The July session of Camp National Novel Writing Month (Camp
NaNo) is sixteen days away and I have been stricken with a bout of writer’s
block. Well, it’s not really writer’s block… it’s more like brainstorming
block. I have sixteen days to bring life to my characters and figure out just
what is going to happen.
My idea for this latest work came to me after researching
the word, ‘warg’. The word derives from the term, ‘vargr’ and in Norse
Mythology, the term referred to the wolf Fenrir and his sons Sköll and Hati. ‘Vargr’ means
wolf. J.R.R. Tolkien used the word to name a wolf-like creature consciously in
league with the Orcs. It is thought that Tolkien’s Wargs are descended from
werewolves or wolf-hounds of the First Age. These creatures have their own
language and are quite intelligent. They have been seen on screen in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and
Return of the King as well as The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In The
Hobbit, they were being used as mounts for the goblins while in The Two Towers and Return of the King they were ridden by Orcs. In the Lord of the Rings films, they have more
of a hyena appearance due to a choice made by director Peter Jackson, but they
are pretty ferocious and scary nonetheless. They hold their wolf-like
appearance, however, in The Hobbit.
Wargs have been used in other works as well – Dungeons & Dragon and
Ragnarok Online as well as books, The
Sight and Fell by David
Clement-Davies in which, the wargs have named themselves the Varg and their god
is Fenris. Then we enter the world of George R.R. Martin and the definition of
warg changes completely, and this is where my story’s inspiration has come
from. In Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
series, wargs are people who can form a telepathic and empathic bond with
wolves (and other creatures). In some cases, they can even go so far as to wear
the wolf’s “skin” and see through the wolf’s eyes. It is this last definition
of warg that has intrigued me most.
The
wolf has been one of my favourite animals and my favourite of the canine
species. February 24th through February 27th, 2000, my
Grade Six class went to a place called Kearney on the southern edge of
Algonquin Park. The scenery was beautifully picturesque, covered in white, virgin
snow. The tees were tall and the forest was silent. The weekend was spent
snowshoeing, hiking, roasting marshmallows over a campfire and playing an
extended game of Predator and Prey.
But one night, the forest came alive and we were reminded that we were not
alone in the woods. The councillors who were taking us on our adventures took
us to the edge of a ridge a couple of hours after the sun had gone down. They
told us to be silent and listen. We could hear something in the distance. It
sounded like something was howling. We were told to howl back – all 30 of us.
So we did. And we were promptly answered. We were howling with wolves. There was a pack about three or
four miles away from where we were lodging. They never once bothered us and I
was forever fascinated by them. The sound of a howling wolf pack is both
haunting and beautiful. It is haunting because it is a sound you never near at
home (except as a sound bite on your computer) and, to me, it is beautiful
because it belongs to a beautiful animal. The wolf has been horribly
misunderstood during the history of Man. Wolves do what they do because that’s
what they’re hardwired to do. They are apex predators in their territories and
prefer to stay away from humans. Coyotes are a common appearance in my city and
they are far less fearful of us. Wolves aren’t.
In my newest work, “The Wargs”, wargs are people who have formed telepathic bonds with wolves and as a result have created their own “pack”. The main character enters this world after an encounter with a wolf, and quickly learns that the pack has enemies who believe that wargs are an abomination and dangerous to society. That’s about all I’ve got for this novel that I must begin writing in sixteen days. I still need ideas, as well as a way to start the darn thing.
Wolves also
have a prominent role in my Pangaea Trilogy. One of the four main characters
meets and is accepted by a pack of 100 wolves. I’m well aware that packs of 100
are pretty much nonexistent in the real world. These wolves have come together
from various areas in Pangaea. Some are refugees seeking shelter from countries
at war. Their Alpha is an extremely old, silver furred wolf named Seneca who
gives the character a hard time, but begins to like her the more she comes
around. The wolf pack becomes a second, very large group of friends that
accepts her any time she needs them to. They become a part of her family.
The
wolf is also on my coat of arms.
Perhaps
I am destined to have an affinity with wolves. My coat of arms will follow me
forever and so will the wolf on it. One of my dreams is to visit a wolf
sanctuary to see them up close. Wolves play an important role within our
ecosystems. They keep deer, elk and moose populations stable, which gives
vegetation the ability to grow and thrive so those ungulate have an abundance
of food. Wolves are resourceful and do not waste their kills. They eat all they
can, adopting a ‘waste not, want not’ philosophy. Mothers are extremely
protective of their young and every wolf has a role to play within the pack and
they are respected by the other members. Recently, the “scapegoat” of a pack in
the Midwestern US died during a harsh winter. She was the one the other members
turned to to vent their frustrations. She was the scapegoat. But when she died,
the other members mourned her loss, despite their seemingly cruel treatment of
her. She kept the pack stable. There is a hierarchy within the pack that we may
not understand, but it is a system that has worked for the wolf for millions of
years.
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