The story of the Children of Ulric is a very old tale that priests of Ulric never mention in their sermons, but that has lived long around the hearths of the peasants.[1a] The legend has it that long ago, when the world was young, Ulric raced through the northern woods hunting, though he could not describe what prey he sought after, he knew only that he needed. The story is long in the telling, for it is meant to pass a long night, but Ulric, after learning more than a few cautionary lessons along the way, found what he sought in the person of Birgit, a fierce Northern maid that he took as his lover. They were happy for a brief time. She died bearing Ulric’s child and his howls of grief still ring on the northern wind. Their son was the first of the Shape-strong, the Were, those who can wa