Wolves

Wolves are represented in this passage by Homo, Ursus’s wolf companion: first the object of his fierce protectiveness, then a quiet participant in the care of the abandoned children. Homo’s gentle behavior prompts Ursus to make the wolf part of the family he is forming.

Identity and Place in the Hut

During a bitter night in Weymouth, Ursus worries that the starving boy who has entered his hut might carry a disease and infect Homo. His anxiety exposes the priority he gives the animal: he is willing to let the populace suffer rather than put his wolf at risk. Yet Homo is not simply a creature Ursus guards from others. He shares the hut and its precarious shelter, and his presence belongs to the small household Ursus is beginning to assemble.

Care for the Infant

While Ursus grumbles about the children and the food they have consumed, Homo moves close to the stove. The sleeping infant’s hand hangs between the stove and a chest; Homo licks it so softly that the child does not wake. The action is restrained and tender, sharply contrasting with Ursus’s bitter complaints about hunger, intrusion, and the cost of taking the children in.

Ursus reads this quiet gesture as assent to a new bond. He tells Homo, “Well done, Homo. I shall be father, and you shall be uncle.” He then settles the matter as an adoption, treating the wolf’s presence and willingness as part of the decision to make a family.

The Wolf in Ursus’s Language

Ursus’s speech repeatedly turns animal imagery into a measure of his changing response. In his first outburst, he calls the ravenous boy a wolf-cub, then withdraws the insult because he respects wolves; he redirects his abuse toward other predators instead. His comic invective registers real hunger and resentment, but the correction distinguishes the wolf from the human behavior he condemns.

Later, Ursus calls the wolf’s tongue a warning from God. The phrase links Homo’s animal presence to the moral choice unfolding in the hut: despite poverty and resentment, Ursus will shelter the children. Homo’s small, unforced act of care helps make that choice visible, while the wolf’s place as uncle gives the new household a form beyond human kinship.