The Wolves Skoll and Hati: Loyalty, Tracking, and the Unmasking of Deception

Introduction: What Are Skoll and Hati?

In Norse mythology, Skoll and Hati are wolves who chase the sun and moon. In Danielle L. Jensen’s A Curse Carved in Bone, they are reimagined as living, enchanted animals bound to King Harald of Nordeland. The wolves are described as massive—each weighing as much as a man—with white and black fur, silver collars, and runes painted on their foreheads. They first appear outside Harald’s hall in Hrafnheim, where they are introduced as creatures of intelligence far beyond ordinary beasts. Skade, the king’s huntress, warns Freya that “run, and they will join me in the hunt for you.” The wolves are trackers par excellence: they can follow a scent over land and water, and their keen noses become the story’s most reliable weapon against Harald’s shape-shifting magic.

The Wolves as Trackers: How They Expose Harald’s Greatest Weakness

Harald is a child of Loki who can consume and become anyone—man, giant cat, or monstrous wolf. Throughout the middle third of the novel, his shape-shifting allows him to manipulate every major character, from Snorri’s murder to framing Freya as a traitor. But the wolves Skoll and Hati possess a faculty Harald cannot alter: their sense of smell. As Freya notes in Chapter 44, “Harald changes shape… but does he change smell?” It is a critical insight that resolves the novel’s central problem of identifying the trickster.

The wolves’ tracking ability is established early. In Chapter 26, when Freya is kidnapped by Snorri’s men, Harald sends Skoll and Hati from his drakkar: “Find her,” he orders. The wolves leap into the Rimstrom River, swim to opposite banks, and race parallel to the ship, noses to the wind. Skoll eventually finds a smashed vessel with Freya’s abandoned sword and seax, leading Bjorn into the forest to rescue her. At that stage, the wolves serve Harald’s purposes, but their power is morally neutral—they track whoever their master commands.

The meaning of their tracking shifts dramatically in Chapter 44. After a failed attempt to infiltrate Grindill, a desperate Freya notices Skoll and Hati watching her from the trees. She replicates the runes Harald once used to bind them, and the wolves’ eyes sharpen with intelligence. She asks if they can smell Harald no matter his shape. They answer with a soft whine—a yes. For the first time, Freya gains a weapon that can unmask the trickster without relying on magic or faith. She devises a plan: smoke out the fortress and force everyone through choke points, where the wolves will sniff out Harald as he tries to flee. “He doesn’t know we have Skoll and Hati,” she says, “so he’ll not hesitate to try to slip through.” Her strategy works. In Chapter 49, as Grindill burns, Skoll stands among the fleeing crowd, sniffing each person as they pass. Bjorn observes that “Harald could lie with his form, but I am willing to bet he could not alter his smell.”

Recurrence and Transformation of Meaning

The wolves first appear as objects of fear and dominance. In Chapter 10, Freya sees them guarding Harald’s hall and feels a shiver when Skade threatens her with their pursuit. They are extensions of the king’s authority—tools of coercion. Later, they are sent to protect Bjorn on his journey to Saga, but Bjorn dismisses them as “pets.” Yet their role is never passive; they actively hunt for Harald, and when Freya becomes his enemy, they become intermediaries between the two sides.

The crucial transformation occurs when Freya binds them. By transferring her own runic understanding, she asks for their “help” and offers them “revenge against the one who kept you bound for so long.” The wolves choose to side with her. In Chapter 44, they circle her with wagging tails, a stark contrast to their earlier snarling loyalty to Harald. From that point, they become symbols of loyalty that is earned, not commanded. They are no longer Harald’s pets but allies of the truth-seekers. In the final confrontation, they function as the ultimate arbiter of identity, proving that no illusion can hide a rotten core.

Character and Theme Connections

Bjorn: The wolves are initially his father’s creatures. Bjorn is uneasy with Harald’s control over them, but he uses them pragmatically. In Chapter 26, he shouts at Skoll and Hati to “Find her!” and follows them into the forest. After Freya wins their loyalty, Bjorn witnesses Skoll’s sniffing operation at Grindill and understands that the wolves are now their best chance to catch the trickster.

Freya: Her connection to the wolves represents her evolution from victim to strategist. Early chapters show her intimidated by the wolves. In Chapter 44, she risks binding them with magic, but her approach is respectful: “I have no desire to bind you to my will, only to offer you the chance for revenge.” She treats them as partners, not tools. This aligns with the novel’s theme of breaking unjust oaths and choosing one’s own fate.

Harald: The wolves are his blind spot. He believes his shape-shifting makes him undetectable, yet the one piece of magic he couldn’t erase is the scent the wolves remember. His arrogance in assuming he can fool everyone—including his own pets—leads to his downfall.

Themes:

• Deception and Truth: The wolves are nature’s answer to supernatural lies. Their noses cannot be enchanted, making them the only infallible truth-detector in the story.
• Fate vs. Free Will: Harald bound the wolves with runes, but Freya re-binds them with a different purpose—to serve their own desire for revenge. This parallels the novel’s argument that fate can be reshaped through choice.
• Oaths and Binding: The wolves’ collars and painted runes echo the blood oaths that trap characters like Freya and Tora. Freya’s release of the wolves (she promises to wash away the runes) mirrors her eventual breaking of her own oath to Snorri.
• War and Peace: The wolves enable Freya’s final assault on Grindill, converting a potential civil war into a targeted hunt. Their role minimizes bloodshed by allowing deception to be exposed without a full battle.

Four Study Questions with Answers

Question 1

Why are Skoll and Hati able to detect Harald when no one else can?

Answer: Harald can change his physical shape completely, but the wolves rely on scent, which his transformation cannot alter. As Freya deduces, his magic alters appearance but not his underlying odor. The wolves’ keen noses make them immune to his illusions.

Question 2

How does Freya’s approach to the wolves differ from Harald’s?

Answer: Freya asks for their help rather than commanding them. She uses runes to communicate, but she explicitly states she does not want to bind them permanently. Harald treated them as servants; Freya treats them as willing allies, offering them revenge for their own captivity.

Question 3

How do the wolves’ actions in Chapter 44 connect to the novel’s larger theme of unmasking false identities?

Answer: Throughout the story, Harald creates elaborate false narratives—pretending to be Snorri, pretending to save Steinunn, pretending to be a hero. The wolves’ ability to smell through all disguises serves as a literal unmasking. Freya’s plan to “force everyone in the fortress out with smoke” and let the wolves identify Harald becomes the decisive strategy that exposes the trickster to all who witness it.

Question 4

Describe one instance where the wolves change the course of the plot through their tracking ability.

Answer: In Chapter 26, Skoll discovers Freya’s sword and seax in the mud beside a smashed vessel on the riverbank. This proves she was incapacitated rather than escaped voluntarily, prompting Bjorn to follow the wolves into the forest. Without that discovery, Bjorn would not have found Freya’s trail in time to rescue her from Snorri’s men.