3054. The truth about wolves © Bruce Goodman 6 October 2024

Wolves get a bad press in children’s literature. There’s the Big Bad Wolf who ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. There’s the Big Bad Wolf who fell into the fire trying to blow down the Three Little Pigs’ brick house. Past generations when feeling the need to create someone horrid seem to have come up with fulfilling the need with a wolf. No wonder these days that many species of wolf are endangered. Presumably too that novelist Thomas Wolfe’s museum and homestead in Asheville NC has been destroyed, along with his statue and that of O. Henry. Fortunately modern exegetical studies have uncovered the truth about many of the stories denigrating wolves. What really happened in reality? Let us take Little Red Riding Hood as an example. Jack Sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean. And so between the two of them they licked the platter clean. That is all very well, but they ran out of food, and Jack said he was going hunting with his gun. He needed a disguise so his wife (apparently she has no name other than Jack’s wife) sewed him a bright green cape and he set out in disguise. Along came the Wolf who recognized the disguise immediately and wanted to save the forest creatures from Jack’s rifle. The Wolf fooled Jack into believing Jack’s disguise was viable. The Wolf ran ahead to Grandma’s house. When Jack arrived the Wolf slaughtered Jack (he’d already killed Grandma) and then he went and slaughtered Jack’s wife. Thus the Wolf saved the forest creature from extermination. Of course the bright green cape was no longer green after the Wolf had finished. And that’s the fair dinkum truth. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story