Wolves In a Cultural Landscape

This work of literary nonfiction, eco-literature, explores the role wolves have played in Norwegian cultural history, drawing on insights from the environmental humanities. From Norse mythology and the Viking Age, it traces human–wolf relations through medieval superstition to the systematic wolf persecution of the nineteenth century, when wolves were almost driven to extinction, and finally to the current situation, where wolves stand a chance of recovery but are kept endangered through legal and illegal hunting. The contrast between cultural landscapes and old-growth forest is thrown into sharp relief. Wolves are a keystone species and have become a flagship species for restoration and rewilding.