The Iron Wolf is a mythical character from a medieval legend of the founding of Vilnius, the capital city of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania and modern Republic of Lithuania. First found in the Lithu
Grand Duke Gediminas dream
The aurochs is an extinct species of bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to 1.8 m in bulls and 1.55 m in cows, it was one of the largest
Iron Wolf (character)
…hunting in the sacred forest near the Valley of Šventaragis, near where Vilnia River flows into the Neris River. Tired after the successful hunt of an aurochs, the Grand Duke settled in for the night. He fell soundly asleep and dreamed of a huge Iron Wolf standing on top a hill and howling as strong and loud…
Illustration by Sigismund von Herberstein captioned: Urus sum, polonis Tur, germanis Aurox; ignari Bisontis nomen dederant; translated: "I am Urus, Tur in Polish, Aurox in German; the ignorant ones gave me the name Bison"
Aurochs skeleton from Zealand island in Denmark on display in the Natural History Museum of Denmark
Drawing based on an aurochs bull skeleton from Lund and a cow skeleton from Cambridge, with characteristic features of the aurochs