WOLF – Reales Tier / Denktradition

Wolf – A. Das reale Tier

In medieval Europe, wolves (alongside → bears, → lynx and of course humans) were top terrestrial predators, at the apex of their food chain.

Populations survived across Europe into the early modern period, except in England where wolves were hunted to extinction by the fifteenth century. They were predominantly associated with physically and conceptually marginal landscapes; broadly defined as wilderness or in Scandinavian studies as utmark or outland (i.e. uncultivated land).

The intensity of wolf hunting during the Middle Ages appears to have varied across Europe. In England for example, the persecution of wolves was largely sponsored and driven by the crown, particularly in the thirteenth century, in late medieval Normandy there is extensive documentary evidence for peasants hunting wolves, whereas in Scandinavia organised wolf hunting was a much later development. The Sachsenspiegel (the Saxon Mirror) encouraged the hunting of bears, wolves and foxes. Hunting was not driven by any demand for wolf fur or body parts, but by its perceived threat to livestock, people and – most importantly – protected game species.

Documented incidents of wolf depredations on livestock are relatively uncommon in the Middle Ages, at least in north-west Europe, and attacks on humans are difficult to quantify before the modern period. There is very little documentary evidence for wolf pelts being traded, and even less archaeological evidence for their procurement. The latter is partly related to difficulties in distinguishing between the archaeological remains of → dogs and wolves, but also must reflect the infrequent acquisition and use of wolf carcasses. There is some written evidence for the capture of live wolves for baiting, or more unusually, as in the case of the counts of Artois at the turn of the 14th century, for keeping as a troublesome pet.

The wolf was also the animal model for the quintessential medieval monster: the werewolf. Werewolf beliefs are poorly and unevenly documented across Europe before the fifteenth century, after which a few hundred appear within prosecutions of witchcraft. They do however feature in Anglo-Norman but more so in Old Norse literature, where they are found in sixteen texts. In Iceland, the figure of the werewolf with innate shapechanging abilities (rather than the Continental, sometimes referred to as ›Celtic‹ transformation by magic) was probably a remnant of pre-Christian beliefs.

Lit.: A. G. PLUSKOWSKI: Wolves and the Wilderness in the Middle Ages, 2006.

Aleks Pluskowski

Zurück zu "Wolf" | Weiter zu "B.1 Antike Zoologie"

Wolf – B.1 Antike Zoologie

Der Wolf wird von den einschlägigen naturhistorischen Schriftstellern (Aristoteles; Plinius insbes. 8,80–83; Aelian insbes. 10,26) hauptsächlich unter dem Vorzeichen eines gefährlichen Feindes von Mensch und Tier beschrieben (sprichwörtlich Aristoteles, Historia animalium 612b2). Die anatomischen Angaben sind verstreut und erscheinen beliebig (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 500b24; 507b17; De partibus animalium 685b29f.; 688a5; Plinius 11,245; 11,261; 11,265), in den Details oft falsch (nur ein Halsknochen: Plinius 11,177, Aristoteles, De partibus animalium 686a20; Augen senden Lichtstrahlen aus: Plinius 11,151). Aussehen und Fortpflanzung (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 540a9; 580a11–23; 571b27; De generatione animalium 2,6; 4,6; Plinius 8,83) des Wolfes werden zwar als dem Hund ähnlich notiert, aber ihr grundlegend gegensätzlicher Charakter lässt Hund und Wolf als zwei distinkte Tierarten hervortreten. Fortpflanzung zwischen Hund und Wolf ist bekannt, wird aber als exotische Zuchtpraxis marginalisiert (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 607a2; Plinius 8,148). Auf die Lebensweise im Rudel wird nicht explizit eingegangen, allerdings wird das alleinlebende Exemplar als besonders gefährlich herausgestellt (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 594a32). Der Charakter des Wolfes ist wild und grausam (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 488a28; 488b18; Aelian 5,19; 7,20); sein Jagdverhalten zeichnet sich durch geradezu menschliche Hinterlist aus und wird häufig in mythisch übersteigerten Einzelbeispielen geschildert (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 620b6; Plinius 10,23; Aelian 3,6; 8,14; Xenophon, Hipparchikós 4,18–20). Auch vor dem Konsum von Menschenfleisch schreckt der Wolf nicht zurück (Aristoteles, Historia animalium 594a32; Plinius 8,81f.), was der allgemeinen antiken Vorstellung entspricht und die Konstruktion des Wolfes als Antagonisten des Menschen unterstreicht.

Lit.: W. RICHTER: Art. Wolf, in: Realenzyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche Suppl. 15, 960-969; C. HÜNEMÖRDER: Art. Wolf, in: Der neue Pauly 12/2, 567–570; R. BUXTON: Wolves and Werewolves in Greek Thought, in: Interpretations of Greek Mythology, 1987, 60-79; O. KELLER: Thiere des classischen Altertums in culturgeschichtlicher Beziehung, 1887, 158–177.

Nadine Metzger

Zurück zu "Wolf" | Zurück zu "A. Das reale Tier" | Weiter zu "C. Lateinische Literatur"