WOLF and WOLF-WARRIORS As the hero inspired them, one may assume that some among them fought with clubs in the heros style. Gods and hero- ancestors no doubt were models also for wolf-warriors, long-hairs, ghost warriors... Warrior styles have much to offer our understanding of history. They tell us how long ago, when war was still welcome, fighting men reached the state of ecstasy that led them to do astounding things. They lead us into the heart of Vedic Indian, Homeric, Celtic, and Germanic* civilizations, where fighting prowess was the measure of a man. They link the Bronze, Iron, and Middle Ages- two thousand years of history seldom seen as belonging together. They often turned the wheel of events during these many years: wolf-warriors founded Rome in 753 BC, enthroned emperor Costantine in AD 306, and united Norway in the battle of Hafrsfjord in AD 872: and horse-stabbers won the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC that turned Rome from a republic into a monarchy... In the Americas as well as Africa, warrior societies dominated archaic cultures as much as they did in Europe. Germanic warrior customs such as masked dances, and styles like berserks or wolf-warriors, find astonishing parallels world-wide that sharpen our perception and help explain otherwise little understood customs.... Nowhere else in antiquity do we hear of wolf-warriors and bear-warriors fighting together. But in AD 872, Thorbjorn Hornklofi depicts Germanic wolf and bear-warriors fighting side by side; they line the flagship of King Harald Fairhair of Norway in the battle of Hafrsfjord. It is astonishing to find in a work of Roman art the same two kinds of animal warriors that 800 years later stalk through a skaldic poem as ülfhe*nar (wolf-hood wearers) and berserkir (bear-shirt wearers; later any furious warrior).... New World Indians brought from Siberia, not only shamanism and wolf-ancestor myths, but , it seems, also wolf-,bear-,bird-cat warrordom. They sent forth wolf-warriors as scoults, and even patterned their warfare on wolf like spying: It is interesting to note that Wolf in one form or another was the patron spirit of war all over the Plains. He was primarily the intelligence service, the ruthless, crafty, cautious hunter. This may well be taken as symbolic of all Plains, or of all American Indian warface. Its protype was the shrewd stalker and as Wolfs depredations dependend upon intelligence the Indians hunted men in the same manner. The service of intelligence was the one branch of their art of war which was perfectly developed. The best way to identify with an animal is to don its pelt: a mid-sixteenth-century drawing shows a Mexican Cuetlachtli warrior wearing a wolf-hood, much like Indo-European* wolf-warriors. Since waring the animals skin is essential to animal-warrior styles, it is of great interest to see this done in the New World no less than in the Old. Both American and European folk tales speak of people being changed into Wolves by wearing wolfskins, and of being freed from shape-shifting by burning the skins. Animals especially wolves offered much to the warrior bent on going beyond the bounds of this humanity: he could walk, jump, or run as the chosen animals did: also hide, creep, lurk, scream, bray and howl as they did- wolves often howl in triumph at a kill- and in all he could frighten the enemy while venting his own fear. He could take on an animals rage, dread or pride and thus free himself of cultural constraints or conscience (much as modern warriors do when they focus on technology). Moreover, with their power to change into animals and travel to other worlds, shamans gave wolf- and bear- warriordom a cosmic dimension. Wolves and hyenas, almost alone among animals, fight in packs- as if going to war. Fiercely baring their teeth, with eyes flashing danger, howling dreadfully and biting through their preys windpipe, they are the most gripping warrior animals. From wolves warriors learned stealth. As a wolf-man of our own time puts it: The wolves moved deftly and silently in the woods and in trying to imitate them I came to walk more quietly and to freeze at the sign of slight movement. At first this imitation gave me no advantage, but after several weeks I realized I was becoming far more attuned to the environment we moved through. I heard more, for one thing, and my senses now constantly alert, I occasionally saw a deer mouse or a grouse before they did... I could attune myself better to the woods by behaving as they did- minutely inspecting certain things, seeking vantage points always sniffing at the air. I did, and felt vigorous, charged with alertness. Good camouflage, wolfskins allowed scouts to hide. Homer tells of the Trojan night-spy dolon hiding under a wolfskin, and Euripides embellishes the tale: I will draw a wolf skin over my back,put the beasts gaping jaws around my head,fasten the forelegs to my hands,its legs to mine, and mimic the four-footedwolf-gait, hard to spot for the foes. Euripides, whose Dolon walks on all fours like a wolf, stresses the stealth that the wolfskin grants. In Greek, Etruscan and Gallic myths* a wolf-hood makes one invisible. Speed is another astounding quality of wolves. They trot unflaggingly, lightly, and quickly - easily 50 miles a day. Homers wolf-warrior Dolon was a fast runner. Young and swift, wolf-warriors often served as scoults and skirmishers. Wolves, moreover far outdo man in fieldcraft: they are the easy masters of the woods, the wild, the winter, and the night, all frightening and uncanny to man. Of all wild animals, wolves are closest to man in social instincts. They respect rank, delight in each others company, and are so dedicated to the pack that the Hittite king Hattusilis told his assembly, May your clan be one, like that of the wolves! , as dogs they are eager and faithful beyond words. Wild wolves have even suckled and raised human children. No other animal engages mans feelings so strongly. It has rightly been said that what links men who love wolves with those who loathe them is the intensity of their feelings. Wolf-warriors are the best-documented Indo-European* warrior style, originating long before and lasting long after the Indo-European dispersal. They are found far more often than bear-, boar-, buck-, marten-, horse- or any other animal-warriors. In the second millennium BC., when our sources begin to flow, wolf-warriors are already well attested. A Hittite army leader bore the name Lupakku (Wolf), and since Indo-European animal names bespoke strength and luck, he very likely was a wolf-warrior. Likewise the name of the Hittite Luvians means Wolf People. Hittite texts call them LU-MESH-UR-BAR-RA, Men-dog-Outside. Vedic India too had skin-clad wolf-warriors: Rudra,with his wolves Bhava and Sarva and with a warband of eleven long-haired Rudriyas, haunted the woods. Other early wolf-warriors are the Mairyo youth of ancient Iran: as a warrior band they were called wolves and fought in a frenzy, though it is not known whether they wore wolfskins. Scythians also fought as wolf-warriors some of their youths being valiant dogs. Mycenaeans very likely had wolf-warriors. A painted krater from Tiryns of about 1200 BC shows four warriors on foot, two before a chariot and two behind it. All four are armed with small round shields and javelins much like Egyptian Shardana chariot runners of the time. The pointed crests on their heads it is said may represent a cap-helmet of some kind ; the tails between their legs are very likely tails of an animal skin. The men have been taken for tiger-warriors, but there were no tigers in ancient Greece. Indo-European* parallels and Homeric wolf-sympathy suggest that they are wolf-warriors. If so wolf-warriors may have played a role in the chariot-base Indo-European* expansion of the mid-second millennium BC. Chariot crews neede runners beside them to capture or finish off enemy charioteers. Fleet-footed young wolf-warriors could have played this tactical role. Some Mycenaeans seem to have had wolf-names. Homer too tells of wolf-warriors. He sees heroes such as Hector, Diomedes and Achilles as at times overcome by fighting madness; that is in the throes of wolfishness a state akin to berserk recklessness. Speed, stealth and fighting madness characterized Greek wolf-warriors, but Achilles captains flaunted wolfishness also as a leadership quality: Hungry as wolves that rend and bolt raw flesh,hearts filled with battle-frenzy that never dies-off on the cliffs, ripping apart some big antlered stagthey gorge on the kill till all their jaws drip red with blood,then down in a pack they lope to a pooling dark spring,thier lean sharp tongues lapping the waters surface,belching bloody meat, but the fury never shaken,builds insede their chests though their glutted bellies burst-so wild the Myrmidon captains... In Sparta , warrior tarining was the work of Lykurgos, the Wolf-Worker. Lykurgos laid down a law that for a year (the Krypteia) young warriors must hide and live outside society fending for themselves as naked, lone wolves, Elsewhere in Greece, Apollo the Wolf-god** presided over the training of young warriors. Indo-European* tribesmen brought the wolf-warriors style to Italy as well as Greece. *(I DO NOT AGREE- Be Honest!-SB) Virgil says that the warriors who founded Praeneste wore wolf-hoods and fought with the left foot bare- a sign of skill, toughness, and recklessness. The Hirpi Sorani wolf-warriors from north of Rome, like later berserks, could not be hurt by fire: very likely they fought in a trance of ecstacy that made them woundproof. The wolf-warriors of Romulus (an Etrsucan Myth!-SB) founded Rome and centuries later in the battles against Hannibal the legions still had in their rank velites, young men who fought in the forefront and wore wolfskins. As the sight of a wolf was an omen of victory to later Germanic warriors , so it was to early romans: when a wolf ran through their battle line at Sentinum in 295 BC, Roman warriors welcomed it with shouts as the winning wolf of Mars (also a Scythian God!-SB). By the time of Marius, however , Rome had lost her wolf-warriors. (if it was a Roman culture, why lost?!!-SB) Among Celts in Gaul, wolves and dogs bred from wolves entrhralled warriors. Celtic names like Cunopennus, cunocennus and Cunobarrus all mean dog-head or wolf-head; that is, men who fought with dog or wolf-skins over their heads. very likely they looked like the Germanic wolf-warriors portrayed on Trajans Column... ...Ancient aristocratic horseman and reliefs depicting emperor Constantines guard on his arch in Rome. Several other sagas beside Egils saga speak of it, as does the lay of Hakon* quoted below. Thorolf was nor seize by an unforeseen bersek fit, he had prepared for going berserk by not wearing a hauberk. He had it in his hand when to fight madly. with some warriors being a berserk was a predisposition handed down from father to sun, but with Thorlolf it was a deliberately chosen warrior style. This is true even more so of Norways King Hakon the Good who in 961 also scorned armor: He threw off his armorthrust down his mail-coat,the great-hearted lord,ere the battle began.He laughed with his liege-menHis land would he shieldThe gladsome heroneath goldhelm standing. Hakons laughter underlines hisscorn of wounds. Like a true berserk he went on to fight before the line and the standard.... Ancient Germanic Warriors: Warrior Styles from Trajans Column to Icelandic Sagas by Michael P. Speidel ; books.google.tr/books… *The Turkish myths are not spoken hier !!! Apollo The Wolf God = The word Apollo is not even Greek and was not a Greek God in the beginning . Taken from the East Culture.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:35:34 +0000
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