Werewolf

“ WEREWOLF, n. A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man. All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh. ”

“ Sant, a legend he had once heard about a werewolf—the German vampire. These creatures, men by day, but condemned, for their unspeakable crimes, to become wolves with the going down of the sun, are like nothing mortal. It is forbidden to notice, to pity, to sympathize with them in any way. Whosoever does, yields himself to their thrall. ”

“ It had rained and then frozen, and the dark closed in with sleet. A very good night to be indoors, thought ole Pierre and I. Ole Pierre was my best friend, an old husky, who had been trapping with me four—five years. He knew all that men know, I think, as well as all that dogs understand, and he could smell a werewolf in the twilight.”
“A werewolf, what's that?” was on the very opening of the Lad's lips, but he held back the question.
“A werewolf, you know,” went on Prunier, “is worse than real wolf, for it is in the air—a ghost-wolf. ”

“ The werewolf in fiction has suffered the same leveling influence that we have observed in the case of the ghost, the devil, the witch, and the vampire. He is becoming a more psychical creature, a romantic figure to be sympathized with, rather than a beast to be utterly condemned. In recent fiction the werewolf is represented as an involuntary and even unconscious departure from the human, who is shocked when he learns the truth about himself. ”

“ The werewolf also appears in North America, duly furnished with his wolf-skin sack; but neither in America nor in Africa is he the genuine European werewolf, inspired by a diabolic frenzy, and ravening for human flesh. The barbaric myths testify to the belief that men can be changed into beasts or have in some cases descended from beast ancestors, but the application of this belief to the explanation of abnormal cannibal cravings seems to have been confined to Europe. ”

“ The theory that if one put on a wolf’s skin he became a werewolf, is perhaps a reminiscence of the fact alleged of Berserkers haunting the woods by night, clothed in hides of wolves or bears. A permanent cure was effected by burning the werewolf’s sack, unless the Devil furnished him with a new wolfskin. Primitively, to become incarnated into any creature, the soul had only to put on the outward integument of the creature. ”

“ Now, it befell in those times that the country round about was ravaged of a werewolf, a creature that was feared by all men howe'er so valorous. This werewolf was by day a man, but by night a wolf given to ravage and to slaughter, and having a charmed life against which no human agency availed aught. Wheresoever he went he attacked and devoured mankind, spreading terror and desolation round about, and the dream-readers said that the earth would not be freed from the werewolf until some man offered himself a voluntary sacrifice to the monster's rage. ”

“ A werewolf, or loup-garou 65 was a person who had the power of transforming himself into a wolf, being endowed, while in the lupine state, with the intelligence of a man, the ferocity of a wolf, and the irresistible strength of a demon. The ancients believed in the existence of such persons; but in the Middle Ages the metamorphosis was supposed to be a phenomenon of daily occurrence, and even at the present day, in secluded portions of Europe, the superstition is still cherished by peasants. ”

“ Worship of dead ancestors with wolf totems originated the notion of transformation of men into divine or superhuman wolves. 2. The storm-wind was explained as the rushing of a troop of dead men’s souls or as the howling of wolf-like monsters (called by Christianity demons) . 3. Berserker madness and cannibalism, accompanied by lycanthropic hallucinations, interpreted as due to such demoniacal metamorphosis, gave rise to the werewolf superstition of the Middle Ages. ”

“ We have seen that the original werewolf, howling in the wintry blast, is a kind of psychopomp, or leader of departed souls; he is the wild ancestor of the death-dog, whose voice under the window of a sick-chamber is even now a sound of ill-omen. ”

“ The starting point of the whole superstition of the harmful werewolf is the disguising as some common animal by members of savage races when abroad as foragers or scouts, in order to escape detection by the enemy. Like wolves they roamed the land in search of food. As stated above,103 later fabulous report would represent them as possessing in their disguise the attributes of the animal they impersonated,104 and finally even of actually taking on animal form, either wholly or in part,105 for longer or shorter periods of time. ”

“ Some of the North American Indian transformation stories represent men as having only the head, hands and feet of a wolf.106 The transformation into a werewolf in Germanic lands is caused merely by a shirt or girdle made of wolf-skin.107 This shirt or girdle of wolf-skin of the Germanic [30] werewolf is the survival of the robe or mantle originally disguising the entire body. ”

“ In France the creature has what is historically the same name as our ‘werewolf;’ viz. in early forms ‘gerulphus,’ ‘garoul,’ and now pleonastically ‘loup-garou.’ The parliament of Franche-Comté made a law in 1573 to expel the werewolves; in 1598 the werewolf of Angers gave evidence of his hands and feet turning to wolf’s claws; in 1603, in the case of Jean Grenier, the judge declared lycanthropy to be an insane delusion, not a crime. ”

“ The man in wolf-skin was already a lurking thief or enemy, or a destroyer of human life. To advance from this stage to the werewolf frenzy, our primitive man must have seen about him some exhibition of such a frenzy, and some reason for connecting this frenzy particularly with, say the wolf. ”

“ This came to the bottom of the page, where someone, undoubtedly Pursuivant, had written: "Ointment and girdle sound as if they might have a scientific explanation." And, in the same script, but smaller, the following notes filled the margin beside:
Possible Werewolf Motivations
I. Involuntary lycanthropy.
1. Must have blood to drink (connection with vampirism?) .
2. Must have secrecy.
3. Driven to desperation by contemplating horror of own position.
II. Voluntary lycanthropy.
1. Will to do evil.
2. Will to exert power through fear.
III. Contributing factors to becoming werewolf. ”

“ Maybe it is bestial, to match a fierce or desperate spirit within. There may be a shaggy pelt, a sharp muzzle, taloned paws and rending fangs. To a terrified victim he is doom itself. But to a brave adversary, facing and fighting him——"
He flipped his way through Summers' book, as I had with Richet's. "Listen: '... the shape of the werewolf will be removed if he be reproached by name as a werewolf, or if again he be thrice addressed by his Christian name, or struck three blows on the forehead with a knife, or that three drops of blood should be drawn.' Do you see the parallels, man? ”

“ The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf ”

“ John Silence held up a restraining hand. “A werewolf,” he said, “is a true psychical fact of profound significance, however absurdly it may have been exaggerated by the imaginations of a superstitious peasantry in the days of unenlightenment, for a werewolf is nothing but the savage, and possibly sanguinary, instincts of a passionate man scouring the world in his fluidic body, his passion body, his body of desire. ”

“ Felix Chapiseau, Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche (Paris, 1902) , i. 239 sq. The same story is told in Upper Brittany. See Paul Sébillot, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1882) , i. 292. It is a common belief that a man who has once been transformed into a werewolf must remain a were-wolf for seven years unless blood is drawn from him in his animal shape, upon which he at once recovers his human form and is delivered from the bondage and misery of being a were-wolf. ”

“ She gave Anselme careful instructions that would enable to find the werewolf's den without delay. Also, she gave him a sword, saying that the blade had been tempered to the chanting of magic spells that made it effective against such beings as Malachie. "The wolf's temper has grown uncertain," she warned. "If he should attack you, your alder stick would prove a poor weapon." ”

“ Ever since the coming of the wolf the topic of its depredations had been an unwelcome one in the household of the Château Doré.
"Mon Dieu, Jacques!" exploded the head of the house. "Have you, too, been listening to the old wives' tales? Must you be such an imbecile, and I your father? Rubbish! There can be no werewolves; has not the most excellent Father Cromecq flouted such stones ten thousand times? It is a common wolf; a large one, true, but nevertheless a common mongrel, a beast from the distant mountain. ”

“ A parallel legend shows that this woman wished to have the hat thrown at her, in order that she might be henceforth free from her liability to become a werewolf. A man was one night returning with his wife from a merry-making when he felt the change coming on. Giving his wife the reins, he jumped from the wagon, telling her to strike with her apron at any animal which might come to her. In a few moments a wolf ran up to the side of the vehicle, and, as the woman struck out with her apron, it bit off a piece and ran away. ”

“ When his wife shows curiosity concerning his absences and presses him for an explanation, he reluctantly tells her that he is a werewolf, hiding his clothes in a hollow tree, and that if they were removed he would have to remain a wolf. She has her lover steal his clothes, then marries the lover. One day long afterward the king’s attention is called to a wolf that runs up to him and acts strangely. It is a tame and well-mannered beast till the false knight and his wife appear, when he tries to tear their throats. Investigation reveals the truth, the clothes are fetched, and the curse removed. ”

“ Sometimes, instead of a dog, we have a great ravening wolf who comes to devour its victim and extinguish the sunlight of life, as that old wolf of the tribe of Fenrir devoured little Red Riding-Hood with her robe of scarlet twilight. 74 Thus we arrive at a true werewolf myth. The storm-wind, or howling Rakshasa of Hindu folk-lore, is "a great misshapen giant with red beard and red hair, with pointed protruding teeth, ready to lacerate and devour human flesh ”

“ The werewolf is stronger, but the vampire is more stubborn. If you are able to get the upper hand of the werewolf, he will serve you, but vampires are good for nothing except to follow blood. The werewolf is always ataman over the vampires. ”

“ That accounts for the condition of the dolmen and mounds. Fear of the werewolf has probably kept the peasantry away. Carew told me that the excellent state of the land, archeologically speaking, puzzled him. Your friend, the werewolf—or, as the Welshmen will have it, the bugwolf—has performed a valuable service to science. ”

“ He flees from the grove and meets Judge Keith Pursuivant, a scholarly recluse, who shelters him and shows him, by logic and by quotation of distinguished authorities, that a werewolf can be explained by the spiritist theory of ectoplasmic materialization. ”

“ Among other, there are representations of the Witches’ Sabbath, the Wild Huntsman, and a Werewolf attacking a Man.
The sermon was preached on the third Sunday in Lent. No text is given, but there is a general reference to the gospel for the day. This is the discourse:— [1]
[1] Headed thus:—“Am drittë sontag à fastê, occuli, predigt dé doctor vô dê Werwölffenn.”
“What shall we say about were-wolves? for there are were-wolves which run about the villages devouring men and children. As men say about them, they run about full gallop, injuring men, and are called ber-wölff, or wer-wölff. ”

“ They best imitate wolves, and no doubt, to escape detection, disguised themselves as wolves (see note 102) , and for this reason the warg or outlaw came to be called a wolf (see close of note 112) . Thus Golther, Mythologie, p. 102, says: “Wird ein Werwolf verwundet oder getötet, so findet man einen wunden oder toten Menschen.” The werewolves, as we have seen (ante p. 25) , keep to the woods and the dark, of course in many cases to avoid detection. Similarly witches, Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 393: “They say that witches love the night and lurk in shadows and darkness. ”

“ Wolves on the prairie were too common45 to excite remark, and at night they would approach close to the Indian camps.” ... The Pawnee starting off on the warpath usually carried a robe made of wolf skins, or in later times a white blanket or a white sheet; and, at night, wrapping himself in this, and getting down on his hands and knees, he walked or trotted here and there like a wolf, having thus transformed himself into a common object of the landscape. This disguise was employed by day as well, for reconnoissance.... ”

“ While the party remained hidden in some ravine or hollow, one Indian would put his robe over him and gallop to the top of the hill on all fours, and would sit there on his haunches looking all over the country, and anyone at a distance who saw him, would take him for a wolf. ”

“ A tame wolf which for the past two years has been a pet in a farmer’s family at Marshfield, Wisconsin, escaped and attacked a chicken. The farmer’s daughter called to the wolf, but it had become wild from the taste of blood, attacked her, and bit her on both arms and one leg. It held so fast that the young lady could not be released until she had nearly choked the wolf with its collar. ”