The Mystery of Wolves

[The Skarzs]

So, we know there are wolves in Redwall. We've heard of them more than once, but we haven't really seen anything of a wolf in the series except for Urgan Nagru, who wore the wolf pelt.
Who were they? Are there any left? Do they only reside in the Far North? How big are they? Would they be able to beat a badger lord or a wolverine?
We have no real way of gauging the comparison of size between foxes, wolverines, and badgers. . . Or really, much of any of the other species, so finding the size is difficult.

The wolf was defininitely bigger than Urgan Nagru. It wouldn't have been very impressive to kill the wolf if he wasn't. But if Urgan had to have cut down the pelt to make it fit him without swimming in it, then we really have no idea how much bigger.
We can assume badgers are bigger than foxes, as described in Taggerung. "Russano the wise was twice as broad and half as tall again than any creature present" (to paraphrase). This included the Juskabor with its leader, Ruggan Bor, a fully grown fox and a good fighter.
Gulo the Savage was also very large. I can't find an exact description of his size in the book, but he was easily as big, if not bigger, than a badger.
In real life, wolves would be much bigger than either of these. Then again, otters can get pretty large too, but they usually seem smaller than most badgers. Assuming wolves are, perhaps, half as tall again as badgers/wolverines (to be conservative), then that would make them a little less than twice as big as a fox.
No wonder Urgan could use the fox skull as a helmet.

What are your thoughts?

[Ashleg]

In real life, foxes and badgers are about the same size, whereas a fox would stand up to about the height of a wolf's chest. Sizes in Redwall are very wonky.

Everyone wants wolves to be huge, but they as a species are not bulky like badgers and wolverines.

Therefore, these two reasons combined, I would make them a head or so taller than foxes.

[sunflashtheace]

In theory the wolves would be about two foxes on top of eachother or 1 1/2 badgers. They would be monstrous and scary. Would they eat other animals like Gulo or would they eat regular stuff like redwallers? We don't know and Mr.Jacques probably didn't want us to know.

[MeadowR]

I think they might be appropriated to being a head taller than the badgers at most? I don't think Brian would want creatures to get much bigger than the badgers.

[Ashleg]

The skull is about the same size as Urgan's.

The body is a bit but not too much larger than Urgan's.

[The Skarzs]

Keep in mind that is just an artist's depiction, and may not be as Brian intended it to be.

[Ashleg]

All official art of Urgan is like that, not just that specific one. And we all know that different artists did different things, such as foreign covers and the poster, so I'm sure Brian had some input into it.

[The Skarzs]

If a wolf were so comparable in size to a fox, why would it be at all impressive for Urgan to kill the wolf in the first place?

[Ashleg]

Rare and strong.

Imagine, this dude killed an animal that pretty much nobody has ever seen and nobody knows how they are like. It's not like foxes are tiny.

[The Skarzs]

We can assume badgers are bigger than foxes, as described in Taggerung. "Russano the wise was twice as broad and half as tall again than any creature present" (to paraphrase). This included the Juskabor with its leader, Ruggan Bor, a fully grown fox and a good fighter.

Just bringing this back to show what I'm imagining.

But if we go off the size of the skull on Urgan, then a wolf would likely be the same height as a badger,  like Russano. And Russano was not the biggest badger.

[Ashleg]

Perhaps, but doubtfully bigger. Even the size of a wildcat would make more sense.

[The Skarzs]

Who, Russano or the wolves?

[Ashleg]

Wolves. Haha.

[The Skarzs]

Why would that make more sense?

European wildcat- about 65 cm (26in), half of which is a tail, and a weight of about 8 kg/18 pounds.
European badger- about 90 cm (35 in), including the tail, and a weight of 13 kg (29 lb) to 17 kg (37 lb) depending on the season.
SMALL Eurasian wolf- about 105cm (41 in) and a weight of around 32 kg (71 lb)

I chose large examples of wildcats and badgers to show the difference and put it into perspective.

Regardless of the manipulation of sizes in the series to make it more realistic, I still am not sure a wolf should be scaled down to the size of a wildcat.

Also, upon researching the sizes, it looks like the UK used to have wolves, but they were trapped to extinction. This may be why Brian never had more in the series.

[Ashleg]

Because badgers and wildcats are roughly the same size in the series.