Scary Stories Treasury – The White Wolf

Read Time:8 Minute, 11 Second

The White Wolf Kitty: ⭐ ⭐ Winterjoy: ⭐⭐

Hello and welcome to Kitty and Winterjoy’s Scary Stories Book Club Thing, month number 9! If you’d like to start from the beginning of this series, please visit the original post here.

Today we are talking about The White Wolf. This one includes two ATU tale type motifs, which are E423.2.7 (revenant as wolf) and tale type E230 (return from dead to inflict punishment). Let’s jump right to the story that was included in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

The timber wolves around French Creek had gotten out of hand. There were so many wolves, the farmers could not stop them from killing their cattle and sheep. So the state put a bounty on them. It would pay a hunter ten dollars for every wolf pelt he turned in.
A butcher in town named Bill Williams thought that was pretty good money. He stopped working as a butcher and started killing wolves. He was good at it. Every year he killed over five hundred of them. That came to more than five thousand dollars. It was quite a bit of money in those days.
After four or five years, Bill had killed so many wolves, there were hardly any left in that area. So he retired, and he vowed never to harm another wolf because wolves had made him rich.
Then one day a farmer reported that white wolf had killed two of his sheep. He had shot at it and hit it, but the bullets didn’t have any effect. Soon that wolf was seen all over the countryside, killing and running. But nobody could stop it.
One night it came into Bill’s yard and killed his pet cow. Bill forgot about his decision never to harm another wolf. He went into town the next morning and bought a young lamb for bait. He took it out into the hills and tied it to a tree. Then he backed off about fifty yards and sat down under another tree. With his gun in his lap, he waited.
When Bill didn’t come back, his friends started looking for him. Finally they found the lamb. It was still tied to a tree. It was hungry, but it was alive. Then they found Bill. He was still sitting against the other tree, but he was dead. His throat had been torn open.
But there was no sign of a struggle. His gun hadn’t been fired. And there were no tracks in the soil around him. As for the white wolf, it was never seen again.

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Schwarz sites The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales (1965) by Ruth Ann Musick for the source of this story. It is taken from pages 134-135, and was told by Lester Tinnell in 1954.

French Creek is a small town in the central part of West Virginia surrounded by hills. There are around 2800 residents of French Creek, so you can imagine how small this town was in the 1850s, which is where this story takes place. The following is the story that was included in The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales.

About a hundred years ago in a little community called French Creek, in the Backbone Mountain region, lived a tall, slim man by the name of Bill Williams. He was better known as Hank the Shank or just plain Butch, because by trade he had been a butcher. When the state put a bounty on timber wolves, he gave up butchering cattle and turned his attention to killing wolves.
After he began to hunt, he bought himself a small cabin about five miles beyond the community. He kept a cow and a couple of pigs, which he let run loose in the forest.
Before he started hunting, he had spent all his time in the community general store. But after becoming a hunter, for several years he was rarely seen by the people of the community. He would come in for supplies about once a month and always at about nine o’clock at night.
For five years he hunted wolves and averaged more than five hundred a year. For each pelt, he got a bounty of ten dollars. When you add this up, it is better than five thousand dollars a year, and back in those days this was very good pay.
After five years, he had thinned out the wolves so much that they had almost become extinct, and the few that were left had become so smart and wary that they were never seen. So, again Bill started to spend a great deal of his time in the general store. He would come into the store when it opened in the morning and stay until it closed in the evening. He would just sit around, chew tobacco, whittle on a piece of wood, and talk about the weather and how things used to be, but most of all about his hunting expeditions.
Everything went well for a few years. Then one afternoon a man burst into the store, telling of a white wolf killing two of his sheep. He claimed that he had shot the wolf three times, but the bullets didn’t seem to harm it. Several times that week there were animals killed, and several times the wolf was shot, but bullets seemed to have no effect upon it.
When the people found they couldn’t hurt the wolf or stop it from killing their stock, they called on Bill to see what he could do about it. But he refused to hunt the animal, because, he said, the wolves had made him rich, and he had sworn never to harm another one.
The white wolf went on killing, unmolested, for two weeks, and then one night it killed Bill’s pet cow. This was a fatal mistake for the wolf because Bill was so angry that he forgot all about the promise never to harm another wolf and swore to get revenge.
The next morning he went to town, bought a young lamb, and headed for the hills. He went back into the hills a good way and tied the lamb to a tree for bait. Then he backed off about fifty yards and sat down under another tree.
A few days later, when Bill failed to return, the townspeople set out to search for him. They found him still sitting against the tree, and the lamb still tied to the other tree, unharmed. Bill was dead, with teeth marks in his throat. The soft loam around him didn’t have a track in it besides Bill’s own, and there was no sign of a struggle.
After that, the white ghost was never seen again. Some say that when the moon is full, they can hear him baying.

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Kitty

In what environment did you read the story? In my room surrounded by cozy spooky decor!

Do you remember having read this story as a kid? Yes.
Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? It makes sense that Bill would want to make a quick buck, but, no, I would not have done that. I wouldn’t have been a butcher, either. I know this is supposed to be a supernatural wolf, but Bill doesn’t know that. Bill thinks it’s a real wolf, and forgets that he might also be bait for the wolf. He should have had a better plan than “wait at the other tree”.
Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? My least favorite character is Bill, because he has no common sense and is a wolf killer. My favorite character was the white wolf, because he avenged his people’s extinction.
What did you think of the storytelling style? Very white West Virginian. Fine, but devoid of character.
Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? It looks like it was drawn by someone who has heard stories of the carnage that wolves can wreak, but has never actually seen a wolf. I do like that the blood of Bill Williams is streaming from the wolf’s eyes and mouth, though. (By the way, I just realized that the guy’s name is William Williams.)
Your overall rating and why: ⭐ ⭐ It wasn’t scary at all. It was a story of some dumb wolf killer who got his comeuppance.

Winterjoy

In what environment did you read the story? In my room, eating chocolate.
Do you remember having read this story as a kid? No
Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? If I was someone that could stand hunting animals, I would probably do it if it made more money than my current job! But the bait at the end was a little cruel.
Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? I only kind of liked Bill. He just wanted to make extra money and at least vowed to never hunt a wolf again. He went a little crazy at the end but I believe his motives were to protect future lambs. The wolf was kind of a meanie-head for killing him.
What did you think of the storytelling style? It was normal
Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? It’s a great close up! Makes you see the last thing Bill would have seen!
Your overall rating and why: ⭐ ⭐ Kind of boring. But also, animals and monsters don’t scare me.