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The story of the Wolf of the Castle Crag is part of
the folk-lore of Stirling, and today it still symbolises alertness.
There
is the "Wolf Crag" in Port Street, of which we there is the following
legend. During the reign of Donald V., near the close of the ninth
century, two Northumbrian princes, named Osbrecht and Ella, had acquired
by conquest all south of the Forth from Stirling, and toward the eastern
coast. The town was under the rule of these Anglo-Saxons for some
twenty-eight years. About the same period the Danes, under their magical
flag, the "Black Raven," had visited Britain for pillage. Pursuing their
depredations to the north, each town inhabited by Anglo-Saxons was as well
guarded and watched as could be for the approach of these invaders. At the
"South Port," a sentinel had been set; but, overcome with fatigue, he fell
asleep on duty, and was awakened by the growl of a wolf which had left the
woody wilds for a rock in the immediate neighbourhood. Getting roused in
time to see some of the northern hordes on the advance, he at once alarmed
the garrison, who speedily caused a
retreat.
The incident of the cries of the wolf having been regarded as a favourable
omen, the rock received the name of "Wolf Crag." Mottoes had previously
been introduced into England by the Saxons, and the Northumbrian
Anglo-Saxons who ruled in Stirling adopted the design of the wolf
recumbent on a rock as the armorial bearing of the town. In an ancient
seal belonging to the burgh, it is understood that there are seen seven
stars set in the sky, and the rock on which reclines the wolf is strewn
with branches of trees, apparently indicative of the Druidical or Pagan
idea of the deities specially superintending the affairs of this part of "Sylvae
Caledonia."
The wolf is a good emblem. It tells of a long
pedigree, of tenacity and the overcoming of odds, just like
Lodge Stirling Royal Arch No. 76.
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