Shetland’s Wolf-Headed Humanoid and Its Role in Mythology
In Shetland Islands (Scotland) folklore, the wulver is a creature that is both physically monstrous yet completely harmless and gentle. It is a hybrid with a human body (completely covered in hair) and a wolf’s head. Its favorite pastime is fishing, and poor families frequently report that the wulver gives them its catch after hours of fishing. This incredible creature, whose name likely derives from the English term “wolf,” makes everyone think about how appearances may be deceiving and why judging in advance is not always the best option. The wulver, sometimes known as the wullver, is a wolf-like humanoid creature. Some sources believe they were never human in the first place, although the wulver’s origins are questioned in modern times. Shetland folklorist Jessie Saxby describes the wulver as kind, but subsequent stories claim that they became ferocious if provoked. They were generally friendly with the locals.
Saxby, in Shetland Traditional Lore, writes:
“The Wulver was a creature like a man with a wolf’s head. He had short brown hair all over him. His home was a cave dug out of the side of a steep knowe, halfway up a hill. He didn’t molest folk if folk didn’t molest him. He was fond of catching and eating fish and had a small rock in the deep water which is known to this day as the ‘Wulver’s Stane.’ There he would sit fishing sillaks and piltaks for hour after hour. He was reported to have frequently left a few fish on the window sill of some poor body.”
In previous publications, Saxby spelled the word as “wullver.”
But what is the difference between a wulver and a werewolf?
The ancient Celts thought that the wulver originated from wolfkind. The wulver may appear frighteningly similar to a regular werewolf, but unlike them, which transform from man to wolf at a full moon, the wulver remains eternally half man, half wolf. With a wolf’s head and a man’s body, both covered in hair, the wulver lacks the terrible disposition of the average werewolf. When left alone in a cave on a hill, the wulver was neither malevolent nor aggressive, as it preferred a solitary life. It is regarded as calm and amiable, frequently seen resting on a stone or fishing in a loch or river.
Wulver Stanes are typically flat rocks found along the margins of rivers and lochs. With a wealth of patience, the wulver can dedicate hours lying on the stone fishing for food. The narrative is unclear about where the wulver obtained its fishing tackle, but most versions imply it either manufactured it from materials on hand or stole it. The wulver has been known to be highly helpful to travelers lost in the countryside. It would lead them to the nearest village or town, ensuring that any lost souls were safe.
A poor family that was famished might discover a supply of fish placed on their windowsill by the wulver. The same goods would be presented to any family with a sick member, with the wulver sitting sadly outside the home of a person who was dying. This species has been known to kill but only in self-defense. Their agility and speed stem from their desire to avoid human and Kelpie predators. Some think the wulver is immortal and may guide people to hidden treasure in centuries-old wreckage.
Another myth associates the wulver with Hellhounds and Black Shucks, both of which are omens of death. According to mythology, seeing a wulver means you will die soon. Wulvers were also associated with and similar to the Irish falodh, which was said to look after children and guard the wounded. If someone finds wulver bones, they should avoid touching them, as doing so will summon a terrible black dog determined to reclaim its bone.
What about the mind behind the spreading of the legend of the wulver?
Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby (30 June 1842 – 27 December 1940), from the Shetland Island of Unst, was an author and folklorist who specialized in the wulver. She also had political interests and was a suffragist. Saxby’s father, Laurence Edmondston, was a medical practitioner and naturalist, and her mother, Eliza Macbrair, was a journalist and published writer from Glasgow. They had ten children. Saxby admitted that she obtained minimal formal education. She married Henry Saxby, a London-born ornithologist and doctor, and had six children, but their only daughter died in infancy.
When her husband died, Jessie was left a widow with a family to support, relying on her writing income. Saxby’s career began in the 1860s, when some of her stories and poetry were published. Lichens from the Old Rock, a poetry collection, was released in 1868 as the first of 47 books she wrote. Her writings covered a wide range of topics, including romance fiction, folklore, and boys’ adventure stories. She also published around 100 articles in newspapers, journals, and publications such as Life and Work and The Boy’s Own Paper.
After analyzing folklore stories obtained mostly from Gaelic areas of Scotland, Susan Schoon Eberly, a specialist in congenital illnesses, believed that the myth of the wulver may have its roots in humans suffering from a medical condition, likely Hunter syndrome or lycanthropy. This conceptual foundation for wulver tales has been criticized as unreliable, especially considering the lack of detailed descriptions of the wulver, the flexible nature of oral traditions, and the existence of analogous mythological creatures across numerous folklore traditions (indicating that such narratives may naturally emerge in various cultures).
Brian Smith suspects that the wulver is a completely invented creation that never existed in Shetland folklore and that the creature was exclusively created by Saxby. But isn’t that how folklore stories are created? Proponents of this viewpoint argue that Saxby, either purposefully or inadvertently, misinterpreted the literal significance of a name in her sources. In this view, Jakob Jakobsen and John Spence referenced a hill named Wulver’s Hool in their writings, claiming it was named after a fairy. They suggested that Saxby, unaware that the term “wulver” derived from an old Norse word for fairy, unintentionally constructed the wulver as Shetland mythology, writing about it as if such a creature existed.
