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A Representation of a wolf skull.   Source: igor kisselev/Adobe Stock

Grave Robbers in Ancient Romania Used Wolf Skulls to Ward off Evil Spirits of the Deceased!

Around 2,000 years ago, grave robbers would place a wolf skull on top of a burial site, in a bid to protect themselves from the vengeful spirit of a deceased individual buried in a mound. No, this is...
The Saga of the Völsungs features Norse hero Sigurd hunting the dragon Fafnir. Source: Wachirawit / Adobe Stock

The Saga of the Völsungs: Epic Story of the Greatest Norse Heroes

Much of what we know about Norse mythology and history comes from their sagas. These are stories written in the Old Norse language that recount early Viking voyages, battles, and feuds between...
The Wolves Pursuing Norse sun and moon gods Sol and Mani            Source: John Charles Dollman, 1909, Public Domain, colorized

Celestial Siblings: Norse Sun and Moon Gods Chased Across the Sky

Chased across the sky by a pair of wolves, the Norse sun and moon gods were tasked with a heavy burden. The Sol and Mani were responsible for pulling a chariot across the sky every day and night...
A 16th century German man named Peter Stumpp was allegedly a werewolf!

Germany’s Brutal Werewolf Belt and The Gut-Wrenching Execution of Peter Stumpp

Fans of the supernatural may have noticed a curious line in William Peter Blatty’s book The Exorcist. While talking about Satanism: "Well, there's William Stumpf, for example…a German in the...
Anubis and Xolotl: The Remarkable Resemblance of the Death Dog Gods

Anubis and Xolotl: The Remarkable Resemblance of the Death Dog Gods

Few ancient cultures have captured the modern imagination like the Egyptian and Maya civilizations, with their elaborate belief structures. The author traces a remarkable resemblance between two dog-...
East Meets West: Little Red Riding Hood Versus Japan’s Okuri-Inu

East Meets West: Little Red Riding Hood Versus Japan’s Okuri-Inu

Throughout history the dark of the night has always brought fear. The quiet forests, roads or paths were a place where imagination would run wild as to what goes bump in the night. In the West,...
Somewhere in Southwestern North America during the late Pleistocene, a pack of dire wolves (Canis dirus) are feeding on their bison kill, while a pair of gray wolves (Canis lupus) approach in the hopes of scavenging. One of the dire wolves rushes in to confront the gray wolves, and their confrontation allows a comparison of the bigger, larger-headed and reddish-brown dire wolf with its smaller, gray relative. Source: Mauricio Antón/ Nature

Beyond Game of Thrones: Study Reveals Secrets of Real Dire Wolves

Have you ever heard of dire wolves? You’ll probably say “Yes” if you are a fan of the TV show Game of Thrones . This canine species appears in the iconic TV series, where it is known as a ‘direwolf’...
Did Romulus, the legendary first king of Rome, (neurobite /Adobe Stock) really exist? (samott /Adobe Stock)

The Romulus Riddle: Did the Legendary First King of Rome Really Exist?

Recent excavations in Rome have re-ignited the debate over whether the legendary first king of Rome, Romulus, was a historical character or just a fanciful work of fiction. In fact, earlier this year...
10,000-Year-Old Footprints Tell Amazing Story of Human Encounter with Megafauna

10,000-Year-Old Footprints Tell Amazing Story of Human Encounter with Megafauna

Archaeologists at White Sands National Park in New Mexico examining a 10,000-year-old track of human footprints , have made more fascinating discoveries. But they’ve also unearthed a trowel-full of...
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? A Fearsome Beast in Legends and Tales Around the World

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? A Fearsome Beast in Tales Around the World

There are many stock characters that are present in folk stories, fairy tales, and legends from all over the world. However, few are as constant as the figure of the Big Bad Wolf, a giant predator...
The scientists aren’t sure if the 18,000-year-old puppy is a wolf or a dog. Source: Sergey Fedorov

18,000-Year-Old Puppy Found with Whiskers, Hair, and Velvety Nose

By Anna Lisowska, Svetlana Skarbo The male puppy with its arrow-head milky teeth was less than two months old when it died. It was found in summer 2018 inside a lump of a frozen ground near Indigirka...
Grey wolf.   Source: Jon Anders Wiken /Adobe Stock

Lupus In Fabula: The Wolf In The Story

Lupus in fabula or perhaps more accurately in historia , given that historically the figure of the wolf is not marginal at all. The undisputed symbol of the forest, the wolf has always been strongly...
Mammoth tusk found with the local residents who made the discovery.        Source: El Quito Medio

Ice Age Mammoth, Camelid and Giant Wolf Fossils Found in Mexico

Mammoths are among the best-known of all pre-historic animals and they have fascinated scientists and the public for generations. Some remains of the tusks of these Ice Age creatures have recently...
The Pleistocene wolf’s head discovered in Yakutia. 	Source: Albert Protopopov / Fair Use.

Still Snarling After 40,000 Years, a Giant Pleistocene Wolf Discovered in Yakutia

By: The Siberian Times reporter Reports of a the sensational find of head of a toothy beast with its brain intact that has been preserved since prehistoric times in permafrost , have been a delight...
Viking berserker

Viking Berserkers – Fierce Warriors or Drug-Fuelled Madmen?

Today, the word ‘berserk’ is used to describe anyone in an irrational, agitated state of mind who cannot or does not control his or her actions. The meaning of the word originates with the Viking...
A diver holds the skull of an ancient bear known as an Arctotherium. It is one of the species of “prehistoric monsters” found in an underwater Yucatan cave.

Fossils of Giant Prehistoric Beasts Discovered in Underwater Ice Age Death Cave

More than 10,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age ended, vast sheets of ice receded, scarring and causing massive cracks to appear on the bridge between North and South America. At that time, the land...
Drawing of a werewolf in woodland at night. Main illustration for the story "The Werewolf Howls". Internal illustration from the pulp magazine Weird Tales

Why We Should Welcome the Return of ‘Old Stinker’, the English Werewolf

Sam George / The Conversation In 2016, there was something of a folk panic in Yorkshire, northern England, following reported sightings of an eight-foot werewolf with a very human face. The werewolf...
What did this ring with two wolf heads symbolize to the Viking who wore it?

Two Wolves Entwined: What did this Viking Ring Symbolize?

By ThorNews In the autumn of 2015, a unique Viking Age spiral ring with two wolf heads was found in Goa in Randaberg, Western Norway. Does the ring show Odin’s two wolves, Geri and Freki – or is it...
A Puma in the night

Ghost Talkers and Puma Men: Adena Totemism and the Shamans of the Early Woodland Period

The people of the Adena Culture are widely regarded as the first builders of mounds and earthworks in the Ohio Valley. By conventional dating the culture spans the period of 1000 BC to around 300 AD...
Alejandra Molina, an archaeologist with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), works at a site where a sacrificed young wolf elaborately adorned with some of the finest Aztec gold has been discovered adjacent to the Templo Mayor, one of the main Aztec temples, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Sacrificial Young Wolf Adorned with Best Quality Aztec Gold Ever Found is Discovered in Mexico City

Archaeologists have discovered a sacrificial wolf carefully adorned with some of the best quality Aztec gold ever found. It is believed that the wolf was buried more than five centuries ago in the...
26,000-Year-Old Child Footprints Found Alongside Paw Prints Reveal Oldest Evidence of Human-Canine Relationship

26,000-Year-Old Child Footprints Found Alongside Paw Prints Reveal Oldest Evidence of Human-Canine Relationship

There is little doubt that humans and dogs are naturally inclined to be best friends. But when and how did this dynamic duo first emerge? Conventional wisdom holds that agrarian man domesticated...
Deriv; Werewolf costume and natural landscape

Werewolf Hunting #101 – In Search of Legends, and Busting Folklore Myths

Imagine you have been invited to meet in an abandoned cemetery to go on a werewolf hunt on the night of the next full Moon but you don’t know what to pack? It may sound like something out of a cheesy...
Battle between Veles and Perun.

Veles and Perun: The Legendary Battle of Two Slavic Gods

Veles and Perun are two deities found in the religion of the Slavs prior to the coming of Christianity. The Pre-Christian Slavs were polytheists, and worshipped a pantheon of deities, just like the...
The wolf howls against the moon.

Howling Against the Moon: The Last Wolves of Ireland

The man followed the tracks through the snow. His hound sniffed eagerly, almost pulling the leash from the man’s grasp. The wolf was not far ahead of them. Through a break in the clouds a full moon...

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