Wolf King by Ann Turnbull

Wolf King Reviews

• 
  Nishi Serrano

  Well, as a child 'The Wolf King' was one of my favorites, and still is! I can't believe more people have not read this classic jewel.
• 
  Robaz Mokutz

  I first read The Wolf King when I was about 11; it greatly influenced my tastes in fantasy. Love this book.
• 
  Joe Tucker

  red this in 4th grade and want to read again
• 
  Wendy Bousfield

  
  Set in Bronze-Age Great Britain, THE WOLF KING is the coming-of-age story of Coll, whose father is chief of the Wolf Clan: “Long ago his ancestors had sworn brotherhood with the wolves and called themselves the Wolf Clan. The clan knew that the wolves would kill only their weak and ailing animals, and they, in their turn, were forbidden ever to kill a wolf” (9). Coll’s brother, Ruadh, kills a wolf, upsetting this traditional balance between human and Alpha predator. Though Ruadh leaves his family, wolves begin attacking the homestead. The leader of the wolves, the Wolf King, is human: a masked horseman, who directs the pack by blowing a hunting horn.
  
  A wandering metalsmith, Arvan, and his adolescent daughter, Grayla, arrive at the home of Kulith, Coll’s father. When the wolves attack, Arvan helps protect the livestock. Arvan disappears, and his daughter leaves to search for him. Coll secretly accompanies Grayla, believing that both his brother Ruadh and Arvan must be the Wolf King’s prisoners.
  
  Pursued by wolves, Coll and Grayla are rescued by the Dark People, a race that Coll and Grayla’s people had displaced. Some of the Dark People are slaves; the rest live in remote caves. Grayla is reunited with her father, cared for by the Dark People after he was injured in the wolf attack. Their chief tells Coll that the Elder Folk (fairies) will know how to rescue Ruadh from the Wolf King. In the dangerous magic realm of the Elder Folk, Coll learns that he can defeat the Wolf King with “a sword that was never cast.” Initially, Coll believes such a weapon impossible, but Grayla’s father has taught her the secret of forging iron. Aided by the Elder Folk, Grayla and Coll make a sword able to destroy wolves, as well as warriors wielding stone and bronze weapons.
  
  To me the most interesting aspect of THE WOLF KING is that Coll achieves autonomous adulthood in a period when iron-smithing profoundly changes human beings’ relationship with the natural world. With iron weapons, humans achieve dominion over predators. No longer seeking uneasy coexistence with wolves, Coll’s people can defeat them. In a wonderfully understated way, the final chapter suggests how profoundly the relationship between the human and animal world has changed. Coll is tending sheep, aided by a sheepdog--the first time a dog appears in the book. Though mentioned only briefly, the dog’s presence signals that descendants of wild wolves have become the domesticated servants of humans.
  
  I enjoyed the mythic quality of THE WOLF KING, but never quite believed in the supernatural elements that intrude into the harsh routines of Bronze Age shepherds. It would, I thought, have been more thematically appropriate if the wolves themselves had chosen to inflict revenge on the humans who killed one of them. If humans dominate wolves only AFTER learning the secret of iron-smithing, why does a masked horseman manipulate them like puppets?
  
  Ann Turnbull is a British writer of YA fiction. MAROO OF THE WINTER CAVES (2004) is another coming of age story, set in prehistoric times.
  
• 
  Ira Livingston

  I read this back in 3rd grade. It was my second fantasy story after the Hobbit. Check it out
• 
  Charles

  A pretty good read.
• 
  Arthur

  Mystery within the lives of many during a return of the wolf king, an ominous black figure who rides a black horse and has control over the wolves. Young Coll seeing a wolf knew things were about to be different for his family set during the bronze age this YA fantasy
• 
  Jason

  The Wolf King is a fairly simple story that could best be described as historical drama with a touch of fantasy. It is set at the beginning of the Iron Age and follows a boy of 11 or 12 going on a quest to find his lost older brother, and to kill the titular character. It is very well written and has good (well researched I imagine) descriptions of life as a Bronze Age sheep herder.
  
  I was a little disappointed in this story when I first read it at around 10 years of age. I remember thinking the cover picture looked like a nuzgal from lord of the rings. It was light on the fantasy and horror I most enjoyed in stories at that age. I just re-read it at age 54, and quite enjoyed it as an adult.
  
  I’ve amended my opinion of the book and I like it and think that it could be appealing to kids from around 9-12 who like fantasy and stories about quests and battles. Three and a half stars out of five! ⭐️⭐️⭐️🌛
  
• 
  Dharia Scarab

  
  My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.
  
  
  http://spreadthewordnevada.org/
  
  Myself, I go out on the weekends and
  shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.
  
  I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.
  
• 
  Dave

  Well, I read this book the first time when it was assigned to me and classmates by my 6th grade English teacher. (about 35 years ago now). Well written with really nice, easy to understand, historical context AND a REALLY neat premise for a storyline taking place in somewhat ancient history towards the end of the Bronze Age (1000-750 BC). Forty years later...I never forgot it and decided to track it down on Amazon (only 1 left of my previous 1976 edition!) and read it again... In hindsight, I've pieced this in biblical history chronologically to be somewhere in Europe between the time of Noah's descendants but pre-Abraham...similar to, but perhaps a tad later in history than the time of Tolkien's Middle Earth. This back-drop makes it open for much interesting interpretation of culture for any author. However, the author Anne Turnbull does a pretty good job of trading in mysterious magical mystical "dungeons and dragons" qualities present in so much fantasy writing of today for a straight forward highly engaging storyline of adventure and bravery. The characters are simple (and the reader is not bogged down with 500 different strange names and places as in much fantasy reading) and are well developed. The Wolf King character himself is about as dark and menacing as can be, given that he is developed not with graphic detail leaving nothing to imagination (as in a rated R horror movie) but with the much more difficult-to-accomplish long forgotten quality in writing known as SUSPENSE. Things happening that leave you compromising your self-alloted original reading timeslot just to see what happens next..."Ok...I guess I can read ONE more chapter." I also really enjoyed the author's ability to make the villian dark and disturbing by solely allaying suspense without the endless allusions to witchcraft, sorcery and spells so prevalent in fantasy today. I read this again to reacquaint myself with a very creative story that, in 6 grade, made me want to get lost in the woods with my friends and survive on my own off the land. Anne Turnbull (labeled now as an accomplished children and young adult writer) has written a great first novel in this book (1976) and it would be my alternative as an engaging fantasy to have my daughters read this one in a few years over a Harry Potter book any day. Definitely a thumbs up.