Beast

Wolf


Latin name: Lupus
Other names: Leu, Leus, Lop, Lou, Loup, Lup, Woutre
Category: Beast

If a wolf sees a man first, the man will lose his voice

General Attributes

If a wolf sees a man before the man sees the wolf, the man will lose his voice. If the man sees the wolf first, the wolf can no longer be fierce. If a man loses his voice because the wolf saw him first, he should take off all his clothes and bang two rocks together, which will keep the wolf from attacking.

The wolf lives from prey, from the earth, and sometimes from the wind. When the wolf sneaks into a sheep fold, it approaches like a tame dog and is careful to approach from upwind so that the farm dogs do not smell its evil breath. If it steps on a branch and makes a noise, the wolf punishes itself by biting the offending foot. The wolf is cunning: it does not hunt for food for its cubs near its lair, but goes far away to find prey.

Wolves have strength in their feet, and anything they trample dies. They are also strong in their mouths and shoulders, but weak in their loins. They are unable to turn their necks backwards, but must turn their whole body to look behind them. Their eyes shine in the dark like lamps. At the tip of a wolf's tail is a tuft of hair that can be used for love potions; if the wolf is about to be captured, it bites off the tuft so that no man can get it. The wolves of Ethiopia are said to have manes in such a range of colors that no hue is left out, and to be able to leap so high that one might think they had wings.

Wolves mate only twelve days in the year. The female gives birth at the beginning of spring, in the month of May, when it first thunders.

Allegory/Moral

Like the wolf, the devil always sees mankind as prey and circles the sheepfold of the faithful, that is the Church. As the wolf gives birth when thunder first sounds, so the devil fell from heaven at the first display of his pride. The shining of the wolf's eyes in the night is like the works of the devil, which seem beautiful to foolish men. As the wolf cannot turn his neck, so the devil never turns towards the correction of penitence. Like the man who, because of the wolf has lost his voice, can save himself by removing his clothes and banging two rocks together, so can the man who is lost in sin be saved by stripping off, through baptism, his worldly self and then appealing to the saints, who are called "stones of adamant".

Prostitutes are called she-wolves (lupae) because they lay waste their lover's riches.

Uses Magical, Medical, Alchemical and Culinary

The wolf has a small tuft of hair in its tail that can be used in a love potion, but only if it is pulled from the tail of a live wolf. The heart of a wolf, burned to ash and added to a drink, is a treatment for epilepsy, but only if the patient is not tainted by lust.