Week 2 Storytelling: The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe

No love, I felt no love. I was cold, hungry, alone, and scared. I was just a baby, a newborn baby. Warmth, is that what I felt? I was being picked as I wrapped in a cloth. I was being taken, or so I thought. At the time I was just a baby, in the home of parents who didn’t want me. They had no desire to keep me so they decided to abandon me and leave me in the woods. With only a dirty piece of cloth wrapped around my body, they left me in a bush deep in the woods.

The night was growing close and a storm was headed my direction. As the night crept closer so did the thunder. I tried to ignore the hunger, the cold, and the hurt. I didn’t know how how long I would last, so with everything I had I cried. I kept crying, yet the thunder was starting to drown the sounds of my cries. Then when all hope was almost lost a sound cried out from behind the bush. Howling to the storm, a mother wolf cried out. Death, that’s what was coming. The wolf had found me and was coming to kill her prey.

Slowly, the wolf walked up to me and stop dead in her tracks. She blocked the rain from falling on me. Her eyes were a piercing blue and her fur was as black as the night. She was swift and strong, yet I wasn’t afraid. For some reason I knew she wouldn’t hurt me. With the most gentle of touch the wolf picked me up and then took off running through the woods. As she set me back down I was in her den. I then felt warmth surround me, she had three pups that nestled around me. This mother wolf had taken me in as one of her own.

The moon was full and bright tonight and I was ready for the hunt. My brother and I have been practicing and felt the strength of the moon tonight. We had been watching a bull elk graze in the far meadow from the den. Tonight we would take it down and feast. As we set out for our hunt, mother wolf howled to the moon then we took off into the night. It had been two years now since i’ve been with my wolf family. They have taught me the ways of the woods and how to live. They also taught me their language and how to live by the moon. I felt at one with the woods as if it’s where I had always belonged. We took down the bull elk with ease, mother wolf was proud.

(The wolf and the Moon) From pixabay

 Dog Wolf Yelp Moon Tree Night Starry Sky

That next night my brothers and I were all still full from the elk so we decided to go out and play. I was out exploring some new land on the other side of the meadow when I saw something strange. It was a hunter on a horse. I had never seen one before. I stopped to watch, I was curious. As I was watching my guard fell and I was spotted. I didn’t run, I felt the same way I did when mother wolf found me. I let the hunter approach me. He started to speak but I couldn’t understand. He dismounted his horse and walked up to me. He gave me a look of concern as if i was lost. To the man that is how I looked. I was a two year old boy running on all fours, unclothed. I was raised in the way of the wolf. The hunter was also a curious boy who wanted to learn more. He was about to pick me up until he heard my brother howl out. The hunter grabbed me not knowing that was my brother wolf. The hunter jumped on his horse with me in his arms. The horse took off and we were running away from my brothers. I could hear them chasing after us, crying out for me. I howled back, yet I was already too far away for them to hear me. They were gone, this time I was taken from my family.

Years had past since the boy was taken from his wolf family. The boy was now a grown man who had become a wise and respected Bishop. He leaned how to read and write very quick and advanced with ease. In this time he had never forgotten about his wolf family, especially every full moon.

One day a local shepherd sheep got out. The Bishop offered to go out and look for them. They had been looking all day, night started to fall. Just as the Bishop was about to head back he found the last sheep. He was headed toward the sheep but a rustle in the bushes stopped him. The Bishop paused and looked around, yet it was to dark to see anything. The Bishop knew he wasn’t alone. He did not panic though, yet he felt a sense of home. The smell of the night air, the moonlight, the cool breeze. Then with a moment's notice he knew at once what made the sound in the bushes, a wolf. In a language almost forgotten, he howled to the moon. Then from behind the shadows four wolves appeared in front of him, his family. He recognized them and the wolves knew this was their long lost brother.

Man and Wolf

Author's Note: The original story was about a baby boy who was left in the forest by his parents. A wolf found him and raised him as her own along with her wolf pups. Two years later a hunter found him and took him home in hope that his wife would raise him. It turns out the hunter was a prince. Ailbe now lived in a castle and grew up to be very wise. He then became a Bishop. One day in the town of Emly there was a huge hunt. Ailbe did not participate in this hunt, he stayed in the town. As the hunt was almost over he heard the hunters chasing a wolf in. Ailbe knew this cry, it was his mother wolf. Ailbe saved the wolf after realizing this and claimed that no one should ever harm her or her pups, for this was his family. She showed him love and kindness when no one else did. Alibi did the same for her. From then on the wolves came to eat dinner with Ailbe and they were reunited as a family. To change the story up I was inspired by the idea of writing the story form Alibi's point of view and gave more detail to when he was with his wolf family.

Bibliography: This story was inspired by the writings of The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe, found in The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts, by Abbie Farwell Brown published in 1900.