The Wolves of God, and Other Fey Stories

In Short

This collection of fifteen speculative stories explores the fragile threshold where human sanity meets the uncanny. Set across arctic wildernesses, London townhouses, and haunted valleys, the narratives follow ordinary men—fur-traders, scholars, and doctors—who encounter forces that defy rational explanation. Through mysterious animal behaviors, ancient pagan survivals, and psychological obsessions, the tales trace how the unseen world invades daily life. The book has endured because it grounds otherworldly dread in precise emotional realism, offering a haunting study of obsession, memory, and the unseen presences that linger just beyond the reach of human reason.

The Story

Across fifteen distinct tales, the narrative arc moves from the icy quiet of the northern wilderness to dark city streets, examining how the supernatural breaks through the seams of ordinary life. In the opening title story, a veteran of the Hudson's Bay Company returns after thirty years to his native Orkney Islands. Expecting the familiar comfort of his youth, he instead carries an anxious dread that mirrors the harsh wilderness he left behind. Other tales shift to remote campfires where seasoned travelers trade unsettling accounts of mythical forest creatures like the Wendigo, a shadowy beast that targets men whose passion for the wild burns too deep.

As the collection unfolds, the domain of terror shifts from open landscapes to intimate interior spaces. In an orientalist parlor filled with jade and incense, a doctor observes his scholar friend fall under the influence of exotic perfumes that awaken ancient, suppressed states of consciousness and memories of forgotten temples. Deep in the woods, a city clerk on a fishing trip finds himself stalked by a solitary timber wolf that fears neither man nor fire, sitting in silence beside his fading embers with a chillingly purposeful gaze. Elsewhere, hunters stranded in rugged river valleys face desperate choices after losing their ammunition, discovering that the true danger lies in the dark turnings of their own instincts.

The focus expands to include spiritual bonds and ancestral curses. A man drawn to a secluded cottage meets an enigmatic shepherd and his daughter, realizing that a magical collar has restored their memories of an ancient priesthood, ensnaring him in an old bewitchment. In a suburban home, two men hear a strange three-note bird call at dawn, uncovering a secret meeting between lovers that fractures a lifelong friendship. In a medical setting, a observer watches a dying woman and feels a sudden surge of ancient love, attempting to project his own vitality into her ebbing pulse to save her life.

Toward the conclusion, characters wander through suffocating London fogs or along quiet countryside lanes, encountering specters that fade as quickly as they appear. A weary traveler near historic ruins encounters a mysterious woman lurking in the shadows of a tree, realizing that his civilized defenses have collapsed. The collection ends as it began, with solitary figures reflecting on human nature, bound by the realization that modern civilization has not truly advanced beyond its primitive, shadowy past.

How It Unfolds

The return home A hardened fur-trader returns to the Orkney Islands after thirty years in Canada, finding the flat landscape unchanged yet heavy with an unexplainable anxiety.

Stories around the fire Trapped by howling winds, travelers exchange tales of haunted islands, mysterious spoor, and the dread Wendigo that preys on men lost in the deep woods.

The scholar’s cabinet A doctor watches his friend unlock a lacquered box of rare scents, triggering visions of ancient temples and subtle physical transformations.

The watching wolf A camper wakes to find an eerily silent wolf sitting by his campfire, an animal that displays no fear of fire and watches him with human intent.

Lost in the divide After losing their cartridges in a river log-jam, hunters navigate a tangled valley where unexpected forces test their instincts for survival.

The ancient priesthood A traveler enters a bare cottage where a shepherd and his daughter recognize him from a former life, binding him to a pagan ritual of liberation.

The morning call A strange, bird-like cry at three in the morning draws a man to his window, revealing a secret rendezvous that shatters the trust between close friends.

A tide of vitality Standing beside a dying woman's bed, a man summons an ancient, forgotten power to project his own life force into her fading body.

Lost in the fog A man wanders through a blinding London smog, encountering strange figures that vanish instantly into the gloom as panic takes hold.

The shadow at the tree A tired traveler walking near old woods discovers a woman crouching in a hollow tree trunk, forcing him to accept that his rational defenses have failed.

The People

• The Returned Trader: A forty-eight-year-old veteran of the Hudson's Bay Company who returns to his childhood home in the Orkneys, seeking peace but carrying a dark inner tension from his years in the wilderness.
• The Doctor: An open-minded medical man fascinated by nerves, drugs, and consciousness, who observes his friend's strange transformation with analytical curiosity.
• The Scholar: A refined man surrounded by oriental artifacts who uncovers an ancient perfume, allowing himself to be drawn back into forgotten visions of past lives.
• The Hunter (Grimwood): A practical, matter-of-fact man whose lack of imagination fails to protect him when a silent timber wolf begins tracking his every move in the forest.
• Sanfield: A deeply devoted lover who stands by a dying woman's bedside, driven by an ancient, spiritual impulse to give his own life force to save her.
• Headley: A loyal friend who discovers a hidden betrayal at dawn, torn between his devotion to his companion and his growing jealousy.

In Its Own Voice

"As the little steamer entered the bay of Kettletoft in the Orkneys the beach at Sanday appeared so low that the houses almost seemed to be standing in the water; and to the big, dark man leaning over the rail of the upper deck the sight of them came with a pang of mingled pain and pleasure."

A long-absent traveler feels the emotional weight of returning to a land that has remained entirely indifferent to his time away.

"A timber wolf, especially a solitary timber wolf, was a timid thing, yet this one feared neither man nor fire."

A sportsman realizes that the creature watching him from the edge of his camp defies the natural laws of the wild.

"He was alone, he knew himself alone, worse still--he was in another open space."

A lost pedestrian feels the terror of absolute isolation as the fog erases all physical landmarks around him.

What It's Really About

Underneath its eerie surface, the book explores the thinness of human reason and the persistence of the primitive past. It argues that modern civilization is merely a fragile shell built over ancient, untamed instincts that continue to shape human behavior. Through its characters, the narrative questions whether the human mind can truly erase past lives, intense passions, or forgotten fears, or if those forces lie waiting to reclaim us when we least expect it. It also examines isolation, showing how wilderness and city fogs alike strip away social pretenses, leaving individuals face-to-face with their deepest anxieties. Ultimately, the collection asks how much control we actually possess over our own consciousness when confronted by the vast, unseen mechanisms of the universe.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy quiet, atmospheric terror over graphic violence will find much to admire in this collection. It offers a masterclass in building psychological suspense, relying on subtle shifts in tone, evocative descriptions of natural landscapes, and the lingering threat of the unknown. The prose feels rich and deliberate, carrying the formal cadence of early twentieth-century fiction while maintaining a sharp focus on human emotion.

The book does present a few period difficulties that modern readers should anticipate. The pacing is unhurried, spending considerable time on internal reflection and descriptive detail rather than rapid plot movement. Some stories contain dated cultural attitudes and structural conveniences common to Edwardian magazine fiction. Yet these historical flaws are easily outweighed by the author's ability to evoke genuine wonder and disquiet. What stays with you after closing the book is not a jump scare, but the unsettling feeling that the natural world possesses memories and intentions far older, and far stranger, than humanity itself.