Narrative Non-fiction · Hardback

Big bad wolf

Norwegian title: GRÅBEIN

Varg, Skrubb, Gråbein, Tasse, Skrogg, Lupus… the wolf has since immemorial times called for fear and fascination, but also respect and admiration. From Fenrir, Romulus and Remus, Mowgli and the story about the three little pigs, it has pattered through the stories humans have told each other, from thousands of years ago and all the way up to today’s heated debates about hunting predators. Sometimes the wolf is a friend and helper, sometimes it is a scary enemy.

Tor Åge Bringsværd takes us on a cultural-historical journey through the wolf’s footprints which spans from the five thousand year old Gilgamesh-epic to Walt Disney, from Finnmarksvidda to Sahara and the Japanese indigenous Aino-people who are said to originate from the wolves, to the Canadian Nootka-tribe’s wolf totems. Norwegian sagas and folklore, the brothers Grimm’s Little Red Riding Hood, Middle-Europe’s werewolf stories and Aesop’s fables – the wolf is a part of them all, like an eternal shadow at the edge of the forest.

Big Bad Wolf is part of series wherein Tor Åge Bringsvær continues the stories about animals in myths, fairytales, legends and folklore. The other titles in the series are Giddy-Up, Woof and Reynard, as well as the collection Sacred Animals.

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