Folktale Week
Folktale Week is a fun project started by a bunch of talented illustrators on instagram. Each day for a week, artists post a folktale inspired illustration exploring set prompt words.
I decided to use Folktale Week to explore the personality of storybook wolves; how they hide in plain sight right there on the page, how they trick us. Their betrayal. Their cunning. Their drive to manipulate.
Can a wolf change? Could he choose a different path? And how do we feel about him? If you met a wolf, would you know it?
Home
A wolf’s main aim is to gain entrance into your HOME. It’s always better for him if you will open the door yourself, of course. A wolf will employ all sorts of cunning tricks and plans to achieve this. If one method fails, he will quietly devise another. Oh! Hang on, there’s someone coming up the path. Back in a sec.
Secret
It’s true. A wolf is sharply instinctive, quick-witted and horribly genius. We can not escape this. It is a fact. Storybook wolves are intelligent creatures, and they hide in plain sight, right there on the page. It is a wolf’s ultimate disguise, and he is an arch dissembler. But let’s remember this - the mystery of a wolf’s deviousness is a SECRET even unto himself. A wolf sees what he wants to see, and that is rarely the truth of what he himself is; something best kept hidden.
Path
You might wonder, could the wolf have chosen a different PATH? Must he really act out the ancient stereotype, and be ‘that guy’ from the folktales? In short, no. Maybe he could have taken up board games, or knitting. Maybe he could have joined a choir and made some actual friends, instead of hanging about in the dark forest his whole life. But wolves rarely do any of these things. Any of us could re-write our stories, but a wolf is so driven by instinct, he can not usually think so clearly. We ought to feel sorry for wolves.* -
*And maybe we do, if we think about it. And maybe we don’t. Such tension a folktale makes.
Smoke
It’s simple. Storybook wolves SMOKE for a reason. To be a wolf is an uncomfortable reality, deny it as they must. Who wouldn’t need a little vice to get them through? Although an insidious habit, each drag brings a fleeting, temporal relief. Close your eyes, wolf. Breathe it in. And know this, friends, to sell cigarettes to a wolf is practically to work for the folktale resistance.
Darkness
Why all the storybook DARKNESS? It’s not always necessary in a folktale, and certainly not for a wolf. It’s useful to be afraid of the dark, of course. But don’t rely on darkness to warn you of danger. Folktale wolves can operate easily in the daytime, the tricksters!
Key
Folktale wolves – so far, so terrifying. But fear not; listen up. A wolf is actually powerless at heart, and the KEY is right here in our hands, for a wolf is trapped in the story of his own making. He cannot ever wholly escape it, or even himself. WE know the comfort of a folktale – when the book closes, we’re safe. We can put it back on the shelf, and walk away. To be a reader is to possess power. Pity poor Wolfie; we’re in charge.
Crown
Wouldn’t you rather have a feather in your hat, than a CROWN? If you’ve opened the pages of a rather frightening folktale, read the wolf’s story in fear and trembling, looked deep into his yellow eyes until the final page, then bravely snap the book shut, you’ve earned it. All credit to you. Never mind that the limp home to your cottage is long. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men can only salute you. But you need no princely honour. You need no crown. A feather in your hat, and a cup of tea to warm you. That’s all. And that is The End of this story. (Watch out for wolves. I hope you never meet one 😘).