Werewolf
Return Home
Return to Mystical Creatures Page
In popular folklore, a man who is transformed, or who transforms himself, into a wolf in nature and appearance under the influence of a full moon. The werewolf is only active at night and during that period, he devours infants and corpses. According to legend, werewolves can be killed by silver objects such as silver arrows and silver bullets. When a werewolf dies he is returned to his human form. Origin The word is a contraction of the old-Saxon word wer (which means "man") and wolf -- werwolf, manwolf. A Lycanthrope, a term often used to describe werewolves, however, is someone who suffers from a mental disease and only thinks he has changed into a wolf. The concept of werewolves, or lycanthropes, is possibly based on the myth of Lycaon. He was the king of Arcadia, and in the time of the ancient Greeks notorious for his cruelty. He tried to buy the favor of Zeus by offering him the flesh of a young child. Zeus punished him for this crime and turned him into a wolf. The legends of werewolves have been told since the ancient Greeks and are known all over the world. In areas where the wolf is not so common, the belief in werewolves is replaced by folklore where men can change themselves in tigers, lions, bears and other fierce animals. History In the dark Middle Ages, the Church stigmatized the wolf as the personification of evil and a servant of Satan himself. The Church courts managed to put so much pressure on schizophrenics, epileptics and the mentally disabled, that they testified to be werewolves and admitted to receive their orders directly from Satan. After 1270 it was even considered heretical not to believe in the existence of werewolves. The charge of being a werewolf disappeared from European courts around the 17th century, but only for the lack of evidence. The belief in werewolves, however, did not completely disappear. In Europe after 1600, it was generally believed that if there were no werewolves, then at least the wolf was a creature of evil. This resulted in an unjustified and negative image of the wolf; an image that most people still have today. Also werwolf and lycanthrope. In European folklore, a werewolf is a man who at night transforms himself or is transformed into a wolf (a process called lycanthropy) in form and appetite, and roams at night in search of human victims to devour. This transformation was either temporary or permanent, and was supposedly brought about by supernatural influences, by witchcraft, or voluntarily. The werewolf must return to human form at daybreak by shedding his wolf's skin and hiding it. If it is found and destroyed, the werewolf dies. A werewolf who is wounded immediately reverts to his human form and can be detected by the corresponding wound on his body. Similar creatures exist in folklore worldwide: the tiger, boar, hyena, and even the cat, are 'wereanimals' in areas where wolves are not found. Belief in wer (or man) animals was common in the Middle Ages, and was probably a relic from early cannibalism. In 16th century France the superstition regarding werewolves seems to have been widespread and prevalent, as evidenced by the numerous trials in which it was shown clearly murder and cannibalism, all attributed to lycanthropy. This belief is now all but extinct. Lycanthropy A condition in which people change into animals, which many cultures around the world believe in. This belief dates back into antiquity, and usually the most dangerous animal in the area — tigers in southern Asia and Japan, the hyena or leopard in Africa, the cat in England, and the bear and wolf in Europe and northern Asia — is connected with it. Also, the hallucination (either by the influence of psychotropic drugs or by mental disease) that one can be transformed into an animal. The term comes from the Greek lukos, ‘wolf' and anthropos, ‘man', and stories of such a metamorphosis are present in Greek myth and European folklore. In Greek mythology, Lycaon (a legendary king of Arcadia) tried to trick Zeus into eating human flesh, but he was caught and changed into a wolf as punishment. Apparently this myth was associated with an ancient cult in which a sacrifice including human flesh was prepared by the performing priests, and whoever tasted it was supposed to change into a wolf. These rituals were held annually at Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia. In ancient Rome there was also a superstitious belief that the power of magic and spells could transform a man into a wolf. The werewolf superstition prevalent in late medieval Europe usually involved transformation of a human into a wolf under the influence of the full moon, nightly incursions into the woods to attack and eat animals and people, and regression into human form. It was also a common belief at that time that witches could transform themselves into animals in order to wander at night and attack and devour humans to satisfy their blood lust, and then return to human form.