The Wolf Howl Symbol in Once There Were Wolves

What the Wolf Howl Is in Once There Were Wolves

The wolf howl is the novel's most persistent sonic symbol, a literal biological signal that carries emotional and ecological weight. The book opens with an epigraph from Angela Carter — “One beast and only one howls in the woods by night” — placing the howl at the threshold of the narrative before any character appears. In the opening chapter, Inti Flynn watches the newly arrived wolves in their acclimation pens and hopes “that one would begin and the rest would follow,” but notes that “wolves don't howl when they're stressed.” This detail grounds the motif in real wolf behavior: the howl is not a reflexive noise but a deliberate act of communication that requires a measure of security. The howl only emerges once the wolves begin to settle into the Scottish landscape, and its recurrences trace the arc of their integration.

The Howl as Mourning

The most emotionally charged recurrence comes after the death of Number Nine, the breeding male shot on Red McRae's farm. In Chapter 7, Inti arrives home at nightfall and hears “the howl of a wolf” — “the first in these lands for hundreds of years.” The sound is “filled with a desperate aching question,” continuing “without answer, growing less hopeful by the hour.” Inti recognizes it immediately: “Snowy Number Six, calling her lost mate home.”

This moment transforms the howl from a biological signal into an expression of grief. Number Six's call is unanswered — Nine is dead — and the howl becomes a question that will never receive a response. It recurs nightly for two weeks, drawing complaints from neighbors who are disturbed by the sound. The contrast between the townspeople's irritation and Inti's understanding is central: where locals hear an annoyance, Inti hears mourning. The howl gives voice to loss that cannot be spoken in human language, connecting to the novel's broader treatment of grief — the historical extermination of Scottish wolves, the disappearance of Inti's father, and the violence shadowing both human and animal characters.

The Howl as Territorial Communication

As the packs establish themselves, the howl shifts from mourning to territorial assertion. In Chapter 18, the narrative describes how “the wolves have all begun to howl,” calling “by night and day, running circuits of their newly established territories, calling to each other to define the boundaries of their pack's land, calling to other wolves a warning to stay away.” Here the howl is a map-making sound — it draws the boundaries of the packs' new homes and warns outsiders away.

This territorial function is dramatized most vividly in Chapter 28, when Inti tracks the rogue wolf Number Ten. Ten's howl is described as “the language of the most territorial creature on Earth, warning me to back off or continue at my own peril.” The howl then “begins to shift from a warning to a taunt” — a provocation that turns the tables on Inti, who has been hunting Ten. The howl here is not just communication but confrontation, a vocal challenge that asserts the wolf's agency and refusal to be controlled.

The Howl as Teaching and Legacy

By Chapter 15, the howl takes on a pedagogical function. Number Six — now called Ash — is described as “howling and teaching her pups.” The howl becomes a lesson passed from mother to offspring, a way of transmitting knowledge of territory, warning, and belonging. This teaching function culminates in the epilogue, where Ash dies peacefully at age nine, having “guided them through this land and taught them to survive.”

The epilogue's final image extends the howl's legacy beyond the wolves themselves. Inti shows her daughter how to “press her ear to the ground” and whispers, “Can you hear them?” The implied sound — the wolves' presence, perhaps their howls — becomes a generational inheritance, passed from Inti to her child just as Ash passed her knowledge to her pups. The howl, once a sound of mourning and warning, becomes a promise of continued wildness.

The Howl and Inti's Empathy

Inti's mirror-touch synesthesia — her ability to feel what other creatures feel — gives her a unique relationship to the howl. In Chapter 1, she watches the wolves and feels Nine's dominance over Six as a physical sensation: “his muzzle pressing onto the back of my neck,” “teeth sink into my lobe.” This embodied empathy extends to sound: when she hears Six's mourning howl, she doesn't just hear grief, she recognizes it — “I know which wolf the eerie sound belongs to.”

The howl is thus not merely an auditory symbol for Inti; it is a channel of emotional transmission. Her ability to interpret the howl — to know it as mourning rather than noise — sets her apart from the townspeople who complain about the nightly calls and from Duncan Mactavish, who “dislikes wolves because they frighten the local people.” Inti's empathy allows her to translate the howl's meaning, making her the novel's interpreter of the wild's language. This connects directly to the theme of embodied empathy and moral responsibility.

The Howl and the Wild's Return

The howl also marks the return of the wild to a landscape that has been without it for centuries. When Inti hears Six's howl, the narrative notes it is “the first in these lands for hundreds of years” — a sound absent since the historical extermination of Scottish wolves, which Fergus recounts in Chapter 7: the burning of forests “so as to smoke out the wolves,” the required wolf hunts, the “entire nation out for their blood.”

The howl's return is thus a sonic marker of ecological restoration. It signals that the rewilding and ecological restoration project is succeeding — that the wolves are not merely surviving but establishing territories, raising pups, and making the land their own. By the epilogue, the wolves have “come home,” and locals watch for sightings “with binoculars,” suggesting that the howl — and the wildness it represents — has begun to work its way “into the hearts of the Scottish people.”

Study Questions

1. How does the wolf howl's meaning shift across the novel?

The howl evolves from a sound of mourning (Six calling for Nine) to a territorial assertion (the packs defining their boundaries) to a teaching tool (Ash instructing her pups) and finally to a legacy of wildness (the implied howls in the epilogue). Each shift tracks the wolves' journey from displaced animals to established inhabitants of the Scottish landscape.

2. Why does Inti recognize Six's mourning howl when others hear only noise?

Inti's mirror-touch synesthesia allows her to feel the emotional content of the howl — she experiences the wolves' sensations as her own. Her scientific training and her deep familiarity with the individual wolves also enable her to identify Six by sound alone. The contrast between Inti's interpretation and the neighbors' complaints highlights the novel's concern with empathy as a form of knowledge.

3. What does the howl reveal about the relationship between the wolves and the Scottish landscape?

The howl marks the wolves' claim on a land that has been without them for centuries. It is both a territorial boundary and a sign of ecological restoration — evidence that the rewilding project is succeeding. The historical context of wolf extermination, recounted by Fergus, makes the howl's return a form of reparation.

4. How does the epilogue's final image extend the howl's symbolism?

The epilogue ends with Inti teaching her daughter to listen for the wolves — an act that passes the howl's meaning to a new generation. The howl, once a sound of grief and warning, becomes a promise of continued wildness and a bond between human and animal that transcends language.