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About this book

What happens when war reaches your farm, and no one comes to protect you?

In Hermann Löns’s The Warwolf, the Thirty Years’ War reaches the scattered farms of the Lüneburg Heath. Soldiers and plunderers take cattle, burn buildings and seize what they need. For farmer Harm Wulf, the struggle is close to home: his family, his neighbors and the ground they live on.

Harm leads the farmers as they answer force with force. Around them lie sandy soil, juniper, heather, birch and pine—a landscape that shapes their lives and their resistance. Told in the manner of an old peasant chronicle, the novel brings war down to the scale of a household trying to survive.

What you’ll discover

  • A heath under threat Walk among isolated farms, woods and sand as hunger, fire and fear draw near.
  • A farmer fights back Follow Harm Wulf as he gathers neighbors to defend the land that sustains them.
  • War from the farm See the conflict through people whose cattle, shelter and families stand in its path.
  • The meaning of Warwolf Discover a band of farmers who fight like wolves protecting their own ground.
  • A rough chronicle voice Feel the weight of terrible years in plain, short sentences and an old-fashioned style.

Who will love it

For readers who love historical fiction with a strong sense of landscape, and anyone curious about the Thirty Years' War from the farmer's side.

What’s inside

The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary

  1. The heath before the soldiers come
  2. When war comes, no one protects the farmers
  3. The farmers answer force with force
  4. A chronicle voice and a troubled legacy

Who’s who

  • Harm WulfA farmer of the Lüneburg Heath who leads his neighbors in defending their land against soldiers and plunderers.
  • The farmers of the heathVillagers and neighbors who gather behind Harm Wulf, wanting to keep their homes and families alive in a lawless war.
  • The soldiers and maraudersArmed bands who sweep over the heath, taking food, cattle and shelter by force as the Thirty Years' War rolls on.
  • The Wulf familyHarm's household and kin, whose farm and bloodline stand for the old order that the war threatens to destroy.

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8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Large print hardcover
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Classic & Literary

The Warwolf

by Hermann Löns · 1910

On the Lüneburg Heath, Harm Wulf and his neighbors face soldiers and plunderers with their homes and families at stake.

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The Warwolf by Hermann Löns, the cover

From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4

The heath before the soldiers come

The novel opens in the country Löns knew best, the Lüneburg Heath. It is a land of sandy soil, juniper, heather, birch and pine, with farms standing far apart. The farmers live by the seasons, by cattle and grain, and by old family custom. Löns, who was a hunter and a nature writer, describes this land with a close and loving eye.

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What is The Warwolf about?

It is a novel about farmers on the Lüneburg Heath during the Thirty Years' War. Led by Harm Wulf, they unite to defend their land and families from soldiers and plunderers when no authority protects them.

Is The Warwolf a true story?

No, it is fiction. Hermann Löns published it in 1910, setting it in the real Thirty Years' War of the 1600s and imitating an old peasant chronicle, but its characters and events are his own creation.

What does the title Wehrwolf mean?

The German word joins Wehr, meaning defense, with Wolf. It names a band of people who defend their home as fiercely as wolves, and it also plays on the word werewolf.

The author

Hermann Löns

1866–1914 · German writer and journalist

Hermann Löns (1866–1914) was a German journalist and writer. He was born in Culm, West Prussia, now Chełmno in Poland, and lived in Hanover. He wrote novels, stories and poems. Mümmelmann appeared in 1909 and The Warwolf in 1910. He died in France while serving in the First World War.

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