Akela (The Jungle Book)

This article is about the character in The Jungle Book. For other uses, see Akela.
Akela
The Jungle Book character

Akela as depicted on the frontispiece of The Two Jungle Books, published in 1895.
First appearance "Mowgli's Brothers"
Last appearance "Red Dog"
Created by Rudyard Kipling
Information
Species Wolf
Gender Male
Relatives Two parents (deceased)

Akela (Hindi: अकेला / Akelā also called The Lone Wolf or Big Wolf) is a fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's stories, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. He is the leader of the Seeonee pack of Indian wolves and presides over the pack's council meetings. It is at such a meeting that the pack adopts the lost child Mowgli and Akela becomes one of Mowgli's mentors.

Akelā means "single or solitary" in Hindi and Urdu.[1] Kipling also calls him the Lone Wolf:[2]

Kipling portrays Akela with the character of an English gentleman. This is shown by his recurring references to the honour of the pack.[3] He is large and grey and leads the pack by virtue of his strength and cunning.[4]

Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and colour

The leader of a group of the Scouting Organisation, the Cubs, is called Akela after this character.[5] The cubs usually chant in their pack meetings, "Akela, we will do our best".[6]

Character history

Nine or ten years after Mowgli's adoption, his enemy Shere Khan the tiger, with the aid of some young wolves he has persuaded to support him, plans to depose Akela so that he will no longer be able to defend Mowgli. A wolf who becomes too old to hunt is traditionally driven out or killed by his pack. Akela is far from decrepit, but the young wolves deliberately drive a young, healthy buck deer toward him, knowing that he will not be able to catch it. When the council meets to depose Akela, Mowgli defends him with a blazing branch and drives Shere Khan and his allies away.[7]

The death of Akela after his battle with the dholes, as illustrated in page 280 of the 1895 edition of The Two Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

After Shere Khan's departure the remaining wolves beg Akela to stay, but he refuses to remain pack leader and decides to hunt alone. Phao becomes the new pack leader, Mowgli returns to humanity, at least for a time, and Akela hunts alone. During this period Akela helps Mowgli to kill Shere Khan with the aid of the human village's water buffalo herd.

Some years later, when Mowgli has been rejected by humanity and the pack is threatened with extinction by a rampaging pack of dholes, Akela joins the battle and fights to the death, finally dying in Mowgli's company ("Red Dog", in The Second Jungle Book). Akela did this for the love of Mowgli and his death is a major factor in Mowgli's decision to finally return to human society at the age of 17.[8]

Disney

Other adaptations

Influence

Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of scouting, based aspects of Cub Scouting on Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli Stories. In scouting, the terms "Law of the Pack," "Akela", "Wolf Cub", "Grand Howl", "den," and "pack" all refer to Kipling's work. He wrote The Wolf Cub's Handbook, in which he compares scouting to a wolf pack and scout leaders to the character of Akela.

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary(subscription required)
  2. Carolyn Rasmussen (December 2006), "The 'Lone Wolf' in sheep's clothing?", History Australia, 3 (2), doi:10.2104/ha060040
  3. J Nyman (June 2001), "Re-Reading Rudyard Kipling's English Heroism: Narrating Nation in The Jungle Book", Orbis Litterarum, 56 (3): 205–220, doi:10.1034/j.1600-0730.2001.d01-44.x
  4. Georgene Bankroff (2002), A Compilation of Classy Animal Names, ISBN 978-0-595-20674-2
  5. Ronald Carter, John McRae (2001), The Routledge history of literature in English: Britain and Ireland, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-24318-6
  6. Richard Flynn (Summer 1991), "Kipling and Scouting, or "Akela, We'll Do Our Best"", Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Johns Hopkins University Press, 16 (2), doi:10.1353/chq.0.0806
  7. William A. Young (1970), "Akela", Dictionary of the Characters and Scenes in the Stories and Poems of Rudyard Kipling, Ayer Publishing
  8. John Murray (1992), "The Law of The Jungle Books", Children's Literature, Johns Hopkins University Press, 20: 1–14, doi:10.1353/chl.0.0579
  9. "Clancy Brown filmography", NYTimes.com Movies & TV, All Movie Guide and Baseline via The New York Times
  10. Annika Harris (March 21, 2016). "First Look: Lupita Nyong'o, Idris Elba & Others In 'The Jungle Book'". UPTOWN Magazine. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
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