The Lone Wulf
The wolf as an animal that has an ancient and close connection to the pre-christian Germanic peoples and should be viewed along with the boar, the bear and the raven as a totemic animal for our people. Woden as my readers will be aware is the master of two wolves, Geri and Freki.
Many of us who are active in the Wodenic revival not only associate ourselves with this animal but adopt its characteristics, albeit perhaps unconsciously which all the more affirms our ancient afinity for this creature. Some of us even go on to adopt its name as our own personal name because of our close identification.
Germanic man`s affinity with the wolf, especially the lone wolf goes back to the concept of the Werwolf and an example of this may be found in the legend of Sigurd and his son Sinfjotli who was conceived by his sister Signy in order to exact revenge upon the enemies of the Volsunga, his blood being of the purest kind and a linear descendant of Woden Himself.
The characteristics of the Lone Wolf in particular should be of especial interest to us and are worthy of emulation.
A laudable definition of the Lone Wolf may be found on Wikipedia:
A lone wolf is a wolf that lives independently rather than with others as a member of a pack. The term is also used in reference to people who exhibit characteristics of introversion or a strong preference for independence.
In the animal kingdom, lone wolves are typically older wolves driven from the pack, perhaps by an alpha male, or young adults in search of new territory. Rather than openly challenge the dominance of the pack leaders, many young wolves between the ages of 1 and 4 years leave their family to search for a pack of their own. Some wolves will simply remain lone wolves; as such, these lone wolves may be stronger, more aggressive and far more dangerous than the average wolf that is a member of a pack. However, lone wolves have difficulty hunting, as wolves' favorite prey, large ungulates, are nearly impossible for a single wolf to bring down alone. Instead, lone wolves will generally hunt smaller animals and scavenge carrion. Occasionally, a lone wolf will encounter another lone wolf of the opposite sex, and the two may start a new pack.
When used to describe a person, this term is applied to individuals who prefer solitude, or who work alone. In literature, the term is used to establish a character as aloof and emotionally unable or unwilling to directly interact with other characters in the story. A stereotypical lone wolf will be dark or serious in personality; he is often taciturn, and will distinguish himself through his reserved nature.
Lone wolf of the group
A paradoxical additional term used to describe someone who spends enough time with a group to be considered a member but not enough time to be very close to the other members. Such people tend to not take part in the group activities or "get-togethers". It is also rarely applied to someone who is shy and tends to refer to someone who simply spends most of their time alone.
When applied to military or security groups, it refers to someone who frequently acts on their own accord, insists on working alone, refuses to work with most of if not all members of the group and/or goes against the plans of missions/operations and attempts to complete said task alone.
