Lycanthropy

WRITTEN HISTORY:

Apuleius's Metamorphoses deals (generally) with shape changing as does OVID's Metamorphoses although not specifically with Werewolves

Also see Pliny's Historia Naturalis VIII, xxiii: De Lupis

Sir Humphrey de Bohun (ca 1350) commanded a translation from French of Roman de Guillaume de Palerne (written between 1178 and 1200). The new title was The Romance Of William of Palerne,or, William & the Werewolf.

Werewolves in England are mentioned in Gervase of Tilburg's Otia Imperialia (written 1210-1214).

Kongs Skuggsjo wrote a book in Norse in 1250 which tells of the Holy Patricius (St Patrick) preaching Christianity and of how some men howled him down for so long that he prayed to God for a suitable punishment for them; and lo and behold, those very men howl like wolves every full moon

The work that triggers other works on the subject is Jean Bodin's Chapter ii, 6 in Demonomanie des Sociers (1580)

Lycanthropy was the basis of quite a few dissertations in the 16th century, especially at the University of Wittenberg

Giambattista della Porta (a Cabbalist) ca 1540-1615 says that in Naples people put a wolf's head over the door with the jaws agape to ward off sorcerers and witches

The Malleus Malificarum by Sprenger & Kramer has a section on werewolves (p.61ff; 122ff; 173ff; 188ff). The Malleus says there are 3 ways to break a spell:

To remove the spell by another witch
To remove the spell by an honest person But shift it on another (viz: the Exorcist & Father Karras)
To remove the spell by an honest person and dissolve it

Girolamo Cardano in De Subilitate Libri (XXI) written in 1550 claims that a wolf's pizzle (penis), when dried, minced & eaten, is a potent aphrodisiac

By 1573 the medical establishment called Lycanthropy Daemonium Lupinum also called Melancholia Canina

Marcellus Sidetes (translated by Francis Adams in London in 1844): Sidetes was a Greek living in Pamphylia ca. 117-161 AD. He wrote on how to recognize those suffering from lycanthropy (cf first 6 symptoms infra); he said it was basically a species of Melancholia

Dr Wilhelm Hertz Der Werwolf (1862)

Rev Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book Of Were-Wolves; Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition (1865)

THEORY:

Werewolves are usually MEN but can be women and children
Sometimes transformation is VOLUNTARY and sometimes it is INVOLUNTARY; it can be hereditary or acquired; as victim or as punishment
Sometimes the Werewolf is of human origin, sometimes of demonic origin; sometimes Lycanthropy is a form of Satanic possession except (and here this is different from vampires) Werewolves are alive whereas vampires are dead although both Vampires and Werewolves can (perhaps) be read as forms of somnambulism
In Scandinavia there are Wer-bears In Greece there are wer-boars in Wallachia, the wer-dog; in Abyssinia & Egypt - wer-hyenas PLUS variously, wer-leopards, wer-tigers, wer-jaguars, wer-lions, wer-elephants, wer-crocodiles, wer-alligators & wer-sharks; in MEXICO/PERU there are wer-tigers, wer-eagles and wer-serpents; in Chili there are witches turn into Chonchon (a kind of vulture)
Lycanthropic cases are norotiously always WORSE IN FEBRUARY
In old French legends regular wolves only mate in February during which time the she-wolf (who is courted by a pack or horny males) encourages them to eat and drink & fall asleep and then she secretly wakes the "foulest and worst favoured" and entices him off to the side for a quickie. The pack usually tears HIM to pieces when they discover that he had sex with her
Hence the saying "Never wolf yet saw his sire."
A man seen by a wolf when HE doesn't see the wolf, loses his voice
A Werewolf can be
1. Literal (done through witchcraft with rituals & oils rubbed into the skin)
2. a GLAMOUR (a delusion on the part of the perceiver)
3. Insanity (delirium of the victim)
4. Just a wolf-like hide some werewolves are just a wolf's head on a man but more often than not the varmit is of the 4 legged variety
The ointment for lycanthropic metamorphosis is: fat from disinterred children + hemlock + aconite + poplar leaves + soot OR cowbane + sweet flag + cinquefoil + bat's blood + deadly nightshade + oil. (I've been unable to ascertain the proportions but if anyone has them, please send them in)
Werewolves always have to sleep with their jaws OPEN since once the jaws were closed it was very hard to unclench them
Werewolves (in Germany, Greece & Serbia) are thought to become vampires after death
In Ireland some think Lycanthropy is inherited
When a man disrobes in pre-lycanthropic metamorphosis ritual his clothes MUST be well hid since when he returns to human shape the loss of his original clothes mean he's forever a wolf until (or unless) he gets back his original clothes

CASES:

In France in 1131, one Hugues de Camp d'A Vesnes (Compt de Saint Pil was his full title) attacked and burned to the ground the Abbey of Saint Riguier in order to get at 2 of his enemies (the Compt d'Auxi and the Compte de Beaurain-sur-Canche) who had taken refuge there. In the fire (on July 28) 3000 people died and it was said that after his own death (he was apparently punished by Louis- le-Gros who was a war lord); Hugues was seen nightly prowling near the abbey St Riguier as a wolf "howling most piteously" and sometimes he went into the streets of Abbeville.

On October 19, 1216 King John Lackland died and was said to have been poisoned by a monk and that he (sort of) became Lycanthropod when people heard "shrieks, howling and othernocturnal disturbances" from his grave so they disinterred the body and flung it on to unsacred ground to rot; the King (apparently) was afterward seen abroad as a Werewolf

There is the 17th century case of Jean Grenier and a 13 year old boy who reportedly turned himself into a werewolf and ate other people and animals. He admitted to some young women he wore a wolf skin and described eating dogs and sheep and even little girls.

He allegedly told a story of how he sold his soul to the devil and was judged September 6, 1603. His lycanthropy was called a HALLUCINATION and the boy was imprisoned in a Franciscan Friary in Bordeaux ... he died after 7 years but would run around on all fours and eat garbage and generally act like a wolf.
Which just goes to show, you really have to watch those Fransicans!

In 1521 Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun were tried for being demonically possessed witches who could shape-change.

In 1573 Gilles Garnier of Lyon was accused of murder, Lycanthropy and Witchcraft and was executed at Dole (sentence pronounced on January 18, 1573). They said when he murdered these children of between 8 and 12 years old he was not in the form of a wolf but of a man. He would strangle them, eat some flesh, dismember an arm of leg and haul it away.

BECOMING ONE:

Men born on Christmas Eve become werewolves
Murdered men become one (see King John above)
Drinking water out of the footprint of a savage wolf
Eating the brains or flesh of a wild wolf (stay away from those brains, kids)
Drinking from haunted streams or pools
Plucking or wearing or smelling the lycanthropic flower
The sons of priests become ww's
A child conceived under a NEW moon
Sleeping in the open at night in the summer on a Wednesday or a Friday the light of the full moon shines in your face
Not going to confession for 10 years

SYMPTOMS:

Paleness

Feeble vision

Dry eyes & misted (cloudy)

Very dry tongue

Always thirsty

Legs have incurable ulcerations from frequent falls

An unnatural dread of all water, especially afraid of clear water

Long thumb nails

Eyebrows that meet

The devil's mark

CURES:

Draw blood to fainting
Prescribe "wholesome food"
Sweet water baths
Milk & whey for 3 days
Purging the colon & encouraging vomiting
Thyme
Wormwood
Acrid vinegar
Rub nostrils with opium before bed (seriously!)
Flogging
Must be pierced with a wooden (aspen stake)
Roll in the dew
Wash in water
Lop off the penis (drastic but effective)
Exorcism
Reproach the Wer-wolf verbally (better than lopping off a penis)
Address the Wer-wolf three times with a Christian name
Hit the Wer-wolf on the head three times with a knife
Draw 3 drops of blood
Salute with a sign of the cross

MISCELLANEOUS MORSELS:

In Romania werewolves are assumed to return to vampires after death and vampires can turn themselves into werewolves

VRYKOLAKAS can refer either to a vampire or a werewolf or even someone practising sorcery

There are lots of wolves around the forests of Europe and these wolves were always dangerous

Werewolves wander nocturnally by graveyards and sepulchres, imitating the cries of dogs

Wolves are notoriously associated with unbridled cruelty, bestial ferocity, ravenous hunger, speed, treachery, appetite and lust: lupus & lupana (meaning whore) have the same etymological root.

The Wolf is powerful also because it is the enemy of the LAMB of God

The Hellenistic Apollo is accredited with being a wolf and his worshippers sometimes dressed as wolves

Werewolf blood is black and thick

Historically, much of England (even into the 19th century) was forest and that in pre-conquest times, wolf-hunting was a sport of the ancient Britons; wolf hides were used as money and the wolf was eventually made extinct. By the 1700's (more or less) .... but Tradition has them as rare or extinct in England by the reign of Henry VII

In Ireland there were so many wolves that a special BREED of DOG (the Irish Wolf hound) was introduced to hunt them

The lycnathropic noun form is LYCOPHILE

In woodlands Indian mythology, wolves are the rulers of the country of the dead

Dogs and wolves often dug up graves to feed on bodies, hence they become the natural enemies of vampires

Special Thanks to Peter Paolucci, whom I got all my info from.

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