alternatehistory.com

The wolf had been a deeply feared animal in Christian Western Europe for centuries. It was loathed and brought nearly to extinction. Unlike lions, bears,eagles, deers etc. The wolf had/has a very bad reputation, in European folklore and Christian mythology.
On the other side, eastern steppe people and other cultures held the wolf in high regards, the Turanic mythology portrays the wolf as their spiritual ancestor ,for example.

How could the wolf become a respected emblem and coat of arms symbol like other wild carnivores ? Maybe in sense of a noble, free spirited animal ? Rome´s founding myth of Romulus and Remus shows, that the later foundation layer of Western Europe once proudly marched under the wolf banner. Even lions had been, despite often been symbol of knightly courage, bedeviled . So the Knights Templer had been allowed to only hunt lions for sport, as the church thought, that Satan himself takes the form as a ranging lion.
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