The Rogue Wolf: Vargulf

Vargulf coverToday I learned a new word -insert smartass jokes here- the word being “Vargulf,” a Norse word meaning “rogue wolf.” A vargulf is a wolf that slaughters an entire herd of sheep (or whatever livestock) but only eats a little bit of the kill. This was obviously a huge problem for herders, so they hunted down the wolf, killed it and then hung the wolf’s hide in their child‘s bedroom, believing that it would give their child special powers. It is also believed that “vargulf” is where the word “werewolf” came from.

And where did I learn all of this? From the website of a new werewolf book, Vargulf by Tim Garrity. The book came out last month and already has a handful of awesome reviews, reviews saying that it’s not your boring emo love story, that it’s a fast paced, detailed and a bloody good read. I personally can’t wait to pick it up myself. The synopsis…

“When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in Boston’s historic North End Detectives Ed Fischer and John Nadeau are called in to investigate. Despite the brutality of the crime, there are no leads and it appears to be an isolated incident. However, a second murder just twenty-four hours later in Boston’s Backbay Fens seems eerily similar and the victims appear to be linked. Before the duo can put the pieces together, two more dead are found. Faced with a rising body count and the real prospect of a serial killer on the loose, the detectives must race against the clock to uncover the killer’s hair-raising identity before he, she or it strikes again. The debut novel from Tim Garrity, Vargulf represents a refreshing departure from the classic werewolf tale.”

So make sure to pick up your copy, if you’ve already read it let us know what you think.

– Moonlight

By moonlight

One of the writers for werewolves.com, as well as vampires.com.

14 comments

  1. sounds an awful lot like the netflix series hemlock grove to me conicadnce i think not so who stole whos idea here

    1. okay, first: hemlock grove is a great show, yes, but it is only a few months old. so how ever old it is just by watching the show you can question a word and look it up and actually find truth behind it.
      second: I am a descendent of the Norwegians and although the legend of the Vargulf may have been more and more exaggerated throughout the years it is in fact true!! sorry to sound harsh or rude about it but not everything is as it seems. not everything is just made up. there is some reality in everything, if only just a sliver.

  2. “…so who stole whos idea here.”

    Kid, this web article was published on December 5th 2009. Hemlock Grove the book was written in 2012 and the Netflix series was released in 2013.

    How can today’s children be so lazy to comment without doing the proper research that took me mere seconds!!! References: Internet Movie Database, Amazon.com and, effin’ Google.

    Every Werewolf plot sounds similar until you get into the details… Just like this kid, I was looking up the word “Vargulf” referred to in Hemlock Grove and ended up here. Article author, thanks for the definition, might buy the book too…

  3. I agree. I just heard about the term Vargulf from the Hemlock Grove series but I knew that it had to have had it’s origin prior to the series. The children of today have unimaginable access to information but they have become complacent and lazy. There are those, of course, who are the exception to the rule. Kudos to them and their inquisitive minds. By the way, thank you for the precise and “to the point” definition of Vargulf.

  4. Can you tell me what a Lupare is. I don’t know if I’m spelling it correctly. It is another term I heard from the Hemlock Grove series and don’t know what it means. Thank you.

      1. What are you, retarded? Vargulf and upir are two separate legend/myths and two entirely separate species. Even if they aren’t real..jeez.

    1. The upir is a type of dragon that feeds off humans but must die by its own hands to awaken its true powers.
      The upir are the most feared of the supernatural because of their blood thirsty fangs and their ability to hypnotize. Throughout history, though, it has become something of a shapeshifter and has now taken form of human. They look just like any other human, the same way every other supernatural being walking among us does.

  5. Hey everyone! I saw this post and figured I’d write about a series of books l recently came across. They’re paranormal romance about werewolves. They’re pretty good, Nicky Charles is the author and one of the books in the series is “Betrayal, days of the rogue”. Anyway there’s 5 books in the series and another one in the works. The best part is that they’re also FREE to download!

  6. Well in defense of Brian McGreevey who wrote Hemlock Grove, it DID take him six years to write. So that means he already had been working on it since around 2007. Maybe had the concept in him earlier.

  7. omg omg omg I want to do the werewolf spell but I bet I cant because I dond know what will happen to me and plus I might kill my mom dogs and brotherso yeah I love dogs and wolfs =^.^=

  8. Vargulf might very well be where the word ‘werewolf’ originates from. Danish is, as you might know, an Nordic language. The Danish word for a werewolf is ‘varulv’. Vargulf, varulv. That’s pretty darn close.

  9. Werewolf comes from a mix of the word wer (which meant man) that was germanic. It’s thought to be related to the latin word vir which also means man and is the root of virility. The first use of the word as it appears in modern english was a book of laws written around 1000 ad.

  10. Strange. “Varg” means “wolf” in Old Norse. Danish is a Nordic language, so how could “varulv” be “werewolf”, if “ulv” means “wolf” in Danish?

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