Mowgli first appeared in Kipling’s 1893 short story “In the Rukh” where it is revealed that he was raised by wolves in India. The wolves mostly think he is a frog, but care for him as their own. Mowgli learns the language of all the creatures in the jungle and joins them in their battles. He is one of the original feral children in literature — his stories inspired many other additions to the genre.
Tarzan, Tarzan of the Apes
In Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan is raised by great apes in the African jungle, but grows up to fall in love with a civilized girl. Though he follows her to America, he is never pleased with the land of culture, preferring to “strip off the thin veneer of civilization” and shimmy back into his loincloth.
Pecos Bill
The stories of Pecos Bill, a rowdy cowboy who rides cyclones and does a fair amount of whooping, first published by Edward O’Reilly in The Century Magazine in 1917, are widely acknowledged as an example of ‘fakelore’ — that is, O’Reilly claimed the stories were part of an American Southwestern oral tradition, when they were probably just stories he made up. In the tales, Pecos Bill fell out of a covered wagon as an infant and was found and raised by coyotes, and is only convinced that he is not a coyote himself when his brother finds him in the desert. We’d have thought all that lack of fur would have given it away, but you never can tell.
Romulus and Remus
It is perhaps fitting that the foundation myth of Rome would have its divinely-fathered founders abandoned before being found and suckled back to strength by a wolf. It seems to fit the ancient Roman ideal of strength and divinity rather well. Also, it could have totally happened. Haven’t you ever seen Rome ?
San, Princess Mononoke
The warrior princess of Hayao Miyazaki is both brutal and gentle, angry and bitter towards humans for destroying her home and attacking her family, but still humanistic in many ways when faced with one of her own. The villagers call her “The Wolf Girl” or “Princess Mononoke,” which means “pesky demon.” Unlike some of the other feral children tales, San is as much as protector of her wolf family as they are of her, and she has no trouble conversing with normal humans — she just would prefer not to.
Shasta, Shasta of the Wolves
In Olaf Baker’s 1919 novel, a she-wolf called Nitka finds an abandoned Native American baby and raises him as her own. Much like other feral children, he grows to be able to speak to all the creatures of the forest. After discovering a human tribe nearby, Shasta stays with them for a time before returning to his wolf family. Like Tarzan, he prefers the wild and can never be fully socialized.