In
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can
shapeshift
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...
into a
wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
(or, especially in modern film, a
therianthropic
Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings to metamorphose into animals or hybrids by means of shapeshifting. It is possible that cave drawings found at Les Trois Frères, in France, depict ancient beliefs in the concept.
The bes ...
hybrid
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a
curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
or affliction (often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a
full moon
The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opp ...
. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy (), are
Petronius
Gaius Petronius Arbiter["Gaius Petronius Arbiter"]
Gervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury ( la, Gervasius Tilberiensis; 1150–1220) was an English canon lawyer, statesman and cleric. He enjoyed the favour of Henry II of England and later of Henry's grandson, Emperor Otto IV, for whom he wrote his best known work, ...
(1150–1228).
The werewolf is a widespread concept in
European folklore
European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the Western world, especially when discussed comparatively.
The history of Christendom during the Early Modern period has resulted in a number of traditions that are shared in many ...
, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a
Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the
medieval period
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
with
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in
witches
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have use ...
, in the course of the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
and the
Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
(especially the
Valais
Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...
and
Vaud
Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...
) in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.
The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "
witch-hunt
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...
" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of lycanthropy being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials. During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy (transformation into a wolf) were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of
Peter Stumpp
Peter Stumpp (c. 1535 – 1589; name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Peter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf) was a German farmer and alleged serial killer, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft and cannibalism. He was known as 'the Werewolf of ...
(1589) led to a significant peak in both interest in and
persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with persecution of
wolf-charmers recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
and
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
.
After the end of the witch-trials, the werewolf became of interest in
folklore studies
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
and in the emerging
Gothic horror
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
genre;
werewolf fiction
Werewolf fiction denotes the portrayal of werewolves and other shapeshifting therianthropes, in the media of literature, drama, film, games and music. Werewolf literature includes folklore, legend, saga, fairy tales, Gothic and horror fiction, f ...
as a genre has pre-modern precedents in medieval
romances (e.g. ''
Bisclavret
"Bisclavret" ("The Werewolf") is one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century. Originally written in French, it tells the story of a werewolf who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife. The tale shares a c ...
'' and ''
Guillaume de Palerme
''Guillaume de Palerme'' ("William of Palerne") is a French romance poem, later translated into English where it is also known as ''William and the Werewolf''. The French verse romance was composed , commissioned by Countess Yolande (who is gene ...
'') and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional"
chap book tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
.
Names
The
Modern English ''werewolf'' descends from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''werewulf'', which is a
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
(linguistic sibling of the same origin) of
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarch ...
''weerwolf'',
Middle Low German
Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...
''werwulf'',
Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High ...
''werwolf'', and
West Frisian ''waer-ûl(e)''. These terms are generally derived from a
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
form
reconstructed as ''*wira-wulfaz'' ('man-wolf'), itself from an earlier
Pre-Germanic form *''wiro-wulpos''.
[, s.v. ''werewolf, n.''] An alternative reconstruction, *''wazi-wulfaz'' ('wolf-clothed'), would bring the Germanic
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...
closer to the Slavic meaning, with other semantic parallels in
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''úlfheðnar'' ('wolf-skinned') and ''úlfheðinn'' ('wolf-coat'),
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...
''luchthonn'' ('wolf-skin'), and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''Vṛkājina'' ('Wolf-skin').
The Norse branch underwent
taboo modifications, with Old Norse ''vargúlfr'' (only attested as a translation of
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''garwaf'' ~ ''garwal(f)'' from
Marie's lay of
Bisclavret
"Bisclavret" ("The Werewolf") is one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century. Originally written in French, it tells the story of a werewolf who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife. The tale shares a c ...
) replacing *''wiraz'' ('man') with ''vargr'' ('wolf, outlaw'), perhaps under the influence of the Old French expression ''leus warous ~ lous garous'' (modern ''loup-garou''), which literally means 'wolf-werewolf'.
DEAF
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...
G:334–338. The modern Norse forms ''varulv'' (Danish, Norwegian) and ''varulf'' (Swedish) were either borrowed from Middle Low German ''werwulf'',
or else derived from an unattested Old Norse ''*varulfr'', posited as the regular descendant of Proto-Germanic *''wira-wulfaz''.
An
Old Frankish
Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy an ...
form ''*werwolf'' is inferred from the Middle Low German variant and was most likely borrowed into
Old Norman
Old Norman, also called Old Northern French or Old Norman French ( fro, Ancien Normant, nrf, Ancien Normaund), was one of many varieties of the '' langues d'oïl'' native to northern France. It was spoken throughout the region of what is now call ...
''garwa(l)f'' ~ ''garo(u)l'', with regular
Germanic–
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
correspondance ''w-'' / ''g-'' (cf. ''William'' / ''Guillaume'', ''Wales'' / ''Galles'', etc.).
The
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
noun *''vьlko-dlakь'', meaning 'wolf-haired' (cf. *''dlaka'', 'animal hair, fur'), can be reconstructed from Serbian ''vukòdlak'', Slovenian ''vołkodlȃk'', and Czech ''vlkodlak'', although formal variations in Slavic languages (*''vьrdl(j)ak'', *''vьlkdolk'', *''vьlklak'') and the late attestation of some forms pose difficulties in tracing the origin of the term. The Greek ''
Vrykolakas
Vrykolakas (Greek βρυκόλακας, pronounced ), also called vorvolakas or vourdoulakas, is a harmful, undead creature in Greek folklore. It shares similarities with numerous other legendary creatures, but is generally equated with the vampi ...
'' and Romanian ''Vîrcolac'', designating vampire-like creatures in Balkan folklores, were borrowed from Slavic languages.
The same form is also found in other non-Slavic languages of the region, such as Albanian ''vurvolak'' and Turkish ''vurkolak.
''
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
''vьrkolak'' and
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
''vurkolak'' may be interpreted as back-borrowings from Greek. The name ''
vurdalak'' (вурдалак; 'ghoul, revenant') first appeared in Russian poet
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
's work ''Pesni'', published in 1835. The source of Pushkin's distinctive form remains debated in scholarship.
A
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed through the compar ...
noun *''wiro-kū'', meaning 'man-dog', has been reconstructed from
Celtiberian ''uiroku'', the
Old Brittonic
Common Brittonic ( cy, Brythoneg; kw, Brythonek; br, Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, was a Celtic language spoken in Britain and Brittany.
It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, a ...
place-name ''
Viroconium
Viroconium or Uriconium, formally Viroconium Cornoviorum, was a Roman city, one corner of which is now occupied by Wroxeter, a small village in Shropshire, England, about east-south-east of Shrewsbury. At its peak, Viroconium is estimated to ...
'' (< *''wiroconion'', 'place of man-dogs, i.e. werewolves'), the
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...
noun ''ferchu'' ('male dog, fierce dog'), and the medieval personal names ''Guurci'' (
Old Welsh
Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
) and ''Gurki'' (
Old Breton
Breton (, ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of t ...
). Wolves were metaphorically designated as 'dogs' in Celtic cultures.
The modern term ''lycanthropy'' comes from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
''lukanthrōpía'' (λυκανθρωπία), itself from ''lukánthrōpos'' (λυκάνθρωπος), meaning 'wolf-man'. Ancient writers used the term solely in the context of
clinical lycanthropy
Clinical lycanthropy is a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is, an animal. Its name is associated with the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural ...
, a condition in which the patient imagined himself to be a wolf. Modern writers later used ''lycanthrope'' as a synonym of ''werewolf'', referring to a person who, according to medieval superstition, could assum the form of wolves.
[, s.v. ''lyncanthropy, n.'' and ''lyncanthrope, n.'']
History
Indo-European comparative mythology
The European motif of the devilish werewolf devouring human flesh harks back to a common development during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
in the context of Christianity, although stories of humans turning into wolves take their roots in earlier pre-Christian beliefs.
Their underlying common origin can be traced back to
Proto-Indo-European mythology
Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested ...
, where ''lycanthropy'' is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the ''
kóryos
The ''kóryos'' (Proto-Indo-European: "army, people under arms" or "detachment, war party") refers to the theoretical Proto-Indo-European brotherhood of warriors in which unmarried young males served for several years, as a rite of passage into ma ...
'' warrior class, which may have included a cult focused on dogs and wolves identified with an age grade of young, unmarried warriors. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone (1987).
Classical antiquity
A few references to men changing into wolves are found in
Ancient Greek literature
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are ...
and
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
.
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
, in his ''
Histories'', wrote that the
Neuri
The Neuri or Navari were a tribe described by Herodotus in the . Contemporary scholars equate this group with the Yotvingians, a Western Baltic people, and believe they lived near the river Narew in or Belarus.
Primary sources Herodotus's ...
, a tribe he places to the north-east of
Scythia
Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
His ...
, were all transformed into wolves once every year for several days, and then changed back to their human shape. This tale was also mentioned by
Pomponius Mela
Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45.
His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...
.
In the second century BC, the Greek geographer
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
related the story of King
Lycaon of Arcadia, who was transformed into a wolf because he had sacrificed a child in the altar of Zeus Lycaeus.
In the version of the legend told by
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
in his ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...
'', when
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
visits Lycaon disguised as a common man, Lycaon wants to test if he is really a god. To that end, he kills a Molossian hostage and serve his entrails to Zeus. Disgusted, the god turns Lycaon into a wolf. However, in other accounts of the legend, like that of
Apollodorus' ''Bibliotheca'',
Zeus blasts him and his sons with thunderbolts as punishment.
Pausanias also relates the story of an Arcadian man called
Damarchus of Parrhasia, who was turned into a wolf after tasting the entrails of a human child sacrificed to
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
Lycaeus. He was restored to human form 10 years later and went on to become an Olympic champion. This tale is also recounted by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
, who calls the man Demaenetus quoting
Agriopas. According to Pausanias, this was not a one-off event, but that men have been transformed into wolves during the sacrifices to Zeus Lycaeus since the time of Lycaon. If they abstain of tasting human flesh while being wolves, they would be restored to human form nine years later, but if they do they will remain wolves forever.
Lykos (Λύκος) of Athens was a wolf-shaped herο, whose shrine stood by the jurycourt, and the first jurors were named after him.
Pliny the Elder likewise recounts another tale of lycanthropy. Quoting Euanthes, he mentions that in
Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
, once a year a man was chosen by lot from the Anthus' clan. The chosen man was escorted to a marsh in the area, where he hung his clothes into an
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
tree, swam across the marsh and transformed into a wolf, joining a
pack for nine years. If during these nine years he refrained from tasting human flesh, he returned to the same marsh, swam back and recovered his previous human form, with nine years added to his appearance. Ovid also relates stories of men who roamed the woods of
Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
in the form of wolves.
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
, in his poetic work ''
Eclogues
The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.
Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...
'', wrote about a man called Moeris, who used herbs and poisons picked in his native
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos may refer to:
* Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea)
* Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology
* Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...
to turn himself into a wolf. In
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
, the ''
Satyricon
The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petro ...
'', written circa AD 60 by
Gaius Petronius Arbiter
Gaius Petronius Arbiter["Gaius Petronius Arbiter"]
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
gives an account similar to that found in Pliny the Elder. Augustine explains that "It is very generally believed that by certain witches spells men may be turned into wolves..." Physical metamorphosis was also mentioned in the ''Capitulatum Episcopi'', attributed to the
Council of Ancyra
The Synod of Ancyra was an ecclesiastical council, or synod, convened in Ancyra (modern-day Ankara, the capital of Turkey), the seat of the Roman administration for the province of Galatia, in 314. The season was soon after Easter; the year ma ...
in the 4th century, which became the Church's doctrinal text in relation to magic, witches, and transformations such as those of werewolves.
The ''Capitulatum Episcopi'' states that "Whoever believes that anything can be...transformed into another species or likeness, except by God Himself...is beyond doubt an infidel.'
In these works of Roman writers, werewolves often receive the name ''versipellis'' ("turnskin"). Augustine instead uses the phrase "in lupum fuisse mutatum" (changed into the form of a wolf) to describe the physical metamorphosis of werewolves, which is similar to phrases used in the medieval period.
Middle Ages
There is evidence of widespread belief in werewolves in medieval Europe. This evidence spans much of the Continent, as well as the British Isles. Werewolves were mentioned in Medieval law codes, such as that of
King Cnut
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...
, whose ''Ecclesiastical Ordinances'' inform us that the codes aim to ensure that "…the madly audacious werewolf do not too widely devastate, nor bite too many of the spiritual flock."
Liutprand of Cremona
Liutprand, also Liudprand, Liuprand, Lioutio, Liucius, Liuzo, and Lioutsios (c. 920 – 972),"LIUTPRAND OF CREMONA" in ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, 1991, p. 12 ...
reports a rumor that Bajan, son of
Simeon I of Bulgaria
Tsar Simeon (also Symeon) I the Great ( cu, цѣсар҄ь Сѷмеѡ́нъ А҃ Вели́къ, cěsarĭ Sỳmeonŭ prĭvŭ Velikŭ bg, цар Симеон I Велики, Simeon I Veliki el, Συμεών Αʹ ὁ Μέγας, Sumeṓn prôto ...
, could use magic to turn himself into a wolf. The works of Augustine of Hippo had a large influence on the development of Western Christianity, and were widely read by churchmen of the medieval period; and these churchmen occasionally discussed werewolves in their works. Famous examples include
Gerald of Wales
Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and English historians in the Middle Ages, historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and w ...
's ''
Werewolves of Ossory
The legendary werewolves of Ossory, a kingdom of early medieval Ireland, are the subject of a number of accounts in medieval Irish, English and Norse works. The werewolves were said to have been the descendants of a legendary figure named Laig ...
'', found in his ''Topographica Hibernica'', and in
Gervase of Tilbury's ''
Otia Imperiala,'' both written for royal audiences.
Gervase reveals to the reader that belief in such transformations (he also mentions women turning into cats and into snakes) was widespread across Europe; he uses the phrase "que ita dinoscuntur" when discussing these metamorphoses, which translates to "it is known". Gervase, who was writing in Germany, also tells the reader that the transformation of men into wolves cannot be easily dismissed, for "...in England we have often seen men change into wolves" ("Vidimus enim frequenter in Anglia per lunationes homines in lupos mutari…"). Further evidence of the widespread belief in werewolves and other human-animal transformations can be seen in theological attacks made against such beliefs.
Conrad of Hirsau, writing in the 11th century, forbids the reading of stories in which a person's reason is obscured following such a transformation. Conrad specifically refers to the tales of Ovid in his tract. Pseudo-Augustine, writing in the 12th century, follows Augustine of Hippo's argument that no physical transformation can be made by any but God, stating that "...the body corporeally
annot
Annot (; oc, Anòt) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Annotains'' or ''Annotaines''
The commune has been awa ...
be changed into the material limbs of any animal.'
Marie de France
Marie de France ( fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court ...
's poem ''
Bisclavret
"Bisclavret" ("The Werewolf") is one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century. Originally written in French, it tells the story of a werewolf who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife. The tale shares a c ...
'' (c. 1200) is another example, in which the eponymous nobleman Bisclavret, for reasons not described, had to transform into a wolf every week. When his treacherous wife stole his clothing needed to restore his human form, he escaped the king's wolf hunt by imploring the king for mercy and accompanied the king thereafter. His behavior at court was gentle, until his wife and her new husband appeared at court, so much so that his hateful attack on the couple was deemed justly motivated, and the truth was revealed. This ''
lai'' (a type of Breton sung-poem) follows many themes found within other werewolf tales - the removal of clothing and attempting to refrain from the consumption of human flesh can be found in Pliny the Elder, as well as in the second of Gervase of Tilbury's werewolf stories, about a werewolf by the name of Chaucevaire. Marie also reveals to us the existence of werewolf belief in Breton and Norman France, by telling us the Franco-Norman word for werewolf: ''garwulf,'' which, she explains, are common in that part of France, where "...many men turned into werewolves". Gervase also supports this terminology when he tells us that the French use the term "''gerulfi"'' to describe what the English call "werewolves". ''
Melion ''Melion'' is an anonymous Breton lai that tells the story of a knight who transforms into a werewolf for the love of his wife who betrays him.
Composition and manuscripts
The actual date of composition is estimated between 1190 and 1204.
The la ...
'' and ''Biclarel'' are two anonymous lais that share the theme of a werewolf knight being betrayed by his wife.
The German word ''werwolf'' is recorded by
Burchard von Worms
Burchard of Worms ( 950/965 – August 20, 1025) was the Bishop of Worms, bishop of the Worms, Germany, Imperial City of Worms, in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the author of a canon law of the Catholic Church, canon law collection of twenty book ...
in the 11th century, and by
Bertold of Regensburg
Bertold of Regensburg (c. 1220 – 13 December 1272), also known as Berthold of RatisbonCoulton, G. G. (1923) ''Life in the Middle Ages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press was a German preacher during the high Middle Ages.
Life
He was a ...
in the 13th, but is not recorded in all of medieval German poetry or fiction. While Baring-Gould argues that references to werewolves were also rare in England, presumably because whatever significance the "wolf-men" of Germanic paganism had carried, the associated beliefs and practices had been successfully repressed after Christianization (or if they persisted, they did so outside of the sphere of literacy available to us), we have sources other than those mentioned above. Such examples of werewolves in Ireland and the British Isles can be found in the work of the 9th century Welsh monk
Nennius
Nennius – or Nemnius or Nemnivus – was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the ''Historia Brittonum'', based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is widely considered ...
; female werewolves appear in the Irish work ''
Tales of the Elders'', from the 12th century; and Welsh werewolves in the 12th to 13th century work, ''
Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...
.''
Germanic pagan traditions associated with wolf-men persisted longest in the Scandinavian
Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
.
Harald I of Norway
Harald Fairhair no, Harald hårfagreModern Icelandic: ( – ) was a Norwegian king. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, he reigned from 872 to 930 and was the first King of Norw ...
is known to have had a body of ''
Úlfhednar'' (wolf-coated
en, which are mentioned in the Vatnsdœla, Haraldskvæði, and the
Völsunga saga
The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the stor ...
, and resemble some werewolf legends. The Úlfhednar were fighters similar to the berserkers, though they dressed in
wolf hides rather than those of bears and were reputed to channel the spirits of these animals to enhance effectiveness in battle.
These warriors were resistant to pain and killed viciously in battle, much like wild animals. Úlfhednar and berserkers are closely associated with the Norse god
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
.
The Scandinavian traditions of this period may have spread to
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
, giving rise to the Slavic "werewolf" tales. The 11th-century
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
ian Prince
Vseslav of Polotsk
Vseslav of Polotsk or Vseslav Bryachislavich ( 1029 – 24 April 1101), also known as ''Vseslav the Sorcerer'' or ''Vseslav the Seer'', was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069. Together with Rostis ...
was considered to have been a werewolf, capable of moving at superhuman speeds, as recounted in ''
The Tale of Igor's Campaign
''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' ( orv, Слово о пълкѹ Игоревѣ, translit=Slovo o pŭlku Igorevě) is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language.
The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaig ...
'':
Vseslav the prince judged men; as prince, he ruled towns; but at night he prowled in the guise of a wolf. From Kiev, prowling, he reached, before the cocks crew, Tmutorokan
Tmutarakan ( rus, Тмутарака́нь, p=tmʊtərɐˈkanʲ, ; uk, Тмуторокань, Tmutorokan) was a medieval Kievan Rus' principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Se ...
. The path of Great Sun, as a wolf, prowling, he crossed. For him in Polotsk they rang for matins early at St. Sophia the bells; but he heard the ringing in Kiev.
The situation as described during the medieval period gives rise to the dual form of werewolf folklore in Early Modern Europe. On one hand the "Germanic" werewolf, which becomes associated with the
witchcraft panic, and on the other hand the "Slavic" werewolf or ''
vlkolak'', which becomes associated with the concept of the
revenant
In folklore, a revenant is an animated corpse that is believed to have been revived from death to haunt the living. The word ''revenant'' is derived from the Old French word, ''revenant'', the "returning" (see also the related French language, F ...
or "vampire". The "eastern" werewolf-vampire is found in the folklore of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Romania and the Balkans, while the "western" werewolf-sorcerer is found in France, German-speaking Europe and in the Baltic.
Being a werewolf was a common accusation in witch trials throughout their history, and it featured even in the
Valais witch trials
The Valais witch trials consisted of a witch-hunt and a series of witch trials which took place in the Valais (the House of Savoy and the prince-bishopric of Sion), today part of Switzerland, beginning in 1428. The Valais witch-hunt is the firs ...
, one of the earliest such trials altogether, in the first half of the 15th century. Likewise, in the
Vaud
Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...
(Switzerland), child-eating werewolves were reported as early as 1448.
In 1539,
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
used the form ''
beerwolf
A ''Beerwolf'' (''Bärwolf'', ''Werwolf'') is a German folk-tale monster commonly known as a werewolf.
In a debate arranged by Philip of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony in 1539, when it appeared the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was readying to a ...
'' to describe a hypothetical ruler worse than a tyrant who must be resisted.
Early modern history
There were numerous reports of werewolf attacks – and consequent court trials – in 16th-century France. In some of the cases there was clear evidence against the accused of murder and
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
, but no association with wolves. In other cases people have been terrified by such creatures, such as that of
Gilles Garnier
Gilles Garnier (died 18 January 1573) was a French serial killer, cannibal, and hermit convicted of being a werewolf. He was alternately known as "The Hermit of St. Bonnot" and "The Werewolf of Dole".
Life
The Werewolf of Dole, Gilles Garnier ...
in
Dole
Dole may refer to:
Places
* Dole, Ceredigion, Wales
* Dole, Idrija, Slovenia
* Dole, Jura, France
** Arrondissement of Dole
* Dole (Kladanj), a village at the entity line of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina-Republika Srpska
* Dole, Ljubušk ...
in 1573, who was convicted of being a werewolf.
A peak of attention to lycanthropy came in the late 16th to early 17th century, as part of the
European witch-hunts
Witch trials in the early modern period saw that between 1400 to 1782, around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. Some sources estimate that a total of 100,000 trials occurred at its maximum for a s ...
.
A number of treatises on werewolves were written in France during 1595 and 1615. Werewolves were sighted in 1598 in
Anjou Anjou may refer to:
Geography and titles France
* County of Anjou, a historical county in France and predecessor of the Duchy of Anjou
**Count of Anjou, title of nobility
*Duchy of Anjou, a historical duchy and later a province of France
**Duk ...
, and a teenage werewolf was sentenced to life imprisonment in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
in 1603.
Henry Boguet wrote a lengthy chapter about werewolves in 1602. In the Vaud, werewolves were convicted in 1602 and in 1624. A treatise by a Vaud pastor in 1653, however, argued that lycanthropy was purely an illusion. After this, the only further record from the Vaud dates to 1670: it is that of a boy who claimed he and his mother could change themselves into wolves, which was, however, not taken seriously. At the beginning of the 17th century
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
was prosecuted by
James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the Union of the Crowns, union of the Scottish and Eng ...
, who regarded "warwoolfes" as victims of delusion induced by "a natural superabundance of melancholic".
After 1650, belief in Lycanthropy had mostly disappeared from French-speaking Europe, as evidenced in
Diderot's Encyclopedia, which attributed reports of lycanthropy to a "disorder of the brain, although there were continuing reports of extraordinary wolflike beasts but they were not considered to be werewolves. One such report concerned the
Beast of Gévaudan
The Beast of Gévaudan (french: La Bête du Gévaudan, ; oc, La Bèstia de Gavaudan) is the historic name associated with a man-eating animal or animals that terrorised the former province of Gévaudan (consisting of the modern-day department of ...
which terrorized the general area of the
former province of
Gévaudan
Gévaudan (; oc, Gavaudan, Gevaudan) is a historical area of France in Lozère ''département''. It took its name from the Gabali, a Gallic tribe subordinate to the Arverni.
History
After the conquest of Gaul, the Romans preserved the cap ...
, now called
Lozère
Lozère (; oc, Losera ) is a landlocked department in the region of Occitanie in Southern France, located near the Massif Central, bounded to the northeast by Haute-Loire, to the east by Ardèche, to the south by Gard, to the west by Aveyron, ...
, in south-central France; from the years 1764 to 1767, it killed upwards of 80 men, women, and children.
The part of Europe which showed more vigorous interest in werewolves after 1650 was the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. At least nine works on lycanthropy were printed in Germany between 1649 and 1679. In the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, belief in werewolves persisted well into the 18th century. In any case, as late as in 1853, in
Galicia, northwestern Spain,
Manuel Blanco Romasanta
Manuel Blanco Romasanta (né Manuela; 18 November 1809 – 14 December 1863) was Spain's first recorded serial killer. In 1853, he admitted to thirteen murders, but claimed he was not responsible because he was suffering from a curse that caused ...
was judged and condemned as the author of a number of murders, but he claimed to be not guilty because of his condition of ''lobishome'', werewolf.
Until the 20th century,
wolf attacks on humans
Wolf attacks are injuries to humans or their property by any subspecies of wolf. Their frequency varies with geographical location and historical period, but overall gray wolf attacks are rare. Wolves today tend to live mostly far from people ...
were an occasional, but still widespread, feature of life in Europe.
Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. This is said to be corroborated by the fact that areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; ''
werehyena
Were-hyena is a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf for therianthropy involving hyenas. It is common in the folklore of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East as well as some adjacent territorie ...
s'' in Africa, ''
weretiger
A werecat (also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analog to "werewolf" for a feline therianthropic creature.
Etymology
Ailuranthropy comes from the Greek root words ''ailouros'' meaning "cat",< and ''anthropos'', meaning "human" ...
s'' in India,
as well as ''werepumas'' ("''runa uturuncu''") and ''werejaguars'' ("''yaguaraté-abá''" or "''tigre-capiango''") in southern South America.
An idea is explored in
Sabine Baring-Gould
Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...
's work ''The Book of Werewolves'' is that werewolf legends may have been used to explain
serial killings. Perhaps the most infamous example is the case of
Peter Stumpp
Peter Stumpp (c. 1535 – 1589; name is also spelled as Peter Stube, Peter Stubbe, Peter Stübbe or Peter Stumpf) was a German farmer and alleged serial killer, accused of werewolfery, witchcraft and cannibalism. He was known as 'the Werewolf of ...
(executed in 1589), the German farmer, and alleged serial killer and
cannibal
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
, also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg.
Asian cultures
Common
Turkic folklore
Turkic may refer to:
* anything related to the country of Turkey
* Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages
** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation)
** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language
* ...
holds a different, reverential light to the werewolf legends in that Turkic Central Asian
shamans
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 ...
after performing long and arduous rites would voluntarily be able to transform into the humanoid "Kurtadam" (literally meaning Wolfman). Since the wolf was the totemic ancestor animal of the Turkic peoples, they would be respectful of any shaman who was in such a form.
Lycanthropy as a medical condition
Some modern researchers have tried to explain the reports of werewolf behaviour with recognised medical conditions. Dr Lee Illis of
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre.
...
in London wrote a paper in 1963 entitled ''On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves'', in which he argues that historical accounts on werewolves could have in fact been referring to victims of congenital
porphyria
Porphyria is a group of liver disorders in which substances called porphyrins build up in the body, negatively affecting the skin or nervous system. The types that affect the nervous system are also known as acute porphyria, as symptoms are ra ...
, stating how the symptoms of
photosensitivity Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons, especially visible light. In medicine, the term is principally used for abnormal reactions of the skin, and two types are distinguished, photoallergy and phototoxicity. ...
, reddish teeth and
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
could have been grounds for accusing a sufferer of being a werewolf.
This is however argued against by Woodward, who points out how mythological werewolves were almost invariably portrayed as resembling true wolves, and that their human forms were rarely physically conspicuous as porphyria victims.
Others have pointed out the possibility of historical werewolves having been sufferers of
hypertrichosis
Hypertrichosis is an abnormal amount of hair growth over the body. The two distinct types of hypertrichosis are generalized hypertrichosis, which occurs over the entire body, and localized hypertrichosis, which is restricted to a certain area. H ...
, a hereditary condition manifesting itself in excessive hair growth. However, Woodward dismissed the possibility, as the rarity of the disease ruled it out from happening on a large scale, as werewolf cases were in medieval Europe.
People suffering from
Down syndrome
Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...
have been suggested by some scholars to have been possible originators of werewolf myths.
Woodward suggested
rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...
as the origin of werewolf beliefs, claiming remarkable similarities between the symptoms of that disease and some of the legends. Woodward focused on the idea that being bitten by a werewolf could result in the victim turning into one, which suggested the idea of a transmittable disease like rabies.
However, the idea that lycanthropy could be transmitted in this way is not part of the original myths and legends and only appears in relatively recent beliefs. Lycanthropy can also be met with as the main content of a delusion, for example, the case of a woman has been reported who during episodes of acute psychosis complained of becoming four different species of animals.
Folk beliefs
Characteristics
The beliefs classed together under lycanthropy are far from uniform, and the term is somewhat capriciously applied. The transformation may be temporary or permanent; the were-animal may be the man himself metamorphosed; may be his
double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* Th ...
whose activity leaves the real man to all appearance unchanged; may be his
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
, which goes forth seeking whomever it may devour, leaving its body in a
state of trance; or it may be no more than the messenger of the human being, a real animal or a
familiar spirit
In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to re ...
, whose intimate connection with its owner is shown by the fact that any injury to it is believed, by a phenomenon known as repercussion, to cause a corresponding injury to the human being.
Werewolves were said in European folklore to bear tell-tale physical traits even in their human form. These included the
meeting of both eyebrows at the bridge of the nose, curved fingernails, low-set ears and a swinging stride. One method of identifying a werewolf in its human form was to cut the flesh of the accused, under the pretense that fur would be seen within the wound. A Russian superstition recalls a werewolf can be recognized by bristles under the tongue.
The appearance of a werewolf in its animal form varies from culture to culture, though it is most commonly portrayed as being indistinguishable from ordinary wolves save for the fact that it has no tail (a trait thought characteristic of witches in animal form), is often larger, and retains human eyes and a voice. According to some Swedish accounts, the werewolf could be distinguished from a regular wolf by the fact that it would run on three legs, stretching the fourth one backwards to look like a tail. After returning to their human forms, werewolves are usually documented as becoming weak, debilitated and undergoing painful nervous depression.
One universally reviled trait in medieval Europe was the werewolf's habit of devouring recently buried corpses, a trait that is documented extensively, particularly in the ''Annales Medico-psychologiques'' in the 19th century.
Becoming a werewolf
Various methods for becoming a werewolf have been reported, one of the simplest being the removal of clothing and putting on a belt made of wolfskin, probably as a substitute for the assumption of an entire animal skin (which also is frequently described).
[Bennett, Aaron. “So, You Want to be a Werewolf?” ]Fate
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
. Vol. 55, no. 6, Issue 627. July 2002. In other cases, the body is rubbed with a
magic salve.
Drinking rainwater out of the footprint of the animal in question or from certain enchanted streams were also considered effectual modes of accomplishing metamorphosis.
The 16th-century Swedish writer
Olaus Magnus
Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic.
Biography
Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder ...
says that the
Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
n werewolves were initiated by draining a cup of specially prepared beer and repeating a set formula. Ralston in his ''Songs of the Russian People'' gives the form of incantation still familiar in Russia. In Italy, France and Germany, it was said that a man or woman could turn into a werewolf if he or she, on a certain ''Wednesday'' or ''Friday'', slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his or her face.
In other cases, the transformation was supposedly accomplished by
Satanic allegiance for the most loathsome ends, often for the sake of sating a craving for human flesh. "The werewolves", writes
Richard Verstegan
Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo-Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in East London the son of a cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee fro ...
(''Restitution of Decayed Intelligence'', 1628),
are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certayne inchaunted girdle, does not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they wear the said girdle. And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and most of humane creatures.
The phenomenon of repercussion, the power of animal
metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
, or of sending out a
familiar
In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars (sometimes referred to as familiar spirits) were believed to be supernatural entities that would assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to re ...
, real or spiritual, as a messenger, and the supernormal powers conferred by association with such a familiar, are also attributed to the
magician, male and female, all the world over; and
witch
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...
superstitions are closely parallel to, if not identical with, lycanthropic beliefs, the occasional involuntary character of lycanthropy being almost the sole distinguishing feature. In another direction the phenomenon of repercussion is asserted to manifest itself in connection with the bush-soul of the West African and the ''
nagual
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual (pronounced a'wal is a human being who has the power to shapeshift into their tonal animal counterpart. Nagualism is tied to the belief one can access power and spiritual insight by connecting with the ...
'' of
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
; but though there is no line of demarcation to be drawn on logical grounds, the assumed power of the magician and the intimate association of the bush-soul or the ''nagual'' with a human being are not termed lycanthropy.
The curse of lycanthropy was also considered by some scholars as being a
divine punishment
Divine judgment means the judgment of God or other supreme beings within a religion.
Ancient beliefs
In ancient Sumerian religion, the sun-god Utu and his twin sister Inanna were believed to be the enforcers of divine justice. Utu, as t ...
. Werewolf literature shows many examples of
God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
or
saints
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual res ...
allegedly cursing those who invoked their wrath with lycanthropy. Such is the case of
Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf by
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
as punishment for slaughtering one of his own sons and serving his remains to the gods as a dinner. Those who were
excommunicate
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
d by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
were also said to become werewolves.
The power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but to
Christian saints
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
as well. ''Omnes angeli, boni et Mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra'' ("All angels, good and
bad
Bad or BAD may refer to:
Common meanings
*Evil, the opposite of moral good
* Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect
* Unhealthy, or counter to well-being
* Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good
Acronyms
* BAD-2, a Soviet armored troll ...
, have the power of transmutating our bodies") was the dictum of
St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...
.
St. Patrick
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...
was said to have transformed the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
King Vereticus into a wolf;
Natalis supposedly cursed an illustrious Irish family whose members were each doomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is even more direct, while in Russia, again, men supposedly became werewolves when incurring the wrath of the Devil.
A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of an 80-year-old man named
Thiess. In 1692, in
Jürgensburg
Zaube (german: Jürgensburg) is a village in Zaube Parish, Cēsis Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia.
Notable people
* Thiess of Kaltenbrun, self-confessed werewolf and condemned heretic
Heresy is any belief or theory that i ...
,
Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
, Thiess testified under oath that he and other werewolves were the Hounds of God.
He claimed they were warriors who descended into hell to battle witches and
demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...
. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was steadfast in his assertions, claiming that werewolves in Germany and Russia also did battle with the devil's minions in their own versions of hell, and insisted that when werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for idolatry and
superstitious belief.
Remedies
Various methods have existed for removing the werewolf form. In antiquity, the Ancient Greeks and Romans believed in the power of exhaustion in curing people of lycanthropy. The victim would be subjected to long periods of physical activity in the hope of being purged of the malady. This practice stemmed from the fact that many alleged werewolves would be left feeling weak and debilitated after committing depredations.
In medieval Europe, traditionally, there are three methods one can use to cure a victim of lycanthropy; medicinally (usually via the use of
wolfsbane), surgically, or by
exorcism
Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...
. However, many of the cures advocated by medieval medical practitioners proved fatal to the patients. A Sicilian belief of Arabic origin holds that a werewolf can be cured of its ailment by striking it on the forehead or scalp with a knife. Another belief from the same culture involves the piercing of the werewolf's hands with nails. Sometimes, less extreme methods were used. In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name, while one Danish belief holds that merely scolding a werewolf will cure it.
Conversion to Christianity is also a common method of removing lycanthropy in the medieval period; a devotion to
St. Hubert has also been cited as both cure for and protection from lycanthropes.
Connection to revenants
Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers. In the same vein, in some rural areas of Germany, Poland and Northern France, it was once believed that people who died in mortal sin came back to life as blood-drinking wolves.
These "undead" werewolves would return to their human corpse form at daylight. They were dealt with by decapitation with a spade and exorcism by the parish priest. The head would then be thrown into a stream, where the weight of its sins was thought to weigh it down. Sometimes, the same methods used to dispose of ordinary vampires would be used. The
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
was also linked to the werewolf in East European countries, particularly Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia. In Serbia, the werewolf and vampire are known collectively as ''vulkodlak''.
Hungary and Balkans
In
Hungarian folklore, the werewolves used to live specially in the region of
Transdanubia
Transdanubia ( hu, Dunántúl; german: Transdanubien, hr, Prekodunavlje or ', sk, Zadunajsko :sk:Zadunajsko) is a traditional region of Hungary. It is also referred to as Hungarian Pannonia, or Pannonian Hungary.
Administrative divisions Trad ...
, and it was thought that the ability to change into a wolf was obtained in the infant age, after the suffering of abuse by the parents or by a curse. At the age of seven the boy or the girl leaves the house, goes hunting by night and can change to a person or wolf whenever he wants. The curse can also be obtained when in the adulthood the person passed three times through an arch made of a
Birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...
with the help of a wild
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
's spine.
The werewolves were known to exterminate all kind of farm animals, especially sheep. The transformation usually occurred during the
winter solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...
,
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
and a full moon. Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary not only were conducted against witches, but against werewolves too, and many records exist creating connections between both kinds. Also the vampires and werewolves are closely related in Hungary, being both feared in the antiquity.
Among the
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, Hu ...
, and also among the ethnic
Kashubian people
The Kashubians ( csb, Kaszëbi; pl, Kaszubi; german: Kaschuben), also known as Cassubians or Kashubs, are a Lechitic ( West Slavic) ethnic group native to the historical region of Pomerania, including its eastern part called Pomerelia, in nor ...
in present-day northern Poland, there was the belief that if a child was born with hair, a birthmark or a caul on their head, they were supposed to possess shapeshifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf.
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
n
''vukodlak''s traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolf skins and hang them from trees. They would then get a hold of another ''vulkodlak''s skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the ''vukodlak'' from whom the skin came.
Caucasus
According to
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
n lore, there are women who, in consequence of deadly sins, are condemned to spend seven years in wolf form. In a typical account, a condemned woman is visited by a wolfskin-toting spirit, who orders her to wear the skin, which causes her to acquire frightful cravings for human flesh soon after. With her better nature overcome, the she-wolf devours each of her own children, then her relatives' children in order of relationship, and finally the children of strangers. She wanders only at night, with doors and locks springing open at her approach. When morning arrives, she reverts to human form and removes her wolfskin. The transformation is generally said to be involuntary, but there are alternate versions involving voluntary metamorphosis, where the women can transform at will.
Americas and Caribbean
The Naskapis believed that the
caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
afterlife is guarded by giant wolves which kill careless hunters venturing too near. The
Navajo people
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
feared witches in wolf's clothing called "Mai-cob".
Woodward thought that these beliefs were due to the
Norse colonization of the Americas
The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'An ...
.
When the
European colonization of the Americas
During the Age of Discovery, a large scale European colonization of the Americas took place between about 1492 and 1800. Although the Norse had explored and colonized areas of the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short ter ...
occurred, the pioneers brought their own werewolf folklore with them and were later influenced by the lore of their neighbouring colonies and those of the Natives. Belief in the ''loup-garou'' present in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(thence
Acadiana
Acadiana ( French and Louisiana French: ''L'Acadiane''), also known as the Cajun Country (Louisiana French: ''Le Pays Cadjin'', es, País Cajún), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained mu ...
), the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
and upstate
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, originates from French folklore influenced by Native American stories on the
Wendigo
Wendigo () is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations. It is based in and around the East Coast forests of Canada, the Great Plains region of the U ...
. In
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, there is a belief in a creature called the ''
nagual
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual (pronounced a'wal is a human being who has the power to shapeshift into their tonal animal counterpart. Nagualism is tied to the belief one can access power and spiritual insight by connecting with the ...
''. In
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, there is a superstition that werewolf spirits known locally as ''Jé-rouge'' (red eyes) can possess the bodies of unwitting persons and nightly transform them into cannibalistic lupine creatures. The Haitian ''jé-rouges'' typically try to trick mothers into giving away their children voluntarily by waking them at night and asking their permission to take their child, to which the disoriented mother may either reply yes or no. The Haitian ''jé-rouges'' differ from traditional European werewolves by their habit of actively trying to spread their lycanthropic condition to others, much like vampires.
Modern reception
Werewolf fiction
Most modern fiction describes werewolves as vulnerable to
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
weapons and highly resistant to other injuries. This feature appears in German folklore of the 19th century. The claim that the
Beast of Gévaudan
The Beast of Gévaudan (french: La Bête du Gévaudan, ; oc, La Bèstia de Gavaudan) is the historic name associated with a man-eating animal or animals that terrorised the former province of Gévaudan (consisting of the modern-day department of ...
, an 18th-century wolf or wolflike creature, was shot by a silver bullet appears to have been introduced by novelists retelling the story from 1935 onwards and not in earlier versions. English folklore, prior to 1865, showed shapeshifters to be vulnerable to silver. "...till the publican shot a silver button over their heads when they were instantly transformed into two ill-favoured old ladies..." c. 1640 the city of Greifswald, Germany was infested by werewolves. "A clever lad suggested that they gather all their silver buttons, goblets, belt buckles, and so forth, and melt them down into bullets for their muskets and pistols. ... this time they slaughtered the creatures and rid Greifswald of the lycanthropes."
The 1897 novel ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'' and the short story "
Dracula's Guest
''Dracula's Guest'' is a short story by Bram Stoker, first published in the short story collection ''Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories'' (1914). It was written as the first chapter for Stoker's 1897 novel ''Dracula'', but was deleted prior t ...
", both written by
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
, drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late
Victorian patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
".
[Sellers, Susan. ''Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction'', Palgrave Macmillan (2001) p. 85.] In "Dracula's Guest," a band of military horsemen coming to the aid of the protagonist chase off Dracula, depicted as a great wolf stating the only way to kill it is by a "Sacred Bullet". This is also mentioned in the main novel Dracula as well.
Count Dracula
Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...
stated in the novel that legends of werewolves originated from his
Szekely racial bloodline, who himself is also depicted with the ability to
shapeshift
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...
into a wolf at will during the night but is unable to do so during the day except at noon.
The 1928 novel ''The Wolf's Bride: A Tale from Estonia'', written by the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
author
Aino Kallas
Aino Krohn Kallas (2 August 1878 – 9 November 1956) was a Finnish-Estonian author. Her novellas are considered to be prominent pieces of Finnish literature.[Hiiumaa
Hiiumaa (, ) is the second largest island in Estonia and is part of the West Estonian archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. It has an area of 989 km2 and is 22 km from the Estonian mainland. Its largest town is Kärdla. It is located within H ...]
in the 17th century, who became a werewolf under the influence of a malevolent forest spirit, also known as ''Diabolus Sylvarum''.
The first feature film to use an
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
werewolf was ''
Werewolf of London
''Werewolf of London'' is a 1935 horror film directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull as the titular werewolf. The supporting cast includes Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, and Spring Byington. Jack Pierce, who is b ...
'' in 1935. The main werewolf of this film is a dapper London scientist who retains some of his style and most of his human features after his transformation,
as lead actor
Henry Hull
Henry Watterson Hull (October 3, 1890 – March 8, 1977) was an American character actor perhaps best known for playing the lead in Universal Pictures's ''Werewolf of London'' (1935). For most of his career, he was a lead actor on stage and a ch ...
was unwilling to spend long hours being made up by makeup artist
Jack Pierce.
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
drew on a Balkan tale of a plant associated with lycanthropy as there was no literary work to draw upon, unlike the case with vampires. There is no reference to silver nor other aspects of werewolf lore such as cannibalism.
A more tragic character is
Lawrence Talbot
Lawrence Stewart "Larry" Talbot, also known as The Wolf Man, is a title character of the 1941 Universal film '' The Wolf Man'' and its sequels, created by Curt Siodmak. He was portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr. In the 2010 remake of the film, he is po ...
, played by
Lon Chaney Jr.
Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...
in 1941's ''
The Wolf Man''. With Pierce's makeup more elaborate this time,
[Clemens, p. 120.] the movie catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness.
[ Sympathetic portrayals are few but notable, such as the comedic but tortured protagonist ]David Naughton
David Walsh Naughton (born February 13, 1951) is an American actor and singer known for his starring roles in the horror film '' An American Werewolf in London'' (1981) and the Disney comedy '' Midnight Madness'' (1980), as well as for a long-run ...
in '' An American Werewolf in London'', and a less anguished and more confident and charismatic Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
in the 1994 film ''Wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
''. Over time, the depiction of werewolves has gone from fully malevolent to even heroic creatures, such as in the ''Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
'' and ''Twilight
Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...
'' series, as well as ''Blood Lad
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuuki Kodama and serialized in ''Young Ace''. It follows Staz, a vampire from the surreal Demon World, who meets Fuyumi Yanagi, an ordinary Japanese high school girl who accidentally wan ...
'', ''Dance in the Vampire Bund
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nozomu Tamaki. The manga was serialized in Media Factory's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Comic Flapper'' between 2005 and 2012, and is licensed for publication in English by Se ...
'', ''Rosario + Vampire
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akihisa Ikeda. The story revolves around Tsukune Aono, a boy who inadvertently enrolls in a boarding school for monsters. He quickly befriends Moka Akashiya, a vampire who soon develop ...
'', and various other movies, anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
, manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
, and comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s.
Other werewolves are decidedly more willful and malevolent, such as those in the novel ''The Howling
''The Howling'' is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It was the inspiration for the movie ''The Howling'' (1981), although the plot of the movie was only vaguely similar to that of the book.
Brandner published two sequels to the novel, '' T ...
'' and its subsequent sequels and film adaptations. The form a werewolf assumes was generally anthropomorphic in early films such as ''The Wolf Man'' and ''Werewolf of London'', but a larger and powerful wolf in many later films.
Werewolves are often depicted as immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
objects, such as a silver-tipped cane, bullet
A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...
or blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historic ...
; this attribute was first adopted cinematically in ''The Wolf Man''.[ This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involves lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like an ]infectious disease
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...
by the bite of another werewolf. In some fiction, the power of the werewolf extends to human form, such as invulnerability to conventional injury due to their healing factor, superhuman speed and strength and falling on their feet from high falls. Also aggressiveness and animalistic urges may be intensified and more difficult to control (hunger, sexual arousal). Usually in these cases the abilities are diminished in human form. In other fiction it can be cured by medicine men or antidotes.
Along with the vulnerability to the silver bullet, the full moon being the cause of the transformation only became part of the depiction of werewolves on a widespread basis in the twentieth century. The first movie to feature the transformative effect of the full moon was ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This was the first of a series of later called "monster rallie ...
'' in 1943.
The video game The Quarry greatly altered the transformation process of the werewolf. In the game, a character infected by a werewolf will eventually transform instantly into a werewolf as their body seems to explode. At the end of the full moon night, they will revert to their human form in a similar manner.
Werewolves are typically envisioned as "working-class" monsters, often being low in socio-economic status, although they can represent a variety of social classes and at times were seen as a way of representing "aristocratic decadence" during 19th century horror literature.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany used ''Werwolf'', as the mythical creature's name is spelled in German, in 1942–43 as the codename for one of Hitler's headquarters. In the war's final days, the Nazi "Operation Werwolf
''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany, in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in ...
" aimed at creating a commando force that would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself.
Two fictional depictions of "Operation Werwolf"—the US television series ''True Blood
''True Blood'' is an American fantasy horror drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. A reboot is currently in development.
The serie ...
'' and the 2012 novel ''Wolf Hunter'' by J. L. Benét—mix the two meanings of "Werwolf" by depicting the 1945 diehard Nazi commandos as being actual werewolves.
See also
* Damarchus
* Keibu Keioiba
Keibu Keioiba, also known as Kabui Keioiba, is a mythical creature with the head of a tiger and the body of a human in the Meitei mythology and folklore of Manipur. He is often described as half man and half tiger.
Legend says he was once a sk ...
* Kitsune
In Japanese folklore, , are foxes that possess paranormal abilities that increase as they get older and wiser. According to ''yōkai'' folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form. While some folktales speak of employing t ...
* Nagual
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual (pronounced a'wal is a human being who has the power to shapeshift into their tonal animal counterpart. Nagualism is tied to the belief one can access power and spiritual insight by connecting with the ...
* Werecat
A werecat (also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analog to "werewolf" for a feline therianthropic creature.
Etymology
Ailuranthropy comes from the Greek root words ''ailouros'' meaning "cat",< and ''anthropos'', meaning "human" ...
* Wulver
The wulver or wullver is a kind of wolf-like humanoid creature in the folklore of the Shetland Islands of Scotland. In modern times, the origin of the wulver has been disputed.
History
The wulver is said by the Shetland folklorist Jessie Sax ...
Notes
Citations
References
Secondary sources
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Primary sources
* Wolfeshusius, Johannes Fridericus. ''De Lycanthropia: An vere illi, ut fama est, luporum & aliarum bestiarum formis induantur. Problema philosophicum pro sententia Joan. Bodini ... adversus dissentaneas aliquorum opiniones noviter assertum...'' Leipzig: Typis Abrahami Lambergi, 1591. (In Latin; microfilm held by the United States National Library of Medicine
The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library.
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...
)
* Prieur, Claude. ''Dialogue de la Lycanthropie: Ou transformation d'hommes en loups, vulgairement dits loups-garous, et si telle se peut faire''. Louvain: J. Maes & P. Zangre, 1596.
* Bourquelot and Jean de Nynauld
Jean de Nynauld was a French physician who wrote an important work on lycanthropy in 1615 titled ''De la lycanthropie, transformation et extase des sorciers'' (On lycanthropy, transformation and ecstasy of witches).Robbins, Rossell Hope. (1959) ' ...
, ''De la Lycanthropie, Transformation et Extase des Sorciers'' (Paris, 1615).
* Summers, Montague, ''The Werewolf'' London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1933. (1st edition, reissued 1934 New York: E. P. Dutton; 1966 New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books; 1973 Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press; 2003 Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, with new title ''The Werewolf in Lore and Legend'').
Further reading
*
Google Books
* Grimm, ''Deutsche Mythologie
''Deutsche Mythologie'' (, ''Teutonic Mythology'') is a treatise on Germanic mythology by Jacob Grimm. First published in Germany in 1835, the work is an exhaustive treatment of the subject, tracing the mythology and beliefs of the ancient German ...
'', 4, ii. and iii.
* Hertz, ''Der Werwolf'' (Stuttgart, 1862)
* Leubuscher, ''Über die Wehrwölfe'' (1850)
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External links
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Indo-European legendary creatures
Mythic humanoids
Mythological canines
Mythological monsters
Therianthropy
Supernatural legends