The central romance in The Wolf and the Crown of Blood descends from a long literary tradition of tales depicting mortal women bound to powerful, often monstrous, immortal figures. This narrative structure draws from two prominent antecedents: the classical myth of Eros and Psyche, first recorded in the 2nd-century Roman novel The Golden Ass, and the European fairytale “Beauty and the Beast.” In the former, the mortal Psyche is forbidden from seeing the true form of her divine husband, Eros. In the latter, Beauty sacrifices herself to live with a cursed, beastly captor to save her father. Both stories hinge on a mortal woman’s relationship with a terrifying and commanding non-human male, exploring themes of sacrifice, trust, and transformation through love. 

Elizabeth May’s novel adapts these ancient tropes for a modern audience. The prologue, which details how Amalthea Devaliant makes a “deal” (1) with the enemy god Alexios to end a war, mirrors Beauty’s sacrificial bargain. The primary plot follows this pattern, with Bryony encountering the Wolf, a god she initially perceives as a “soulless monster” (6) and a predatory “death dealer” (6). Their first significant interaction results in a pact made over a corpse, establishing a dark alliance that echoes the foundational bargains of its predecessors. By situating its narrative within this lineage, the novel engages with timeless questions of power, consent, and attraction to figures who embody both danger and desire.

While the archetypal meaning of the Beauty-Beast myth revolves around the power of love to transform a monster, as well as the need to embrace one’s own inner monsters, the tale also had a practical aspect in its historical context. Mythologist Maria Tatar notes that the Beauty and the Beast tale was also meant to help young women cope with arranged marriages, consoling them that the “beast” to which they were wed could ultimately be tamed (Logan, Elizabeth. “The Real Story Behind Beauty and the Beast Is Not What You Think.” Glamour, March 2017). Thus, the real-world constraints of gender play an important part in the development of the tale. Moreover, the “beast” in such tales and their contemporary retellings is almost always male, suggesting the idea of a “monstrous” heroine is antithetical in a patriarchal milieu that equates women’s worth with their beauty and youth. A notable exception is the novel Howl’s Moving Castle (1986) by Diana Wynne Jones, in which the hero, Howl, falls in love with Sophie despite her being cursed temporarily to transform into an old crone.