Literary notes about wolf (AI summary)
The word “wolf” in literature is a multifaceted symbol that oscillates between literal menace and metaphor for human vices. It often appears as a cunning predator whose wild nature underscores themes of danger and betrayal, as seen in folklore and fables where a wolf deceives or menaces, such as in tales of treacherous beasts and doomed trust [1][2]. In other narratives, it serves as a personification of raw instinct and survival in the natural world, emerging as both an honorable antihero and a fearsome adversary in wilderness adventures [3][4]. The term also extends into allegorical and proverbial language, where the wolf’s presence signifies the inevitable perils that lurk at the threshold of civilization [5][6].
- Then he called the wolf, and said, "Dear Wolf, go thither and fetch me vegetables such as the King eats.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - But when he came back and saw how many of the flock had been killed and carried off, he knew how foolish to trust a Wolf.
— from The Aesop for Children by Aesop - Therefore, I ask, who comes to make an end of the Lone Wolf?
— from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - The she-wolf sat down in the snow, and old One Eye, now more in fear of his mate than of the mysterious sapling, again sprang for the rabbit.
— from White Fang by Jack London - sword of Damocles; wolf at the door, snake in the grass, death in the pot; latency &c. 526.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - A she-wolf : Used elsewhere in the Comedy to represent avarice.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
