The Mother Wolf

Chapter 9 of a PhD thesis by Paul Williams

Citation: Williams, P., "Cultural Impressions of the Wolf, with specific reference to the man-eating wolf in England", (University of Sheffield PhD thesis, 2003).

Stories of wolves, and other animals, raising children date back to ancient times. In the classical world a child suckled by an animal would often become a hero, a motif listed in The Motif-Index of Folk Literature.[2] Herodotus remarked that a rumour concerning Cyrus being suckled by a bitch was spread by Cyrus's parents in order to gain him this prestige.[3] However Raglan, in his study, did not identify suckling as a hero motif.[4] Generally it was believed that an animal foster parent would pass on its characteristics to the child and that this was usually beneficial as it made the recipient superior to other humans.

One of the best known tales is that of Romulus and Remus who were allegedly suckled and reared by a she-wolf after being abandoned on the banks of the river Tiber. There is no evidence that this actually happened or even that the boys existed. Since the Latin word lupa means both a female wolf and a prostitute Augustine thought that Roman traditionalists changed the story to avoid giving prostitutes a positive image.[5] The wolf was obviously not then considered in entirely negative terms although it would later be associated with prostitutes in some bestiaries.[6] The story of Romulus and Remus was well known in England, being depicted on the left side of the Franks casket which was probably made in Northumbria, c.650 BC. This image shows the she-wolf suckling the boys whilst her mate licks their toes. The title-page to a late seventeenth-century English history of Rome shows the wolf between the boys.[7] The tale was also nominated by two respondents to the questionnaire as the work of fiction that had most influenced their impressions of wolves.

It is necessary to make a distinction between children supposedly suckled by animals and those supposedly raised by them. Surprisingly few cases of animals raising children also contain stories of suckling. Mc Carthy identified 40 cases of animals raising children in Greco-Roman culture and nine of them raising gods.[8] Only six of the children were girls and he was unable to find similar examples involving girls in other cultures.[9] If animals were raising children then one would not expect disparity between the sexes, especially as girls were perhaps more likely than boys to be abandoned due to the perceived greater value of a male child.

One of the more interesting early stories is that of a goat boy, told by Procopius who wrote in the sixth century AD.[10] The boy, later named Aegisthus, was suckled by a nanny goat which protected him like a human mother. It can be assumed that this and most of the classical cases were known to the educated in mediaeval England.

Whether stories of animals raising children are true or not, it is apparent that people, including children, were living wild in many areas and continue to do so. In Europe the presence of hermits, outlaws, and criminals added some credence to legends. Further, the existence of the exposure motif in stories such as Hansel and Gretel suggests that many poor parents were tempted to dispose of unwanted offspring by leaving them in the wilderness.[11] This practice may continue in countries such as India and stories of modern wild children appear in countries such as Romania.[12]

Pollard told a typical story of a village girl abandoning her illegitimate child for it to be partly-eaten by wolves.[13] Although this particular tale is fiction the idea of infanticide by exposure must have occurred to many new mothers. For some it might have been comforting to believe that animals would care for their offspring.

Two mediaeval English Chroniclers record a story of two wild children found in a wolf pit in Suffolk during the reign of King Stephen, possibly in 1173.[14] They were eventually taken to the home of Sir William de Caine at Wilkes but their final fate is unconfirmed.