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★★★★★The wolf hasn’t had a particularly good press in the Western World. The Big Bad Wolf who wanted to eat Red Riding Hood and the wolf that tried to thwart the property ambitions of three innocent little pigs illustrate the common trope; wolves are bad news, even agents of the devil.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre redress this balance in A Wolf Shall Devour the Sun with a retelling of some fascinating wolf stories: one from Norse mythology, another from Siberia and a third from Ireland. Told simply with the aid of some back projection, and folk music, we hear of Fenris, the offspring of Loki the mischief maker and a giantess. The gods felt threatened by a prophecy about this growing wolf and tried and failed to bind him with strong chains. If he couldn’t be bound he would devour Odin at Ragnarok – the end of the age. It’s a convoluted story told with some wry humour with a running sign-language commentary for deaf people.
The narrator moves on to a story from Siberia about a shapeshifting child who went missing in the woods where wolves captured her. Her mother went to retrieve her. I mustn’t spoil it for you, but the wolves are not villains here.
Finally, the narrator tells a story from the West of Ireland about a farmer called Conor who was said to have charm with animals. In search of some lost cattle, he came across a tumbledown shack where he met an old grey man with pointy ears who relieved him and offered him some stew.
These three stories challenge the common Western trope about wolves at a time when they are making a comeback in parts of Europe, if not in Scotland. Will they do any harm if they return to Scotland or will they improve the environment by reducing the number of deer that are currently ravaging the countryside? It’s worth considering.
Reviewed by David Kerr
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