despite modern recovery programs continues to this day.

## Religion & Impact

**Lithuania:** The goddess Medeina has a wolf form, and has a pack of wolves accompanying her. A man named Gediminas went auroch hunting in a forest. He dreamed of a wolf made of iron on a hill, howling so strongly and loudly it sounded like hundreds of wolves. The pagan priest interpreted this as a sign that he was to build a city with a castle on top of this hill and become the ruler of the Lithuanian people.

**Germany:** Around 1635, the free imperial principality of Ansbach was visited by a lone wolf who had chosen to eat livestock and children. The German sources indicate that one day the wolf went after a chicken and accidentally fell into a well. English sources seem to embellish the story, adding a not-quite werewolf feature. If the English sources are to be believed, this is how it went:

The citizens of Ansbach had been influenced by a translation or the Latin original of "Book" Eighteen of Augustine of Hippo's *On The City of God* *Against Pagans* (originally published in 426 CE; meaning the book itself was 1,209 years old ). As such, a part of their belief system included non-Indigenous and non-Christian originating beliefs. The belief that someone could become a full-bodied wolf was believed. The governor of the town had recently died, and he was a hated man. The town did not mourn him in the way that might have been done for a normal governor. When the wolf came and began eating the children along with or having moved on from their flocks, they came to the belief that it was their governor who had come to haunt them. This means that they believed the wolf was either the reincarnation of him or that his human corpse had risen from the dead and shifted into a wolf form. One day they hunted the wolf down. It was driven into a well, were they slaughtered him. Then they mutilated its corpse, laughed about all the things they did to it, then prepared it to put in a museum.

**Greece:** The "pre-Greeks" were dubbed by the "ancient" Greeks as Pelasgians. These were many different people under one name, sort of like how we do with other peoples today (Native American). The Pelagian they named these groups after was a king named Pelasgus. He had a son named Lycaon. There are many myths of him, and in some of them he insulted Zeus. As punishment, he was transformed into a wolf.

**Ireland:** There was a High King named Cormac who ruled sometime around 100 to 400. As a child a mother wolf stole him away for her own and brought him to nurse with her own pups. A hunter took him back to his foster-father, and on the way the pack attacked them. The horses shooed them away.

**Scotland:** The first month in the agricultural calendar is called Faoilleach. In modern times this represents January. Faoilleach can be sort of translated as "wolves burrowing" or "wolves ravaging", though it has elements in its name making it not an exact translation. Alternatively, it may translate to "under oil".

**Iceland:** The god Fenrir is the son of Loki and Angrboda. His body is that of a ginormous wolf. His stories revolve around his aggression and how the gods he was a part of feared him because of it. He was raised at least partially in the Asgardian's hall. When he became too large and aggressive to take care of, they tricked him into getting chained by a tree. The chain was made by dwarves of "impossible" things. In tricking him they put Tyr's hand in his mouth in order to prove that it wasn't a trick, and when he pulled on the chain and it didn't break, he bit his hand off. Later on it is said that when he's freed, he will take part in destroying the world at Ragnarok and kill Odin before being killed by one of his sons.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wolf\_of\_Ansbach
2. ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The\_City\_of\_God/IwGePQYd4l0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=wolf
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Werewolf#Misinformation\_in\_the\_%22History%22\_section
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cormac\_mac\_Airt&oldid=976495209
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faoilleach
6. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Faoilleach
7. ↑ https://learngaelic.scot/dictionary/index.jsp?abairt=wolf&slang=both&wholeword=false
8. ↑ https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/fenrir/