Lycanthropedia: 
A Guide To The Mythological Werewolf
Perhaps ironically, the werewolf has always been in a constant state of transformation. This is in part because shapeshifting is one of the oldest and most recurring folkloric motifs, especially animal shapeshifting. Often times in myths, gods will transform into animals, or curse mortals to become animals. Early werewolf myths often bear very little resemblance to the tropes we know today: no full moon, silver bullets or wolfsbane. In most cases, the only thing these werewolves have in common with each other is that they can transform into wolves!
There are two main species of mythological werewolf: the unwilling victims, who become wolves as a result of a curse or hex, and the sorcerers, who intentionally invite the transformation and wreak havoc, often using a magical garment of wolfskin, a magical salve, or other such object or ritual. In some myths, the sorcerers are the ones to transform the unwilling victim by laying the wolf’s pelt on their body, trapping them in wolf form, so there is some overlap between the two.
To ancient peoples, sorcerous werewolves were a sort of fantasized version of something more mundane. Many parallels have been made between berserker warriors’ state of animal frenzy and that of the werewolf (with the word “berserker” deriving from “bearskin”). Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the proto-Slavic tribe called the Neuri would allegedly transform into wolves every year through magic and wore wolf pelts. Often, these sorts of myths seem to spring up around warrior-cultures that used animal pelts in battle, such as supposed warrior bands that symbolically transformed into wolves as a rite of passage, and Irish raiders that “went wolfing”. Pliny the Elder also tells a story claiming that once a year, a man from Arcadia is chosen to transform into a wolf and join the pack for nine years before returning to human form.
As for the werewolf as a curse, one of the earliest examples is the myth of Lycaon, who offended Zeus by offering him the meat from his own son, and was turned into a wolf as a punishment, being one of the first examples of the unwilling transformation. Meanwhile, the old Norse Völsunga saga had its own werewolves, including a story about a she-wolf possibly transformed through sorcery, and a tale wherein Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on enchanted wolfskins and become trapped in wolf form for ten days, killing many.
The motif of a wolf transformation as punishment or curse became a rather popular one, once it had been codified. In one story, St. Patrick transformed a group of pagans into wolves, who had objected to his preaching by howling at him. There is another Irish story, the werewolves of Ossory, wherein a wolf begs a priest to give a sick female werewolf her last rites.
Another famous example is the French story of Bisclavret, a baron turned into a wolf by his treacherous wife. Interestingly, he had been turning into a werewolf on a regular basis before this occurred, going out in his wolf for three days each week, and transforming back by donning his human clothing. Horrified to learn his secret, Bisclavret’s wife steals his clothing, trapping him as a wolf. She goes on to marry another man, and Bisclavret goes to live with a king who encountered him while hunting. Eventually, the king visits Bisclavret’s old home and brings him along with him, leading Bisclavret to attack his ex-wife. The king learns from her what she had done to Bisclavret, and demands that she return his clothing, allowing him to finally regain human form. The king is astounded by the return of his baron, and restores his lands and banishes Bisclavret’s wife. Similarly, the Arthurian tale of Melion, who transforms into a wolf to kill a stag for the woman he loves, who tricks him by taking the magical ring he uses to transform. As he is persecuted by humans for his wolflike form, he joins up with the local pack and kills livestock. In a similar ending to Bisclavret, King Arthur finds the wolf and adopts him, and then discovers the truth when Melion attacks his lover, forcing her to confess and provide Melion with the means to transform back. Bisclavret, Melion and the werewolves of Ossory are curious examples of a small trope that appeared in this time period, the heroic and sympathetic werewolf, which often appears in Christianized stories.
Perhaps the most fertile ground for the werewolf is in Slavic folklore, however, with varying regional myths, methods of transformation, and stories. A quick read of the exhaustively detailed Wikipedia article on Slavic werewolves reveals just about any werewolf you can imagine: the sympathetic, trapped werewolf, pleading to return to human form; the werewolf cursed to become a wolf for some kind of slight or sin; the sorcerer, who invokes the wolf intentionally or is the one to curse their victim into wolfishness. Most famous of the Slavic werewolf is the Volkodlak, a creature with traits of both werewolves and vampires, drinking blood and rising from the grave and being able to assume the shape of a wolf. It is also in some of these Slavic stories that we see the first mentions of lunar phases having sway over the werewolf’s transformation.
Werewolves were certainly on everyone’s mind, in those days, much like witches and vampires. Perhaps the most frightening part of these monstrous creatures is the way they can slip into human society, looking just like you or me. The old woman down the road- well, she could be a witch, couldn’t she? And what about the man you just buried- sickness in your village has only worsened since. And perhaps you can pin the recent animal attacks in the woods on your neighbor...
Supernatural fears tend to spark paranoia. Starting in the 1400s, the witch trials ravaged Europe, a mass hysteria that led to countless unjust deaths. Similarly, the common practice around real-life vampires was that the corpse of the suspected vampire must be exhumed and desecrated. And so too the werewolf became the object of hysteria, with werewolf trials being the lesser-known little sibling of the more famous witch trials.
One of the most famous examples of someone tried and executed for lycanthropy is the case of Peter Stumpp, the Werewolf of Bedburg. He was accused of murder, incest and cannibalism, and under extreme torture, confessed to committing the crimes, casting black magic, and transforming into a wolf with a magical girdle given to him by the devil. The alleged magical wolf belt was never found, but nonetheless he was executed. France also had werewolf trials, one among them being that of Gilles Garnier, who similarly confessed to lycanthropic murder while being tortured. Lycanthropy was frequently used as the explanation for serial killers, abusers and cannibals and their inhuman behavior- whether the accused actually had committed these crimes is unknown, as they confessed under extreme torture.
One curious case is the Werewolf of Livonia, Theiss of Kaltenbrun, an old man who was similarly accused of witchcraft and lycanthropy. When brought to the church, he freely admitted to being a werewolf, proclaiming himself a heroic “Hound of God” that transforms into a wolf by donning a pelt in order to descend into hell and rescue stolen crops, livestock and fruits from demons that had stolen them. His account was rambling and contradictory, and found to be heretical. He was flogged, and then exiled.
Many attempts were made to explain these lycanthropic symptoms, most popularly the condition lycanthropic melancholia, said to be caused by an excess of black bile, and were said to be pale, with dry tongues, great thirst, and sunken, dim eyes, possibly leading to panting and a ghoulish appearance. Nowadays, the belief that one is literally transforming into a wolf is called “clinical lycanthropy” and is a delusion or symptom of psychosis.
By the time the moving picture was invented, some recognizable werewolf tropes had begun to materialize. From a contemporary account of an attempt to kill the Beast of Gévaudan, a wolf-like creature that terrorized the French countryside, bullets of silver were allegedly used to try and destroy it, as silver was well-known for its anti-supernatural properties in folklore. A fictionalized historical novel based on this incident had the beast shot by a silver button. By the time of the twentieth century, the ideas of silver bullets, full moons and contagious bites had all become popular. While there were a few early werewolf films, the one that is by far the most influential is Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941), which features main character Larry Talbot transformed into a werewolf after being bitten while beating one with a silver walking stick. While Talbot attempts to get help for his condition, forced to attack those marked with the pentagram, he is dismissed as delusional. He transforms again when the moon rises, and is beaten to death with the same silver cane.
Universal’s excellent crop of monster movies has defined the way we perceive these old legends. The vampire evolved from an explanation for plague to an invitingly seductive nobleman; Frankenstein’s monster was no longer an anguished soul plotting his revenge but rather an infantile and naive creature who acts on instinct. Lugosi’s Dracula and Karloff’s Monster became the default iconography and defined what these stories became in the public consciousness. Chaney Jr.’s wolf-man was much the same. And thus, the modern werewolf was born, bearing the lineage of its cursed and good-hearted ancestors, transformed against their will. Most modern depictions of the werewolf stick closely to the 1941 Wolf Man.
Werewolves have been somewhat unpopular onscreen compared to vampires, in part because you need a bit of a special effects budget to pull one off convincingly, as opposed to how vampires look exactly like a typical human in most cases. They had a brief popularity boom in the 80s, with The Howling series of films, An American Werewolf in London, Silver Bullet, Teen Wolf, and more, but the werewolf in recent years has returned to playing second fiddle.
Werewolves, like most supernatural fears, are a mirror. They change shape with us and reflect our fears. For as long as humans have lived, the wolf has haunted our stories, perhaps because it is so much like ourselves. But it is never just one thing. The werewolf is never the same twice. Who knows what the next moon will bring to this shapeshifting legend?
In many ways, the wolf girl’s take on the mythos is not such a departure from what came before, rather another pawstep down a beaten path, far older.
