The manga, on the other hand, ran for 10 years, spanning 16 volumes between September 2007-December 2017, and becoming one of the most popular manga series of its time. Rather than an explanation for the title, this merely highlights the author's understanding of the connection between spices and trade.The original Spice & Wolf anime premiered in January 2008, running for 12 episodes before coming to a close. "I hope I soon have a body suffused with spices myself!" he said. Lawrence couldn't help smiling at the amusing tale and Marheit's praise. " Pepper is surely appropriate for a merchant about to make his fortune, I think." "It's a religious play that the church uses to preach moderation in commerce," he explained. "'The most succulent human is before your eyes- he has carried spices day in and day out in his quest for money, and his fattened soul is perfectly seasoned,'" continued Marheit cheerfully, gesturing expansively as he related the tale. Here is Marheit's recounting of the end of the play and Lawrence's reaction ( of Volume 1): The play is a morality play about a merchant trying to convince a demon to eat someone besides him. And actually, when the play that Marheit is referencing is examined, it supports my initial claim that spices are linked to trade. Unless the author wrote the whole book without a title, then looked at his own story and thought that this point at the end was important enough to make it the title, it cannot be the reason the story is called Spice and Wolf. While this reference is interesting, it does not explain where the title comes from. That is to say, the travels of the wolf and the spice. It seemed as though the travels of this pair would last a bit longer. ![]() Here is the quote, at the very end of the first volume: Instead, it is the narration (Marheit certainly prompted the reference though, and he probably says it in other media, like the anime). However, in the English translation of Spice and Wolf, I could not find an instance of him actually calling Lawrence and Holo Spice and Wolf. I believe the character the other answer refers to is Marheit. These deserve a place in this discussion, however, these references do not actually explain where the title comes from, as I'll explain. The other answer to this question uses references of the title in the story. Indeed, compared with that, clearing more than five hundred silver pieces by moving a single light bag of pepper was almost too savory to believe. Some merchants would haul the lowest-quality oats on their very backs, destroying themselves as they crossed mountains, only to turn a 10 percent profit when they sold in the town. Of course, gold and jewels -the raw materials for luxury goods- could fetch two or three times their initial purchase price, so this was a meager gain in comparison, but for a traveling merchant who spent his days crossing the plains, it was profit enough. Lawrence had bought the pepper for a thousand trenni, so that meant a profit of 560 pieces. Here's Lawrence's thoughts on the matter from volume 2, page 24: ![]() The spice trade was quite important and lucrative in medieval times. As mentioned in the quote, the author was specifically inspired by Jean Favier's book. ![]() Since this is a series heavily centered around medieval commerce, the "spice" in the title is meant to evoke that the series is about trading. Spices, along with precious metals and silk, are commodities associated with trade (have you ever heard "spice trade" or "silk road"?). Thinking back to when I read it, I recall thinking I'd love to use things from this, which gave me inspiration for the first volume. The title Spice and Wolf is a twist on the French economist Jean Favier's Gold and Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages(translated by Hidemi Uchida). According to the afterward of volume 16, on page 297,
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