Om Rödluvan och vargen och den svenska vargdebatten

Abstract

Little Red Riding Hood, the Woolf and the Swedish Debate on Carnivore Management This article deals with the complex and interrelated existence of enclosures, herding and carnivores in the answers of ethnological questionnaires in order to bring historical and ethnological information into the current debate on carnivore management in Sweden. The ethnological information is considered in the light of the existing natural conditions of the different geographical regions of Sweden and refer to the situation at the middle and end of the 19th century. The starting point is the well-known story about Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. The story is adapted to Swedish historical conditions. In this context Little Red Riding Hood met the wolf while herding a cow during the summer. She managed to get rid of the wolf by shouting and blowing her herder’s horn which is the proper way of handling both wolves and bears according to the ethnological material. The majority of all trustworthy wolf incidents recorded in the material shows that wolves were commonly sighted during the winter close to human habitations, when all cattle were kept in their stables. All cattle were kept indoors for a period of 6–7 months and thus, probably, denying carnivores a good share of the accessible prey since large game were scarce due to grazing competition from cattle. Herding was a regular feature in cattle grazing all over Sweden. The herder had to protect still standing crops within enclosed fields which were gradually opened up for grazing, and direct the cattle to good feeding areas. In regions with a pasture deficit the latter was achieved by keeping the cattle close together in a herd and let them graze within a restricted area. Within the boreal zone of Sweden – where shielings (fäbodar) were common – the herder had to protect the unenclosed fens and bogs used for haymaking. Herding was considered a chore for children except within the shieling districts where women managed the shieling in a dual role as herder and milkmaid. Herding and milking were never carried out by adult men. No herder – neither child nor woman – was armed for his or her personal protection. For the last 200 years there are no recorded cases of carnivore-human incidents with a fatal outcome in the historical or ethnological material.