What does Wolf mean?

First Aid Kit: Wolf Meaning

Tagged:   No tags, suggest one.
Album cover for Wolf album cover

Song Released: 2012


Wolf Lyrics

Wolf mother, where you been?
You look so worn, so thin
You're a taker, devil's maker
Let me hear you sing, hey ya hey ya

Wolf father, at the door
You don't smile anymore
You're a drifter, shapeshifter
Let me see you run, hey ya hey...

Write an interpretation

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Apr 15th 2012 !⃝

    This ballad was extracted from Hemliga bok i den stora mörka skogen (The Secret Book of the Great Dark Forest), a 359 parchment pages rare volume presently displayed in the Nordic Museum in Djurgården and believed to date back from the mid 16th century. According to the Swedish mythology, several wolves entered into an agreement with the underground creature Vittra to seduce humans into venturing through the great forest at night by singing strange songs. The few human who followed the wolves into the darkness got lost in vast expanse of swamps where they had to confront their own past, and for some of them, their disgrace, while Vittra, the underground creature, slowly crawled out to meet each of them.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Jul 15th 2017 !⃝

    This song is about how we treat our planet. "Wolf Mother" could refer to "Mother Nature". In the Modern era, Mother Nature hasn't been around much "Where you been?", and is also slowly being destroyed, "You look so worn, so thin"

    "Wolf Father" is debatable. It could creatures or organisms as a whole. The "Shapeshifter" part could show that the Father is life, as we are constantly changing our ways.

    "Child of Wolf" could refer to the human race. We try to keep clinging onto our Earth. We have no choice but to watch the danger rapidly grow until Mother Wolf chokes and dies. The Holy Light could be a goal to rescue the wolf mother.

    The chorus tells us of the scene after this happens "When I run through the deep dark forest long AFTER this begun"

    The trees are dead, and there are no rivers, which shows that humans have taken things from this place. The new generation keeps trying to escape the past and save the planet, but it's too late, and our disgrace is us.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Oct 5th 2016 !⃝

    This ballad was extracted from Hemliga bok i den stora mörka skogen (The Secret Book of the Great Dark Forest), a 359 parchment pages rare volume presently displayed in the Nordic Museum in Djurgården and believed to date back from the mid 16th century. According to the Swedish mythology, several wolves entered into an agreement with the underground creature Vittra to seduce humans into venturing through the great forest at night by singing strange songs. The few human who followed the wolves into the darkness got lost in vast expanse of swamps where they had to confront their own past, and for some of them, their disgrace, while Vittra, the underground creature, slowly crawled out to meet each of them.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Oct 10th 2020 !⃝

    I always felt intrigued by this song but I heard it in a new light tonight and then found myself crying. It also reminded me of native Americans, but perhaps from the perspective of young native American child/ 'cub', observing his 'wolfmother' and 'wolffather' coming into the 'den' looking worn out by the newly colonized world that they struggle to assimilate too.

    'You're a taker'
    I'm not sure about this, but maybe the mother is forced into prostitution out of desperation? this was sometimes the case for Native American women. This could also reference the great mother, the earth, constantly 'taking' it - being violated by humans.
    wolfmother is viewed as sinful by Christians so she is a witch in their eyes too, and it was said around the 16th century witches fornicated with the devil, 'making with the devil' - a devil maker. I'm a bit unsure about this verse thigh, tbh.

    "you're a drifter, shape shifter"
    - the father suppressing his culture and identity (language, dress, custom etc.) to 'shape shift' into a white man in order to survive, and 'drifting' amongst constant poverty and instability.

    "Holy light over the night
    Oh, keep the spirit strong"
    - a fire, a hearth 'over the night' in the den, representing the one surviving, unchangeable link to the families ancestors, past and spirituality that they must keep strong.

    "watch it grow, child of war"
    the child watches the hearth grow, having only ever know a world of violence and assault on native american people and the land / "war". but in the fire he/she's 'remembers' the past and what she/he must preserve.

    When I run through the deep dark forest long
    After this begun
    Where the sun would set
    The trees were dead
    And the rivers were none
    And I hope for a trace
    To lead me back home from this place
    But there was no sound there was only me, and my disgrace

    I think here the writer switches back to their own pov in observing how much the earth is ravaged today, and the sadness and desperation to find 'a trace' of something pure, true and alive, to lead us out of this nightmare we've created of earth and back home to our purer selves, where we were one with the land (indigenous). but the spirit/sense of life /'trace' she longs for has left the place already, and it is just her and her disgrace of her people and maybe herself.

    "Wayward winds, a voice that sings
    Of a forgotten land"
    -hearing the call to return/ remember

    "See it fall, child of war"
    - see the colonized, earth raping culture fall, child who has only ever known a time of 'war' between humans and the earth.

    Oh, lend a mending hand
    - be part of the movement to return/ remember

    As I said... it made me cry. It seems a plea for humans to remember the sacredness of the earth

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Oct 13th 2019 !⃝

    I think it is about all of the bad things in the world and the attempts to fix them. “Wolf Mother “ is anything that has been worn and abused by life in general. “ You’re a taker Devil’s maker, is about unkind people. “Wolf Father “ is also about hardships. “ Shapeshifter is about the many different faces or forms that bad things take on. “Holy lLight, Guard the Night” is about attempts to reconcile the evil and protect anything that is not yet evil. “ Watch it grow child of Wolf, keep holding on” is about waiting for the world to change but not helping. “Run through the deep dark forest” I about running from your problems. “Where the sun would set, trees were dead” means that your problems were worse that imagined. “Hope for a trace to lead me back” is about wanting to return to your innocence. “Wayward winds, a voice that sings of a forgotten land” is about wishing to go to a place where the grass is greener. And “See it fall, lend a mending hand” Is about attempting to fix the unjustises of the world . This song reflects a feeling of hope in a forgotten, sad world.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     May 4th 2019 !⃝

    I’m not sure about the Swedish ballad. I’d have to read it but I can’t find any information on it. This song reminds me of the native Americans. They viewed the wolf as the most sacred animal and believed they were shapeshifters. The embodiment of dead ancestors. Wolf mother looking worn and thin because European settlers drove them out of their habitat and now it’s hard to find food. The wolf father at the door who doesn’t smile anymore because his land has been taken from him and now there are cities. So he must resort to going into people’s yards and digging through garbage to find a meal which makes him sad because he is a hunter. She calls out to the child of war (European settlers) to lend a mending hand and undo the destruction they’ve caused. She runs through the deep dark forest to where the sun sets (the western frontier where the black hills war was fought and Indians were driven out and the last place to be settled and destroyed) and she sees that everything is dead and the rivers are none. She wants to go home because she can’t stand the sight of the destruction her people have caused so she looks at the disgrace of her own kind. On a side note, to the person who thought this song was about pedophilia... you need a psychiatrist.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Aug 7th 2018 !⃝

    My first interpretation was completely insane. I saw it as the singer's own mind, probably facing a depression or some other mental disorder. The father, the mother and the child were "fragments" of her personality. Maybe the parts that were developed by those figures in her childhood.
    "When I run through the deep dark forest long after this began, where the sun would set..." this can represent mind sick, darkened, and hurting mind.
    "And I hope for a trace to lead me back home from this place, but there was no sound, there was only me and my disgrace" it could be a trace of her personality, an old familiar and healthy trace. But she can't go back to what she once was "long after this began"...

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Apr 1st 2018 !⃝

    It is a song about hope and life, but also no hope in the world and death.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Feb 25th 2018 !⃝

    This song is about two sister's neglectful parents. Mom is worn and fragile giving so much, maybe suffers mental health issues, never finding herself, maybe addiction etc. Dad is tired and perhaps self medicating too, but he isn't around. He's at the door, running. Maybe work woman bar etc. The two sisters unite, hands together. Moving through the pain and trials together, encouraging each other along.

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Jan 27th 2017 !⃝

    This songs speaks about pedophilia and about mother who let their father to abuse their children. At first good dad turn to show his real face, so that is why they call him "shapeshifter" - because he turn into "wolf" to his own children. And mother new all this and never done anything to protect her children so that is why they called her "devil's maker". Children tries to survive all this ("keep the spirits strong") and longing for peace and real home they believed they lived in, but all turned to hell ("Where the sun would set, trees were dead and the rivers were none" and "But there was no sound, there was only me and my disgrace") Very strong and brave song that points up very often problem of scandinavian's society. I just hope it is not a autobiographic song.


More First Aid Kit songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]