Day 14: Werewolves
Even a man who is pure of heart
And says his prayers at night
May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms
And the moon is full and bright
Werewolves have been a part of folklore for over 1000 years. A lot of the belief and accusations of lycanthropy were related to witch-hints and witch trials. Although accusations of lycanthropy were a very small part of the witch hunt phenomena, it went hand in hand with wolf charmers and wolf riders. When the belief in the supernatural and subsequent witch trials faded in Europe, it stayed part of the folklore and staple of gothic literature.
While no-one is 100% on where the myth of wolf-men came from, there are several theories. As tales were told by word of mouth rather than being written down, especially in cultures and societies where the majority of people could not
read or write, tales would often be embellished and, Chinese whispers style, change the more often they were told and when there were told by different people. Also stories of witches who are able to shape shift and also the devil taking on animal form could have led to and added to the werewolf myth, men were accused of witch craft as well as women after all. However, the first recorded story of a werewolf is from Ancient Greece, predating the medieval stories of witchcraft. There were still seen as supernatural and sometimes it's almost lost in translation. In ancient Greek text there is a story of a a tribe transforming into wolves for several months but it probably refers to a tribe that would cover themselves in wolf or other animal skin during the cold months to keep warm. In many stories, people who were turned to wolves were punished for immoral and often cannibalistic behaviour.
Like many supernatural beings, the Werewolf has become part of popular culture and the monster movies. The Wolfman (1941) one of the most famous. Werewolves very often feature in stories about vampires. Vampires are the aristocratic characters of the supernatural world where werewolves are more feral. It is rare that werewolves and vampires work together, more often than not they are at odds. The Underworld film series (2003-2016) details a Vampire-Lycan war that takes place over centuries.
One thing that separates werewolves form other supernatural beings such as vampires, is their lore. While lore can vary according to culture and country, it is usually the same or at least similar in essentials, with werewolves however, it can be very different. some say the transformation is temporary, others permanent. sometimes the individual transforms, or it is a doppelganger, or their soul detached from their body. Sometimes the individual afflicted is aware, sometimes they have no idea. sometimes the person changes both physically and personality wise, sometimes they are perfectly normal in between transformations.
The way people can become werewolves varies too. Sometimes it is divine punishment, sometimes the person seeks to become a werewolf by various methods, sometimes it is an ability the individual is born with and sometimes, often in popular culture, a victim is bitten by another werewolf. The 'cures' vary, as does behaviour. Some werewolves are aggressive, some are not, some devour people, others stick to livestock. There is a lack of a first werewolf or famous one that everybody has heard of. They are often secondary characters in any stories that feature them. This makes it harder to build a definitive lore.
Essentially, as I see it, werewolves are people cursed to transform into a wolf at certain times, during this time, they retain no human memories and revert to animal behaviour. How people become werewolves, there are too many methods and theories but I like the one for weirdos who like big, creepy rituals. Getting naked at night, putting a wolf-skin belt on, rubbing wolf fat all over yourself, boiling a bid pot of herbs and chanting nice things about wolves. I want to see someone do this in a film or Tv series, mainly because I'd like to see what the writers come up with as 'nice things to chant about wolves'. I see comedy where they say thing like "wolves are jolly decent chaps".
Werewolves are somewhat of an underused movie monster and arw not particularly popular. We see them now and again but we're not all desperate to see the latest Wolfman film, we don't trawl the horror section for books about them and while there are many films, books and TV series about vampires, werewolves seem like an afterthought mostly. Maybe you are someone who is into werewolves and can name twenty-odd films where they star (not just feature) and have a bookcase full of books about them. If you do please let me know, there is a shortage of good werewolf paraphernalia. In the meantime, watch The Wolfman and let me know if it's worth it. Alternatively go drink water out of a wolf's footprint, or go to the woods and have fun chanting, or find a wolf skin to climb into. Go be a little feral this Halloween!
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