Wolf Hour—Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
Today on the blog, author Josephine Greenland dishes on her inspiration for her latest thriller Wolf Hour.
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf – Why a Vegan Author from Sweden Wrote a Book About Hunting
The inspiration for my new book came, as I think it does for many authors, on a whim. An unexpected passing thought that I managed to capture in conversation, and then on paper. Wolf hybrids running rampant through countryside communities, killing cats, sheep and dogs, and scaring neighbours as they went on their daily morning Nordic walk. In a sense, this wasn’t old news. The dichotomy between man and wolf in Sweden is – apologies for my use of cliché here – as old as time. Stigma against the wolf runs rampant in most of rural Sweden. The wolf is an enemy, a threat to livestock and livelihoods. Seeing wolf tracks in neighbourhoods is bad news – each year the Swedish Government legislates the shooting of a select number of wolves, mostly individuals who have strayed too close to humans. With that logic, the more urban culture spreads, the higher the risk of human-wolf encounters, the higher the number of wolves that can be legally culled. And that is discounting the shadow-number of wolves shot illegally. In the next culling season, running from 2nd of January – 15th February 2027, 72 wolves around the country will be allowed to be shot. The number varies from region to region: from 12 individuals in Örebro county 2-3 hours west of Stockholm, to 6 individuals in my home county Södermanland. The majority of these individuals belong to established packs. Essentially, wolf packs all around the country will risk losing one or two family members next year.
I have never been against hunting as an occupation, when it comes to procuring food. Being vegan for nine years has not changed my stance on this topic. I’ve seen the moose steaks my cousin brings back from his hunting trips, from animals he has shot and gutted himself. In the autumn and winter seasons, my aunt’s freezer is full of meat provided by her son. This, to me, feels like the way we are supposed to eat meat if we really do wish to consume it. We need to lay in the moss or crouch in wooden watch towers for hours, feeling the cold bite our cheeks, seep through our boots and woollen socks and nibble our toes. Our joints need to grow stiff from crouching, our index fingers tense from staying ready and taught on the trigger, our minds drained from being constantly alert, checking for movement amongst the trees. The coffee in the thermos the only thing that keeps our innards warm. We need to learn how to be patient – the static white noise from the hunting radio the only technology at our disposal. Achieve all of this and the flesh of the moose is earned.
The Swedish moose population sits at an average of 300-350 000 during the autumn and winter seasons. In summertime, during calving season, the number shoots up to 400 000. Each year, hunters shoot approximately 60-70,000 individuals - approximating 20-25% of the population if my maths is right (there’s a reason why I pursued literature and languages rather than maths and science at school). Wolves fell about 5000 moose a year. There is still plenty of moose to share between humans and the other predators that live in Scandinavia without fully depleting the population. And yet, 20% of the wolf population is culled each year, with 72 wolves to be shot in the next cull out of a total population of 355. One does not need to be maths expert to see that 20% is going to hit a lot harder on a species a thousand times smaller.
I did not write Wolf Hour to propose a solution or hard line on the topic of wolf culling in Sweden, nor to condemn the hunters that go on wolf culls. Six years of writing and researching has still left me undecided on how to approach the topic. It is a sensitive one, and I understand that for people who have lost pets and livestock to the wolf, the wolf is an animal that stirs a lot of anger and hurt. Where a wolf poses a life-threatening to risk to humans, sometimes the only option available is shooting it. My main character Nella Khron may be a hunter and meat-eater herself, providing food for her family, and yet she is just as confused and undecided on the topic as I am. There is an instinctive hesitation within her as she raises her rifle against a wolfdog for the first time, and I doubt she is the only hunter to have experienced this. In 2021, Swedish author and household name Kerstin Ekman published the short novel Löpa Varg(Running with Wolves) about an ageing hunter’s relationship to a lone male wolf passing through the region. The novel becomes an existential and moral exploration into what it means to kill, especially the connection between hunting and masculinity in a rural community; leading to the old hunter stepping down from his position as team leader and retiring from the profession, permanently locking away his rifle in his weapon cabinet. The novel also delves into the highly problematic issue of illegal hunting, as some of the younger team members take the matter of wolf culling into their own hands.
I didn’t read Ekman’s novel until I had finished my final edits on Wolf Hour, which I think was a wise decision to make as I did not want to be too directly influenced by other wolf novels during the writing process. It was, though, a very affirming reading experience, showing me how relevant this topic is, and that there are many angles and spins to take on the subject of wolves and hunting. I like to hope that a young, queer woman’s experience of hunting is a refreshing and nuanced approach, and that it may lay one more step in the path towards releasing the wolf from exile in public opinion. At the end of the day the wolf is but yet another animal who wants to eat, live and survive. As the old lullaby penned by children’s author Astrid Lindgren goes:
The wolf howls in the forest of the night,
He wants to, but cannot, sleep.
Hunger tears at his wolfish belly
And it is cold inside his den.
The Book
When everyone around you becomes unreliable, even dangerous, can you trust a wild wolf?
Nella Khron partakes in her first wolf cull for a pack of illegally bred wolfdogs. She fails to shoot and hand over the wolf to protect herself, forming an unexpected bond with the mother wolf, Silence, who escapes. Soon she realizes that the wolf’s presence is connected to the murder of a fellow hunter and a criminal network terrorizing her hometown, and that her uncle, Roland, knows far more than he lets on. Ostrasized by her family and community, Nella has no one but herself and the wolf to trust. But can she guarantee that Silence won’t turn on her?
About the Author
Josephine Greenland was born in Eskilstuna, Sweden, to Swedish and British parents. She moved to the UK to study English and Creative Writing and currently lives in Norwich, where she is pursuing a PhD at UEA. Her first novel, Embers, was published in 2021 with Unbound. Wolf Hour is her second novel, inspired by the woods, wildlife and hunting culture in her home region, and will be published with Stairwell Books in Autumn 2026. She is currently working on her third novel for her PhD thesis.
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