Kim's Wolves
Sept 27, 2002-Updated
Wolf Legends
Legends in the Native American
society and other myths.
~ The Wolf ~
Out of the darkness she emerges
A soft white silhouette against the night sky
She approaches the water's edge
Her eyes glow golden in the moonlight
She gazes at the lovely reflection
of a creature of majestic beauty
Too few appreciate her existance
Of their fear, she is unaware
The stars glitter like diamonds
surrounding her reflection
Slowly she raises her head to the night's sky
Her howl carries across the valleys
Alerting all who are aware
To the call of the wolf
Written By Carrie Marie
Woman Who Lived with Wolves
Once, in deepest winter,a woman fought with her husband
and ran away from their camp.
After four days she
had no more food left,
and she became weak and fatigued.
She came to a hill and found a cave.She crawled inside and lay down.
When she awoke,
she found herself among
a pack of wolves.
The biggest of them said,
"Don't worry.
We are your friends.
We will not hurt you."
They fed her on deer meat.
She lived with them for two years.The wolves hunted and
brought her meat, and she made pemmican(Venison cut into strips,
dried, and pounded into paste
with melted fat)
for them.
The tanned the hides for herself.
Then the wolf chief said,"It is time for you to
return to your people."
He told the woman to follow a herd
of wild horses for two days,
and they would lead her
to a place near her former camp.
He said that the stallion might try
to keep her,
but that she should run away
from him if he did..
The woman left,but remained with the
horses for two years.
Her people came upon the herd
one day and captured it,
the woman included.
When they found her among the horses,
her relatives took care of her.
They did not return her to her husband,but it was a long time before she behaved like a human again.
Her people called her
"Woman Who Lived with Wolves."
Other people called her
"Cave Woman."
Teton Sioux Folktale
Leto and the Wolves
When Leto had given birth to Apolloand Artemis on the island Astoria,
she came to Lycia,
carrying the children to the
bathing places of the river Xanthus.
No sooner had she come into
that country than she found herself
at the spring Melite.
There she stopped to bathe
the children before she proceeded
to the Xanthus.
But herdsmen sho wanted water
for their herds sent her away.
Wolves met her and fawned over the goddess andacted as her escort all the way
to the river Xanthus.
When she had drunk of it's water and bathed the children,
she consecrated the Xanthus to Apollo,
and to the country--
which had formerly been called Trimilis--she gave the name of lycia
from the wolves that had led her here.
Then she returned to the spring
to punish the herdsmen she had
driven her away.
They were still watering their cattle
at the spring;
Leto therefore changed them
all into frogs.
She struck them smartly on their backs
and shoulders with a stone,
threw them into the spring,
and condemned them to a
watery existence.
Antoninus Liboralis (A. D. 150)
Wolf Daughter
Long ago, animals lived in thesame way as people do today.
One day a wolverine came to a
village and asked to marry the
daughter of a family of wolves.
The wolf-girl's mother frowned
on the idea, but she finally gave her permission.
The wolverine and the wolf-girl had a number of children,
all but one of them wolverines.
That one was a wolf.
The wolverine cursed the wolvesto bring them bad luck in hunting.
He refused to feed them himself,
telling them that he had no meat
to give to his mother-in-law.
But he had plenty of beaver
meat stored up.
Finally the wolves succeeded inkilling a moose.
Then the wolverine came to their camp and asked for moose meat.
The mother-in-law said,
"Yes, But when you eat
moose meat
you have to shut your eyes."
When he closed his eyes,
the mother-in-law killed the
wolverine with a club.
Then she ordered the wolves to
kill all the wolverine children,
but to spare the wolf,
for it shared their nature.
Rock Cree Folktale
Yellow Eyes
Wolf Woman lived not far fromSkeleton Man.
One day Wolf Woman went
looking for food and passed
Skeleton Man's place.
Skeleton Man was doing
something unusual,
and she stopped to look.
Skeleton Man was singing,"Hi ya, hi ya, hey!"
Then his eyes flew outside his head
south to the horizon.
Then they flew back and went
into his head again.
"I have seen many new things,
" Skeleton Man told Wolf Woman.
Wolf Woman said."It is a good song."
"Yes," Skeleton Man replied."When I sing it I travel.
Just now I passed over a canyon
that is full of deer and rabbits."
"Will you teach me to sing it?" Wolf Woman asked.
"Yes," Skeleton Man said."Sing it facing south and do not move."
Wolf Woman sang."Hi ya, hi ya, hey!"
Her eyes left her head.
She saw the canyon and all the animals
it contained.
But her eyes did not return.
She had moved.
Finally she realized that she was notfacing south.
She felt around and found what she thought were her eyes.
They did not give her good sight at first.
Wolf Woman went home.Her pups, fled when they saw her,
for she had large yellow eyes.
She had replaced her eyes with yellow gourds.
For that reason wolves have
yellow eyes.
The live everywhere.
Hopi Legend
Today, the wolf represents all
that which is wild and free.
They call us to the last retreats
of our vanishing wilderness,
where their songs carryon the wind,
a wild defiant sorrow.
Roaming where few men dare,
wolves pierce the silence
with their powerful song.
The howl begins low and melodious.
The sound is lonely,haunting, surreal;
as if the voices of our ancestors
were howling through the canyons.
Soon, the ridges resound with thechorus
of a wolf pack on the prowl.
Then, as the last note descends,
it is quiet, as the winds whisper
like spirits of ancient times.
Remember that sound and treasure it.
It is as old as time, wild as the wind
and as poetic as moonlight on snow.
It is the trademark of the wolf.SacredWolfDreams
