The Wolf represents loyalty, family, communication, wisdom, teaching, and intelligence. In nature, Wolves are pack animals with excellent communication and body language skills needed for hunting and protection.
Generally, the Wolf Spirit symbolizes education, intelligence, strong family ties, and loyalty. However, the exact meaning and lore behind the Wolf Spirit differ between tribes, so we've compiled a few of the individual tribes' beliefs regarding Wolf Spirits.
Wolves were seen as both being negative and positive to the Norse people. On one hand, they can represent chaos and destruction (e.g. Fenrir, Skoll, and Hati), while on the other hand, they can also represent bravery, loyalty, protection, and wisdom.
The literature does not show the wolf to be merely a natural predator. More than an actual thief of livestock, wolves became symbols of less tangible human fears. They have been linked to the devil in the medieval bestiaries or even immorality in the stories of the wolfmonk.
“Wolves figure prominently in the mythology of nearly every Native American tribe. In most Native cultures, Wolf is considered a medicine being associated with courage, strength, loyalty, and success at hunting.
In the Shinto belief, the ōkami ("wolf") is regarded as a messenger of the kami spirits and also offers protection against crop raiders such as the wild boar and deer. Wild animals were associated with the mountain spirit Yama-no-kami.
The wolf play an important role in Greek religions. But his/her role varies enormously. The wolf is often related to the Greek gods Zeus, Apollo, Artemis and Leto, as we shall see below. Wolves seem to act as divine messengers of the gods, notably of Apollo.
Wolves are complex, highly intelligent animals who are caring, playful, and above all devoted to family. Only a select few other species exhibit these traits so clearly. Just like elephants, gorillas and dolphins, wolves educate their young, take care of their injured and live in family groups.
Fenrir, also called Fenrisúlfr, monstrous wolf of Norse mythology. He was the son of the demoniac god Loki and a giantess, Angerboda.
The Celts believed that the wolf was a powerful symbol of the moon, and they associated it with transformation, intuition, and the hunt. They also believed that wolves had the ability to communicate with the spirits of the dead, and that they were therefore able to act as intermediaries between the living and the dead.
A wolf tattoo symbolizes integrity, loyalty, ferocity, strength, love, strong determination. It is believed that each person has a unique energy within, and the tattoo emanates this energy to the universe.
Apollo, the Olympian god of the sun, was well known as the god of music, poetry, light, medicine and truth, but one of his numerous titles was Lycegenes, literally "born of a wolf", and a statue of a wolf adorned his temple at Delphi.
As a team, the pair will maintain a territory, search for prey, and, above all, remain loyal to one another and their family unit. It seems only natural that wolves should symbolize strong, loving relationships.
Around the 1970s, the world latched onto a catchy new scientific term: alpha wolf. It described the top dog that clawed its way to the top of its pack, and it quickly became a mainstream symbol for power and dominance.
Different Dreams About Wolves
The wolf itself may represent assistance from others in overcoming a challenge you're facing in everyday life. The wolf dream is a common symbol for aspects of oneself. This includes connection and having a “pack” of friends to depend on, and it can be either joyful or terrible.
Wolves play a key role in keeping ecosystems healthy. They help keep deer and elk populations in check, which can benefit many other plant and animal species. The carcasses of their prey also help to redistribute nutrients and provide food for other wildlife species, like grizzly bears and scavengers.
The theory goes that gray wolf packs consist of a variety of unrelated individual wolves all competing for dominance, with the leaders being the “alpha” male and female, while lesser wolves are relegated to “beta” positions, with the bottom of the bottom being the “omega” wolves.
Wolf Size Comparison to a Great Dane
Titan, one of the largest Great Danes ever, held the record for having a shoulder height of 42 inches. While this outshines even the largest of the wolves, who usually don't boast more than a maximum of 32 inches (about 1 envelop length shorter than Titan the Great Dane).
Wolves can travel up to 30 miles each day in search of food and even have to fight to survive. However, throughout the day they also love to play. Wolves are social creatures that play well together even when they get old which helps create strong bonds between them.
Wolves have over 200 million scent cells. They can hear up to six miles away in the forest. A wolf's jaw has a crushing power of nearly 1500 pounds per square inch! A wolf can eat 20 pounds of meat in one meal.
The Divine Wolf was originally the leader of the wolf-type sacred beasts that ruled the world of Vilanciel. However, the Divine Wolf is also said to have answered to and sworn loyalty when the Holy Emperor called for its power.
In the Roman foundation myth, a she-wolf (lupa in Italian) was an Italian wolf who nursed and sheltered the twins Romulus and Remus after they were abandoned in the wild by decree of King Amulius of Alba Longa.
If you are familiar with the English word lupine, it shouldn't be too difficult to remember the word lupo (masculine, plural: lupi), which is the Italian for wolf. A wolf cub is known as a lupetto.