Berserkers And Selves Summary

            For years, wolves have been falsely accused for crimes in stories, myths, and life. In Never Cry Wolf, author Farley Mowat demonstrates how even though wolves are mistakenly stereotyped as evil; people don’t know anything without evidence. Farley Mowat takes a trip to Churchill, Canada, to study Arctic wolves for the Canadian Wildlife Service. He is studying the Arctic wolves because he needs to prove that the wolves are killing all the migrating caribou. During the entire book, he witnesses and experiences, new journeys about wolves and Eskimos, throughout his time in the tundra. Mowat learns over time, how wolves are mischaracterized from who they

The story “Beowulf” is an epic poem written by an unknown author. In the story Beowulf, our protagonist, is the strongest man in the world who has to take down three monsters and faces challenges when facing two of them. In the story lof, comitatus, and wyrd is shown in the story and plays an important part of the Beowulf’s culture.

In today’s society, we see violence as a way to cope with all types problems. Humans have used violence as a way to resolve issues since ancient times. The poem “Beowulf” was written between the eighth and eleventh century by an anonymous author. The poem recounts the story of a brave warrior, named Beowulf, who battles three great monsters. Two of the monsters, Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, terrorize the people of Daneland and the third monster, the Dragon, lives in Beowulf's homeland. The epic poem “Beowulf” illustrates and normalizes the idea of violence within the Pagan Warrior Culture.

‘The Company of Wolves’ is a twisted and raw reinvention of ‘Little Red Ridding Hood’ while symbolizing female sexuality and embracing it. The wolves in the story have been described by the author as skin and bones, “so little flesh on them that you could count the starveling ribs”. Their food source has been taken away by

Gender has been described as masculine or feminine characteristics that encompass gender identity sex as well as social roles (Nobelius 2004). According to sexologist John Money, there is a difference between gender as a role and the biologically of differences in sex (Udry 1994). Within scholarly disciplines, cultures and contexts, gender frequently has its own mean, contextual frame of reference and the manner in which it is used to describe a variety of issues and characteristics. The sociocultural codes, conventions and the suggested and literal rules that accompany the notion of gender are vast and diverse. There has been and continues to be much scholarly debate regarding the idea of gender and how it has been viewed historically; as well as changes in the grammatical use of the

Beowulf is a story about a man who volunteers to help out the Danes. Beowulf, the prince of the Geats, travels to the land of the Danes to defeat the terrible monster, Grendel, who has been haunting their land for fourteen winters. Beowulf says, “That I, alone and with the help of my

The purpose of writing the article Wolf Wars was to inform the reader about new situations in the west. The reason is to inform the reader of what problems wolves have been causing. In the article, the Author explains of how wolves became endangered and then flourished once more.

Willem de Blécourt says in his literary journal “I Would Have Eaten You Too”, where he documents and analyzes werewolf tales local to German, Denmark and Belgium, “The German subtype deals with how a man abandons his wife, comes back as a werewolf, bites into her skirt, petticoat, or apron, or some other piece of clothing, then goes off again, and comes back in human form, and is later revealed as the werewolf by the remnants of her clothing evident between his teeth” (Blécourt 28-29). This references back to the garwolf being a vicious creature, but also hints at the sexually devious nature of werewolves as well. The ripping of female garments is symbolic of an attack on a woman’s virtue. Blécourt describes again later in the journal, “...we can read the woven piece of cloth as representing humanity…” (35), showing that a true werewolf only seeks to defile and kill those who hold the humanity he has lost. Though he toils away in secret, deep in the forest, the knight remains an honorable man in both of his forms. “This beast understands, feels like a man,”(France) says the King, an old and loyal friend of the knight. Even in his beast-like state, the knight does not bow to the primal needs associated with beasthood, for he is unparalleled in his humanity. France uses the werewolf mythos to put the character of the knight on an even higher pedestal. Not only is he an

   There are so many similarities between the hero of the poem Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, an Iceland saga representing 1000 years of oral traditions prior to the 1300’s when it was written, that these similarities cannot be attributed solely to coincidence.

Vern L. Bullough's article, "On Being a Male in the Middle Ages," addresses how vital it was for a man living in the middle ages to be sexually active in order to maintain a masculine identity by explaining:

A werewolf in folklore and mythology is a person who shape shifts into a wolf, either purposely, by using magic or by being placed under a curse. Werewolves were known in almost all European countries and cultures. Werewolves are only second in line to vampires in popularity.

Harald I of Norway is known to have had a body of Úlfhednar (wolf coated [men]), which are mentioned in the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði, and the Völsunga saga, and resemble some werewolf legends. The Úlfhednar were fighters similar to the berserkers, though they dressed in wolf hides rather than those of bears and were reputed to channel the spirits of these animals to enhance effectiveness in battle.[19] These warriors were resistant to pain and killed viciously in battle, much like wild animals. Úlfhednar and berserkers are closely associated with the Norse god

The world around us, while wonderous and exciting; contains some rather dangerous people, places, and things. These dangerous things can be categorized as wolves of sorts. In the graphic novel “Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll, we see that there or multiple scenarios where threats can present themselves. The ideas that can be argued from this are that there are many types of “wolves” of threats one can face and there are also many different aspects that makes each of these wolves terrifying in their own special way. These specific aspects of the character’s dangerous or wolfish qualities are not only displayed in their actions, but also by the textual and visual aspects of story they are in. This can include word choice, visual aids, and

At the mention of the word ‘werewolf,’ those familiar with twenty-first century literature and television will often conjure the same iconic image in their minds: an unsuspecting victim of a wolf-bite that develops a deadly silver allergy and undergoes a peculiar transformation every full moon. The modern myth we have grown to love stems from the medieval picture of a flesh-eating wolf-man in league with the Devil, which only barely resembles the werewolf stories of a pre-Christian Europe. With the spread of Christianity in Europe from the early Medieval Period to the end of the Renaissance, werewolf lore underwent a major transition to better complement

As wolves begin to return to former territories in Yellowstone National Park, their company stirs and reawakens passions, curiosities, and misconceptions in mankind that have existed for centuries. Peter Steinhart’s book, The Company of Wolves, follows Steinhart’s exploration and study of these wolves alongside a collection of men and women who have spent their lives studying these mysterious creatures. While these biologists and researchers become characters with their own individual characteristics, theories, and perspectives to present and observe, they soon begin to realize these wolves are not simply subjects of study, but unique, individuals as well. Over the course of their observations, these men and women recognize that the individual characteristics and actions of these wolves suggest that there are certain aspects of wolf behavior that science can neither fully prove nor disprove, which questions and puts an emphasis on the limitedness of human knowledge. This limitedness develops a necessity to imagine and romanticize various explanations for such behaviors. This experience motivates Steinhart to write this book from a unique and thought provoking perspective. On a spectrum between realism and romanticism Steinhart situates his prose nearing romanticism, but romanticism based on and stemming from a realistic and scientific awareness of wolves and nature and therefore should not be condemned as unrealistic or belittle his observations or theories.