Editing Wolf (section)

==== In fable and literature ====

{{See also|List of fictional wolves}}
[[Aesop]] featured wolves in several of his [[Aesop's Fables|fables]], playing on the concerns of Ancient Greece's settled, sheep-herding world. His most famous is the fable of "[[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]]", which is directed at those who knowingly raise false alarms, and from which the idiomatic phrase "to [[wikt:cry wolf|cry wolf]]" is derived. Some of his other fables concentrate on maintaining the trust between shepherds and guard dogs in their vigilance against wolves, as well as anxieties over the close relationship between wolves and dogs. Although Aesop used wolves to warn, criticize and moralize about human behaviour, his portrayals added to the wolf's image as a deceitful and dangerous animal. The [[Bible]] uses an image of a wolf lying with a lamb in a utopian vision of the future. In the [[New Testament]], [[Jesus]] is said to have used wolves as illustrations of the dangers his followers, whom he represents as sheep, would face should they follow him.{{sfn|Marvin|2012|pp=38–45}}
[[File:Dore ridinghood.jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=An illustration of Red Riding Hood meeting the wolf|''[[Little Red Riding Hood]]'' (1883), [[Gustave Doré]]]] 
Isengrim the wolf, a character first appearing in the 12th-century Latin poem ''[[Ysengrimus]]'', is a major character in the [[Reynard]] Cycle, where he stands for the low nobility, whilst his adversary, Reynard the fox, represents the peasant hero. Isengrim is forever the victim of Reynard's wit and cruelty, often dying at the end of each story.{{sfn|Lopez|1978|p=259}} The tale of "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]", first written in 1697 by [[Charles Perrault]], is considered to have further contributed to the wolf's negative reputation in the Western world. The [[Big Bad Wolf]] is portrayed as a villain capable of imitating human speech and disguising itself with human clothing. The character has been interpreted as an allegorical [[sexual predator]].{{sfn|Marvin|2012|pp=64–70}} Villainous wolf characters also appear in ''[[The Three Little Pigs]]'' and "[[The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats]]".{{sfn|Lopez|1978|p=263}} The hunting of wolves, and their attacks on humans and livestock, feature prominently in [[Russian literature]], and are included in the works of [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[Nikolay Nekrasov]], [[Ivan Bunin]], [[Leonid Pavlovich Sabaneyev]], and others. Tolstoy's ''[[War and Peace]]'' and Chekhov's ''Peasants'' both feature scenes in which wolves are hunted with hounds and [[Borzoi]]s.{{sfn|Graves|2007|pp=21, 123}} The musical ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]'' involves a wolf being captured for eating a duck, but is spared and sent to a zoo.{{sfn|Marvin|2012|p=162}}

Wolves are among the central characters of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book]]''. His portrayal of wolves has been praised posthumously by wolf biologists for his depiction of them: rather than being villainous or gluttonous, as was common in wolf portrayals at the time of the book's publication, they are shown as living in amiable family groups and drawing on the experience of infirm but experienced elder pack members.<ref name=Kipling/> [[Farley Mowat]]'s largely fictional 1963 memoir ''[[Never Cry Wolf]]'' is widely considered to be the most popular book on wolves, having been adapted into a [[Never Cry Wolf (film)|Hollywood film]] and taught in several schools decades after its publication. Although credited with having changed popular perceptions on wolves by portraying them as loving, cooperative and noble, it has been criticized for its idealization of wolves and its factual inaccuracies.{{sfn|Mech|Boitani|2003|p=294}}<ref name=Jones/><ref name="Nevercrywolf"/>