When you hear the word “werewolf”, you probably imagine a violent creature caught between man and wolf. A monster that begins as a human and transforms, maybe under a full moon or some other curse, into something entirely inhuman.
You probably imagine something that wants to kill everything in its path.
What if I told you that on the Shetland Islands, a rare, elusive creature is described as resembling a man, but with the head of a wolf, and was gentle and generous?
The creature is known as the wulver - sometimes spelt as wullver.
Some claim these creatures have never been human, but were born as they are: creatures in transition between wolf and man.
Some say they were an “in-between-stage”, which suggests a kind of evolution. Or perhaps they simply meant they had traits of both wolf and man.
Whatever the case, the wulver is unlike any werewolf legend you’ve likely heard.
They aren’t violent unless provoked (who isn’t?)
They’re shy.
They’re peaceful.
They live off fish, which they willingly share with the needy: the poor, the ill, the infirm, etc.
Some even say they protect people they know from threats, rescue lost travellers, or help those in trouble in wild places.
Covered in short, brown hair, the wulver lived in a cave dug into the hillside. They lived there peacefully, fishing and generally minding their own business.
Others believed they were protectors of the wild places: the shoreline and the forest. They believed that those who didn’t respect the wild places would face the wulver’s wrath, but if you entered the forest graciously, the wulver would protect you, too.
Interestingly, today, the wulver is under fire.
One modern theory suggests the tale of the wulver may have grown from humans suffering some form of medical condition, such as Hunter syndrome, though this is hotly criticised as unsubstantiated and unhelpful.
Another criticism of the wulver, tabled by Brian Smith, archivist at the Shetland Museum, is that the creature is an entirely fictitious creation created by Shetland folklorist Jessie Saxby, and was never part of Shetland folklore to begin with. Those who support this theory argue that Saxby, intentionally or not, misinterpreted the meaning of a name in her sources.
According to this interpretation, researchers Jakob Jakobsen and John Spence mentioned a hill called Wulvers Hool in their writings.
They translated this as "Fairy Hill" due to the á- element in the Old Norse word álf having become a wu- element as part of the development of the Shetland dialect.
The claim is that Saxby may have interpreted the name as referring to a distinct entity and created the wulver legend, as if such a creature had always existed in Shetland folklore.
But this belief relies heavily on a noted folklorist misinterpreting a single phrase and deliberately inventing an entire lore around it. Which feels like a leap.
It also implies that Saxby not only invented the entire wulver legend based on a single word, but doubled down and published it as lore in her book. Twice.
The irony is that we’re asked to choose between the wulver being an ancient inherited Shetland tradition, or a modern Shetland creation.
It might be worth bearing in mind that Jessie Saxby lived between 1842 and 1940, and she was a known suffragette. And those who challenged her account above are all men.
Take that as you will, but I thought it was interesting.
So what do you think?
Does a gentle wolf-headed beast lurk somewhere in the Shetland Isles, or is it modern folkloric invention?
Whatever the case, I think they’re fascinating, if for no other reason than they break just about every expectation people typically have of werewolves.
Long may the wulvers persist.