The Wulver is not technically a werewolf, as a werewolf is a shapeshifter, transforming from man into wolf or wolf into man or man into wolf-like beast of some sort or wolf-like beast of some sort into man. The Wulver is always in anthropomorphic beastlike form, or somewhere in between a human being and a wolf. That’s as far as its resemblance to the traditional werewolf goes, though, as the Wulver is possessed of none of the bloodthirstiness of the werewolf. It was said to live alone in a cave somewhere on the Shetland Islands, according to folklorist Jessie Saxby, who wrote about the Wulver in her book SHETLAND TRADITIONAL LORE. Supposedly if one became lost in the forest, the Wulver would come to the rescue. The beast would also share the fish it had caught with hungry people, and would show up at the home of someone who was dying to offer comfort. If one were to meet a werewolf alone in a forest at night, that one would hope that the werewolf in question closely resembled the Wulver.
Is it possible the legend of the Wulver might have sprung from accounts of a real person, a hermit who was considered something of a “wild man” yet was peaceful and neighborly?