Mother Wolf
Goddess of the Woods
Pack-mother, night-pelted, many-teated, endless-runner, bone-gnasher, tribe-maker, beast-spawner, all-rutter, first womb
Mother Wolf was the Goddess of the Woods and creatrix of all land animals. When her children became too numerous, she allowed mortals to hunt them, granting humanity a strength and cunning it never before had. In this way, the beginnings of tool use and crafting are considered to be gifts from her—ones that became curses once mortals forgot to honor her for them.
She appeared to mortals as a mighty she-wolf, silver maned, with fangs like swords and green eyes glowing like lanterns. Her breath made the air as hot as an oven, and her saliva dripped from her tongue in streams of steaming foam. Her howl stripped listeners of reason and made them drop to all fours and run mad or rut in abandon.
The earth and all its dirt, mud, clay, and sand were hers, for she had coughed them up or shat them out in elder times to form her den.
Wolves were especially sacred to her, for she chose them to teach humans how to cull her teeming beasts. Those who made their living directly from her bounty—hunters, trappers, butchers—were forbidden from hunting or killing wolves. Cattle herders were expected to allow wolves to take a share of their herds. Legend tells of a herder who forgot the law and killed a wolf for taking his prized cow. Mother Wolf transformed him into a beast, who chased down and devoured his own family.
Legend also tells how she once ate prey poisoned by an Outsider. The elk, preferred prey of her wolves, selflessly reached high into the branches of Yggdrasil to fetch a rare berry that cured her. In reward, she turned the branches of the World Tree that had entangled the elk’s head into horns—weapons against her wolves.
Hunters and priests awarded her the first portion and prime cut from any hunt. When it came time to butcher farm animals for the winter, farmers gave her the most prized livestock in hopes that the herds would be protected in coming seasons from her children’s hunger.
In times when her mercy was crucially needed, human criminals became hunted prey. They were given a head start into the woods and had three days to evade their pursuers—an entire community on the hunt. Those rare and lucky few who managed to escape were pardoned and freed, clearly favored by Mother Wolf. Most were brought down by arrows or spears, however, and were then butchered like animals, their bodies offered to the She-Wolf.
We paint the blood of our kill on our faces so that she may know us, that she may honor us, and call her children to our arrows.