Gulon

What it is

The Gulon is a beast of Scandinavian story, catalogued among the legendary creatures of the Nordic north. Its body is a patchwork: it has the build of a dog, a cat-like face with pointed ears and claws, a rough brown coat and a tail borrowed from the fox. Names shift as the tale moves: northern Sweden says Jerff, Germany says Vielfraß. What the creature is chiefly remembered for is its appetite. It is held up as an emblem of gluttony, and the story attached to it describes feeding that never stops: the beast eats until it can hold no more, empties itself against a pair of trees, and starts on the carcass once more. Readers of the legend usually see a wolverine behind the description, since the traits given match that northern animal.

Where it comes from

The tale belongs to the Nordic countries, and the oldest source cited for it is Olaus Magnus's Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, an account of the northern peoples published in 1555. That book gathered lore of the far north, and the Gulon stands among the beasts it recorded. Exactly how the figure began is uncertain. The usual reading traces it to the wolverine, an animal of cold northern country, Scandinavia among its haunts, and holds that the match rests on the traits the two share. Its mixed look, dog in build, cat in face and claws, fox in tail, is part of how the legend paints it.

How it is done

The story attaches one habit to the beast. It kills, then feeds without pause until its belly is strained and no more will go down. At that point, so the tale runs, it wedges its body between two standing trees and presses the food through itself, which empties it for another round. It then goes back to the carcass and begins again. Told this way, the cycle turns the animal into a walking lesson on appetite, a creature whose eating never ends.

Peoples and places

The creature belongs to Scandinavian legend, and its names trace where the tale has been told. In the north of Sweden it goes by Jerff, while in Germany the same beast is the Vielfraß. Outside the north it is met mostly in print. Two modern reference works keep entries for it: a definitive guide to mythical creatures and an encyclopedia devoted to beasts and monsters of myth and folklore. Through such collections the Gulon reaches readers far from the north that produced it.

What people believe

The tale's lesson is appetite. In the story the beast's greed has no floor: it eats, empties itself and eats again, which is why the Gulon is read as a picture of gluttony made flesh. Its form carries the same patchwork logic. One animal supplies the build, another the face, ears and claws, a third the tail and the rough brown coat. The result is not quite any beast that walks, and the commonest explanation points to the wolverine as the real animal underneath, matched to the legend by the traits the two share.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Writers who have handled the Gulon fall into two camps. Olaus Magnus, whose 1555 history of the northern peoples supplies the oldest citation, set the creature down among the beasts of the north as his age understood them. Modern compilers of legend keep it in their catalogs as a Scandinavian entry, and the identification most often offered is zoological: the Gulon is thought to be a wolverine, judged by the features it has in common with that animal. The wolverine ranges through cold country across the north, Scandinavia included, which fits the setting of the tale.

Compare and confuse

The beast is closely tied to the wolverine, and accounts treat the two as likely one, the legend being that animal dressed in story. Its names vary with the map: Jerff in northern Sweden, Vielfraß in Germany. Among legendary creatures it sits with the composites, beasts whose bodies are assembled from several real ones, here dog, cat and fox.

Questions people ask about Gulon

Good reading and sources

• Gulon on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data