''Libahunt'' (the

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n name for a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

) is the name of a 1912 play (a

tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

) by

August Kitzberg August Kitzberg ( in Laatre Parish, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire – 10 October 1927 in Tartu) was an Estonian writer. Life Until 1863, August Kitzberg was known as August Kits. He grew up in Niitsaadu farmstead in Penuja village, A ...

, and a

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

film of the same name based on the play. A triangular love story evolves in a peasant family in southwestern Estonian countryside around

Halliste Halliste is a small borough ( et, alevik) in Mulgi Parish, Viljandi County, in southern Estonia, located about 6 km northeast of the town of Abja-Paluoja. Until 2017, Halliste was the administrative centre of Halliste Parish. As of 2011 C ...

in the beginning of 1800s over a time span of 15 years.

Synopsis

The play starts on a stormy winter night - the men of the family return from a compulsory church service, where a woman, accused of witchcraft, was whipped to death in front of the church. The characters describe their fears and prejudice. The first act ends with the young daughter of the dead woman, appearing alone and frozen from a snowstorm. She is being adopted into a family, which already has a son, Margus, 14 and one adopted girl, Mari,

In the next 3 scenes, 10 years later, all three are adolescents at the age of confirmation. Margus is obviously in love with Tiina, who, with her dark hair, love to nature's creatures and defiance towards "being ordered around", represents the free spirit of idealistic Romanticism. In a bout of jealousy, Mari, blond and the embodiment of obedience to the church and their landlord, accuses Tiina of being a werewolf, first in private, then spreading the gossip, and finally in public. The insulted girl escapes into the forest and reappears only 4 days later. This makes the head of the family repeat the accusation, which results in the girl escaping again. The play ends 5 more years later, when Margus and Mari are already married. In a snowstorm on his way back from the pub, Margus shoots a gun to scare away wolves. Arriving home they can hear wolves howling quite near to the house. Opening the door, he catches a collapsing Tiina, dying of the bullet-wound.

Analysis

In folklore the werewolves represent the cycle of legends of essentially

shamanistic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

content - a man turning into animal and reverse - that were modified by the

xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

in-group/out-group hatred and the witch-hunt of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era church's

inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

, fighting against the loss of power after the scientific progress in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and the Enlightenment.

Musical

For the play's 100th anniversary, the Estonian State Puppet Theatre has turned it into a musical.

References

External links

* * (Text of original play) 1968 films Estonian-language films Soviet drama films Soviet-era Estonian films Soviet films based on plays 1968 drama films Estonian drama films {{Estonia-film-stub