SOURCE: "What Seen But the Wolf" (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 1984) by Greg Keiser

DESCRIPTION: "...For the span of a breath, as my doubts returned, I stared and thought I saw a wolf, the grey hairs on its neck gleaming in the moonlight, its eyes yellow and blinking, but then it was gone..."

PLOT: A group of Vikings flee Ice Land because Sverri has murdered a farmer, and because he has been accused of being a werewolf. They head for Greenland but a storm sends them off course to the New World, the land of Skraelings (Native Americans). Sverri is tied up to protect everyone but escapes into the forest, after setting their ship on fire. The knorr is salvaged but the Norwegians must spend the winter in the forest, waiting to fix their boat and sail away. Wolves attack their small fortress.  The Indians come to trade furs for cloth and a battle breaks out over a misunderstanding. Many are killed. On the day before they leave, Sverri returns to tell Halfdan that the Skraelings believe Sverri to be a god. Sverri is a chameleon, whatever those around him believe he becomes. Since the Indians think him a god, he would rather be one and stay behind than go to Greenland and be thought a werewolf.

WEREWOLF FACTS: Sverri is chameleonic so he would become whatever the other person's idea of a werewolf is. There is mention of the berserkers and the ulfhednar, wearers of wolf skins thought to become wolves in battle.

INTERESTING FACTS: It is interesting that what amounts to a Weird Tales-class sword & sorcery tale is published in a Science Fiction magazine. The story is SF because the reason for Sverri's changing into a werewolf . Keiser never explains why Sverri is this way. He doesn't resort to quasi-sciency explanations, which would be totally wrong for an ancient Viking tale. Sverri's condition is the crux of the tale and it feels like SF rather than Fantasy.