Werewolf
- For the party game called Werewolf, see Werewolf (game).
A
werewolf in
mythology is a person who changes into a
wolf, either by purposefully using
magic in some manner or by being placed under a
curse. In later fictional treatments and popular modern belief this transformation is said to take place at
full moon, either for a few nights every month or permanently.
Origins and variations of the word
The name has been thought to derive from either Latin vir (German: we(h)r, we(h)ren (Abwehr, Feuerwehr, Bundeswehr: defense group of men), Old Prussian: wirs: meaning men and Old English wer (or were) meaning man, man-wolf or weri (to wear), wearer of the wolf skin. Other sources believe it is derived from warg-wolf, where "warg" (or later "werg" and "wero") is cognate with norse "varg" meaning murderer or predator and as "vargulf" means the kind of wolf that slaughters many of a flock or herd but eats only a bit. This was a serious problem for herders as they had to somehow destroy the individual wolf that had run mad before it destroyed their entire flock or herd. "Warg" by itself was used in Old English for that specific kind of wolf (see J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit) and it was used as well for what would now be called a serial killer. The Greek term lycanthrope (wolf-man) is also commonly used.
The general term for the metamorphosis of people into animals is therianthropy (therianthrope means animal-man). The term turnskin or turncoat (Latin: versipellis, Russian :\noboroten, O. Norse : hamrammr) is sometimes also used.
History of the werewolf
Many European countries and cultures have stories of werewolves, including\nGreece (lycanthropos), Russia (volkodlak), Poland (wilkołak), Romania (Vârcolac), England (werwolf), Germany (Werwolf), and France (loup-garou). In northern Europe, there are also tales about people changing into bears. In Norse mythology, the legends of berserkerss may be a source of the werewolf myths. Berserks were vicious fighters, dressed in wolf or bear hides; they were immune to pain and killed viciously in battle, like a wild animal. In Latvian mythology, the Vilkacis was a person changed into a wolf-like monster, though the Vilkacis was occasionally beneficial. A closely related set of myths are the skin-walkers.
Shapeshifters similar to werewolves are common in myths from all over the\nworld, though most of them involve animal forms other than wolves. See\nlycanthropy for a more general treatment of this phenomenon.
In Greek mythology the story of Lycaon supplies one of the earliest\nexamples of a werewolf legend. According to one form of it Lycaon was transformed into a wolf as a result of eating human flesh; one of those who were present at periodical sacrifice on Mount Lycaon was said to suffer a similar fate. The Roman Pliny the Elder, quoting Euanthes, says (Hist. Nat. viii. 22) that a man of the Antaeus family was selected by lot and brought to a lake in Arcadia, where he hung his clothing on an ash tree and swam across. This resulted in his being transformed into a wolf, and he wandered in this shape nine years. Then, if he had attacked no human being, he was at liberty to swim back and resume his former shape. Probably the two stories are identical, though we hear nothing of participation in the Lycaean sacrifice by the descendant of Antaeus. Herodotus (iv. 105) tells us that the Neuri, a tribe of eastern Europe, were annually transformed for a few days, and Virgil (Ecl. viii. 98) is familiar with transformation of human beings into wolves. In the novel Satyricon, written about year 60 by Gaius Petronius, one of the characters recites a story about a man who turns into a wolf.
There are women, so the Armenian belief runs, who in consequence of deadly\nsins are condemned to pass seven years in the form of a wolf. A spirit comes to\nsuch a woman and brings her a wolf's skin. He orders her to put it on, and no\nsooner has she done this than the most frightful wolfish cravings make their\nappearance and soon get the upper hand. Her better nature conquered, she makes a\nmeal of her own children, one by one, then of her relatives' children according\nto the degree of relationship, and finally the children of strangers begin to\nfall a prey to her. She wanders forth only at night, and doors and locks spring\nopen at her approach. When morning draws near she returns to human form and\nremoves her wolf skin. In these cases the transformation was involuntary or\nvirtually so. But side by side with this belief in involuntary metamorphosis, we\nfind the belief that human beings can change themselves into animals at will and\nthen resume their own form.
France in particular seems to have been infested with werwolves during the\n16th century, and the consequent trials were very numerous. In some of the\ncases -- e.g. those of the Gandillon family in the Jura, the tailor of\nChalons and Roulet in Angers, all occurring in the year 1598, -- there was\nclear evidence against the accused of murder and cannibalism, but none of\nassociation with wolves; in other cases, as that of Gilles Garnier in Dole in\n1573, there was clear evidence against some wolf, but none against the\naccused; in all the cases, with hardly an exception, there was that\nextraordinary readiness in the accused to confess and even to give\ncircumstantial details of the metamorphosis, which is one of the most\ninexplicable concomitants of medieval witchcraft. Yet while this lycanthropy\nfever, both of suspectors and of suspected, was at its height, it was decided in\nthe case of Jean Grenier at Bordeaux in 1603 that lycanthropy was nothing\nmore than an insane delusion.
From this time the loup-garou gradually ceased to be regarded as a dangerous\nheretic, and fell back into his pre-Christianic position of being simply a\n"man-wolf-fiend." In Province of Prussia, Livonia and Lithuania, according to the bishops Olaus Magnus and Majolus, the werwolves were in the 16th century far more destructive than "true and natural wolves," and their heterodoxy appears from the assertion that they formed "an accursed college" of those "desirous of innovations contrary to the divine law." In England, however, where at the beginning of the 17th century the punishment of witchcraft was still zealously prosecuted by James I of England, the wolf had been so long extinct that that pious monarch was himself able (Demonologie, lib. iii.) to regard "warwoolfes" as victims of delusion induced by "a naturall superabundance of melancholic." Only small creatures such as the cat, the hare and the weasel remained for the malignant sorcerer to transform himself into, but he was firmly believed to avail himself of these agencies.
The werewolves of the Christian dispensation were not, however, all considered to be heretics or viciously disposed towards mankind. "According to Baronius, in\nthe year 617, a number of wolves presented themselves at a monastery, and tore in pieces several friars who entertained heretical opinions. The wolves sent by God tore the sacrilegious thieves of the army of Francesco Maria, duke of Urbino, who had come to sack the treasure of the holy house of Loreto, A wolf guarded and defended from the wild beasts the head of St. Edmund the martyr, king of England. St. Odo, abbot of Cluny, assailed in a pilgrimage by foxes, was delivered and escorted by a wolf" (A. de Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, 1872, vol. ii. p. 145). Many of the werewolves were most innocent and God-fearing persons, who suffered through the witchcraft of others, or simply from an unhappy fate, and who as wolves behaved in a truly touching fashion, fawning upon and protecting their benefactors. Of this sort were the "Bisclaveret" in Marie de France's poem (c. 1200), the hero of "William and the Werewolf" (translated from French into English about 1350), and the numerous princes and princesses, knights and ladies, who appear temporarily in beast form in the Marchen of the Aryan nations\ngenerally. Indeed, the power of transforming others into wild beasts was\nattributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but also to Christian saints.\nOmnes angeli, boni et mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi\ncorpora nostra, was the dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Patrick\ntransformed Vereticus, king of Wales, into a wolf; and St. Natalis\ncursed an illustrious Irish family with the result that each member of it was\ndoomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is still\nmore direct, while in Russia, again, men are supposed to become werewolves\nthrough incurring the wrath of the devil.
Historical legends describe a wide variety of methods for becoming a werewolf.\nOne of the simplest was the removal of clothing and putting on a belt made of\nwolf skin, probably a substitute for the assumption of an entire animal skin\nwhich also is frequently described. In other cases the body is rubbed with a\nmagic salve. To drink water out of the footprint of the animal in question or to\ndrink from certain enchanted streams were also considered effectual modes of\naccomplishing metamorphosis. Olaus Magnus says that the Livonian werwolves were\ninitiated by draining a cup of specially prepared beer and repeating a set\nformula. Ralston in his Songs of the Russian People gives the form of\nincantation still familiar in Russia. It is also said that when a woman gives birth to six female children, the seventh will be a male and a werewolf. Various methods also existed for removing the beast-shape. The simplest was the act of the enchanter (operating either on himself or on a victim), and another was the removal of the animal belt or skin. To kneel in one spot for a hundred years, to be reproached with being a werwolf, to be saluted with the sign of the cross, or addressed thrice by baptismal name, to be struck three blows on the forehead with a knife, or to have at least three drops of blood drawn have also been mentioned as possible cures.
In other cases the transformation was supposed to be accomplished by Satanic\nagency voluntarily submitted to, and that for the most loathsome ends, in\nparticular for the gratification of a craving for human flesh. "The werwolves,"\nwrites Richard Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,\n1628), "are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an\noyntment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a\ncertayne inchaunted girdle, doe not onely unto the view of others seeme as\nwolves, but to their owne thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so\nlong as they weare the said girdle. And they do dispose themselves as very\nwolves, in wourrying and killing, and most of humane creatures." Such were the\nviews about lycanthropy current throughout the continent of Europe when\nVerstegan wrote.
Scientific background
A recent theory has been proposed to explain werewolf episodes in Europe in\nthe 18th and 19th centuries. Ergot, which\ncauses a form of foodborne illness, is a fungus that grows in place of\nrye grains in wet growing seasons after very cold winters. Ergot poisoning\nusually affects whole towns or at least poor areas of towns and results in\nhallucinations, mass hysteria and paranoia, as well as\nconvulsions and sometimes death. (LSD is derived from ergot.) Ergot\npoisoning has been proposed as both a cause of an individual believing that he\nor she is a werewolf and of a whole town believing that they had seen a\nwerewolf. Ergot has also been suggested as a cause for the "bewitchings" and\nmass hysteria leading to the Salem witch trials.
Like most attempts to use modern science explain away religious beliefs and folklore, this theory is controversial. For example, it does not explain why outbreaks of witchcraft hysteria and legends of animal transformations exist around the world, including in places where there is no ergot. Hysteria and superstition have existed across the world for all of recorded history, and, generally speaking, fungus poisoning is not to blame.
Similarly, some modern researchers have tried to use conditions such as rabies, hypertrichosis (excessive hair growth over the entire body) or porphyria as an explanation for werewolf beliefs, although the symptoms of those ailments don't match up well with the folklore or the evidence of the episodes of hysteria either.
There is also a rare mental disorder called clinical lycanthropy, in which an affected person has a delusional belief that they are transforming into another animal, although not always a wolf or werewolf.
Therianthropy is a spiritual concept in which the individual believes they have the spirit or soul, in whole or in part, of a non-human animal. This is considered a spiritual or religious belief and is not thought to be, in itself, a sign of clinical illness.
Werewolves in modern fiction
The process of transmogrification is widely supposed in both film and\nliterature to be painful. The resulting wolf is typically cunning but\nmerciless, and prone to killing and eating people without compunction regardless\nof the moral character of the person when human. The form a werewolf takes is\nnot always an ordinary wolf, but is often anthropomorphic\nor may be otherwise larger and more powerful than an ordinary wolf. Many modern\nwerewolves are also supposedly immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons,\nbeing vulnerable only to silver objects (usually a bullet or blade). This\nnegative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the\nmetal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf legends almost\nexclusively involve lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being\ntransmitted like a disease by the bite of another werewolf.
Werewolves have been dealt with in many movies, short stories, and novels, with\nvarying degrees of success. The genre was made popular in recent times by the\nclassic Universal Studios movie The Wolf Man (1941), starring\nLon Chaney Jr as the werewolf Larry Talbot. This movie contained the\nnow-famous rhyme: "Even a man who is pure in heart / And says his prayers at\nnight / May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms / And the autumn moon is\nbright." This movie is often credited with originating several aspects of the legend which differ from traditional folklore (including invulnerability to non-silver weapons, contagiousness, and association with the moon).
More recently, the portrayal of werewolves has taken a significantly positive\nturn in some circles. With the rise of environmentalism and other back-to-nature\nideals, the werewolf has come to be seen as a representation of humanity allied\nmore closely with nature. A prime example of this outlook can be seen in the\nrole-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse in\nwhich players roleplay various werewolf characters who work on behalf of\nGaia against the destructive supernatural spirit named Wyrm, who represents\nthe forces of destructive industrialization and pollution. Author Whitley Strieber previously explored these themes in his novels The Wild (in which the werewolf is portrayed as a medium through which to bring human intelligence and spirit back into nature) and The Wolven (in which werewolves are shown to act as predators of humanity, acting as a "natural" control on their population now that it has been removed from the traditional limits of nature).
Werewolves still continue to be popular as monsters in movies and literature,\nhowever. The recent film Ginger Snaps made use of lycanthropy as an\nanalogue to puberty, portraying the unsettling physical and emotional\nchanges of human adolescence through the device of lycanthropic transformation.
The novel Howling Mad by Peter David takes the novel approach of\nfeaturing a wolf who has been bitten by a werewolf, becoming a "werehuman" as a\nresult. The werehuman provides the reader with a unique perspective on human\ncivilization.
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium also features werewolves. Tolkien's werewolves are not shapeshifters, but evil spirits in wolf-form. See: werewolves (Middle-earth).
Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves" is a modern take on the story of Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf is but a werewolf. He, as a young man, approaches the girl in her way to her grandmother's house. Carter imbues the story with sexual overtones and the story climaxes when the werewolf seduces the girl into sleeping with him in her late grandmother's bed. There is also a movie based on this short story, directed by Neil Jordan.
Select films featuring werewolves
\n*An American Werewolf in London (1981)\n*An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)\n*The Howling (1981)\n*Silver Bullet (1985)\n*Teen Wolf (1985) with following animated tv series\n*Teen Wolf Too (1987)\n*The Wolf Man (1941)\n*Ginger Snaps (2000)\n*Underworld (2003)\n*Van Helsing (2004)\n*Big Wolf on Campus(1999-2002) -show on FoxFamily-
Select novels featuring werewolves
\n*The Wild (Whitley Strieber)\n*The Wolven (Whitley Strieber)\n*Howling Mad (Peter David)\n*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
Other uses of the term "werewolf"
- German author Hermann Löns wrote a book called "Der Wehrwolf" (available online at [1], in German), describing an uprising of farmers against oppression by the state.\n*When Germany was on the verge of defeat by allied forces at the end of World War II, the remaining Nazis planned a "resistance movement" named Wehrwolf.
External links
\n* A timeline of werewolves, shapeshifters, and hominid cryptozoology\n* The Book of Were-Wolves, by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865
See also
\n* clinical lycanthropy\n* lycanthropy\n* vampire\n* werewolf films\n* werewolf novels
Category:Legendary creaturesCategory:Shapeshifting
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