The last of the summer moons had begun to wane when the old wolf broke his long silence and began to howl, his voice cracked with age, yet, as it seemed to me at least, beautiful in its simplicity and wisdom. The whole pack gathered about him, with me at his right flank, as he howled a story we all knew well, which is the story of the Wolves of Time.
— Journeys to the Heartland
The Wolves of Time is not
a trilogy.
Originally, there The Wolves of Time was meant to be, and publicised as, a trilogy. There would have been three books: Journeys to the Heartland,Wanderers of the Wolfways, and Seekers at the Wulfrock. However, the final two books were re-written, and the series ended with the second book, published with the title Seekers at the WulfRock.
To quote the answer William Horwood gave to me in August 1999, when I asked this about this via e-mail:
When Volume 1 [of The Wolves of Time] was published in the UK as a hardback it was extremely successful. Unfortunately a trade dispute between the publisher HarperCollins and our biggest book retailer WH Smith meant that the latter took punitive action against the former in the autumn of WOLVES 1 paperbacking, along with two other of that publisher's autumn titles. As a result Volume 1 of Wolves was effectively wiped out. Because trilogies rely on a high sale of the initial volume to sell on the next two volumes there was statistically no chance of Vols 2 & 3 having significant sales. Publishers and the public are unforgiving and attach blame to authors not themselves and booksellers [...] I myself took the decision to rewrite Volume 2 to include the main part of Volume 3. Effectively it was Volume 2 that was scrapped not Volume 3.
Even the cover artwork, by Geoff Taylor, which was used on Seekers at the WulfRock, was originally created for the intended second volume: Wanderers of the Wolfways. (See Wanderers of the Wolfways on Geoff Taylor's website.)
Editions of The Wolves of Time
Bookseller listings:
- Journeys the Heartland (hardcover)
on Amazon.ca
- Journeys to the Heartland (paperback)
on Amazon.com
- Seekers at the WulfRock (paperback)
on Amazon.com
- Seekers at the WulfRock (paperback)
on Amazon.co.uk
Tony Bass's review of Journeys to the Heartland, posted to rec.arts.books in 1995.
Journeys to the Heartland "is the first volume of the WOLVES OF TIME, a major new trilogy based on the revival of European wolves. It is the first positive portrayal of wolves since Jack London's WOLF FANG of last century. Most of these animals were exterminated in Europe and there are small populations of wolves in Italy, Spain and Germany, but they are recovering in numbers in most European countries. The book is a modern classic of animal-based adult fiction."
—"Book Notes" in International Journal of Environmental StudiesVol. 54, Issue 3/4 (April 1, 1998)
Translations:
A Czech translation is Cas vlku: cesta do Srdce krajiny (1997 publication, ISBN 9788071912088) as listed by the National Library of the Czech Republic.
Dutch translations of The Wolves of Time: De Bannelingen Van Middenland (ISBN 9029048611) and Op Zoek Naar De WulfRuts (ISBN 9029049723)
Both books of De Wolven van de Tijd were published as paperbacks by Meulenhoff-M. The cover artwork is by Nico Keulers.
Above photographs of the Dutch paperbacks were taken by Frank Wasmus aka Frandalf, and used on williamhorwood.net with permission.
German translations are Die Wolfe der Zeit Die Reise ins Herzland and Der Kampf um das Herzland.
Articles:
- The Call of the Wild, article about The Wolves of Time series from Bookcase in 1995. (This was put online by Suzy Jackson, and I have reproduced it here since her website disappeared.)
- I wrote an opinion in 1999, once it became clear that there were to be only two books in the series, rather than the promised three.
- The Wolves of Time is a topic in "Crossover Animal Fantasy Series", a piece by Marion Copeland from Society & Animals Volume 11, Number 3 (2003).
- Article on The Wolves of Time from WikiFur.
Artwork:
This ad for Journeys to
the Heartland appeared in The Guardian (the British
newspaper) on Thursday, February 22, 1996.
The map from the
endpapers of the hardcover of Journeys to the
Heartland.
- Cover Art Gallery for William Horwood
- First version of painting for Journeys to the Heartland cover
- Wolf paintings in Wildlife art
Characters and artwork inspired by The Wolves of
Time.
The Wolves
of The Wolves of Time is a list, compiled and written by
me, of the characters in Journeys to the Heartland.
Contains spoilers.
The website Wulfin's Den.