A Werewolf Story

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Various methods for becoming a werewolf have been reported, one of the simplest being the removal of clothing and putting on a belt made of wolfskin, probably as a substitute for the assumption of an entire animal skin which also is frequently described. Ralston in his Songs of the Russian People gives the form of incantation still familiar in Russia. In Italy, France and Germany, it was said that a man or woman could turn into a werewolf if he or she, on a certain Wednesday or Friday, slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his or her face.

In other cases, the transformation was supposedly accomplished by Satanic allegiance for the most loathsome ends, often for the sake of sating a craving for human flesh. And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and most of humane creatures. The phenomenon of repercussion, the power of animal metamorphosis , or of sending out a familiar , real or spiritual, as a messenger, and the supernormal powers conferred by association with such a familiar, are also attributed to the magician , male and female, all the world over; and witch superstitions are closely parallel to, if not identical with, lycanthropic beliefs, the occasional involuntary character of lycanthropy being almost the sole distinguishing feature.

In another direction the phenomenon of repercussion is asserted to manifest itself in connection with the bush-soul of the West African and the nagual of Central America ; but though there is no line of demarcation to be drawn on logical grounds, the assumed power of the magician and the intimate association of the bush-soul or the nagual with a human being are not termed lycanthropy.

The curse of lycanthropy was also considered by some scholars as being a divine punishment. Werewolf literature shows many examples of God or saints allegedly cursing those who invoked their wrath with werewolfism. Such is the case of Lycaon , who was turned into a wolf by Zeus as punishment for slaughtering one of his own sons and serving his remains to the gods as a dinner. Those who were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church were also said to become werewolves.

The power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but to Christian saints as well. Omnes angeli, boni et Mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra "All angels, good and bad have the power of transmutating our bodies" was the dictum of St.

Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh King Vereticus into a wolf; Natalis supposedly cursed an illustrious Irish family whose members were each doomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is even more direct, while in Russia, again, men supposedly became werewolves when incurring the wrath of the Devil.

A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of an year-old man named Thiess. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was steadfast in his assertions, claiming that werewolves in Germany and Russia also did battle with the devil's minions in their own versions of hell, and insisted that when werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for Idolatry and superstitious belief.

Various methods have existed for removing the werewolf form. In antiquity, the Ancient Greeks and Romans believed in the power of exhaustion in curing people of lycanthropy.

The victim would be subjected to long periods of physical activity in the hope of being purged of the malady. This practice stemmed from the fact that many alleged werewolves would be left feeling weak and debilitated after committing depredations. In medieval Europe, traditionally, there are three methods one can use to cure a victim of werewolfism; medicinally usually via the use of wolfsbane , surgically, or by exorcism.

However, many of the cures advocated by medieval medical practitioners proved fatal to the patients. A Sicilian belief of Arabic origin holds that a werewolf can be cured of its ailment by striking it on the forehead or scalp with a knife. Another belief from the same culture involves the piercing of the werewolf's hands with nails.

Sometimes, less extreme methods were used. In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name, while one Danish belief holds that merely scolding a werewolf will cure it. Hubert has also been cited as both cure for and protection from lycanthropes. Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers.

In the same vein, in some rural areas of Germany, Poland and Northern France, it was once believed that people who died in mortal sin came back to life as blood-drinking wolves.

These "undead" werewolves would return to their human corpse form at daylight. They were dealt with by decapitation with a spade and exorcism by the parish priest. The head would then be thrown into a stream, where the weight of its sins was thought to weigh it down. Sometimes, the same methods used to dispose of ordinary vampires would be used. The vampire was also linked to the werewolf in East European countries, particularly Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia.

In Serbia, the werewolf and vampire are known collectively as vulkodlak. In Hungarian folklore, the werewolves used to live specially in the region of Transdanubia , and it was thought that the ability to change into a wolf was obtained in the infant age, after the suffering of abuse by the parents or by a curse. At the age of seven the boy or the girl leaves the house and goes hunting by night and can change to person or wolf whenever he wants.

The curse can also be obtained when in the adulthood the person passed three times through an arch made of a Birch with the help of a wild rose 's spine. The werewolves were known to exterminate all kind of farm animals, especially sheep. The transformation usually occurred in the Winter solstice , Easter and full moon. Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary not only were conducted against witches, but against werewolves too, and many records exist creating connections between both kinds. Also the vampires and werewolves are closely related in Hungary, being both feared in the antiquity.

Among the South Slavs , and also among the Kashubs of what is now northern Poland, [ clarification needed ] there was the belief that if a child was born with hair, a birthmark or a caul on their head, they were supposed to possess shape-shifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf. Serbian vukodlak s traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolf skins and hang them from trees.

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They would then get a hold of another vulkodlak ' s skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the vukodlak from whom the skin came. According to Armenian lore, there are women who, in consequence of deadly sins, are condemned to spend seven years in wolf form.

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With her better nature overcome, the she-wolf devours each of her own children, then her relatives' children in order of relationship, and finally the children of strangers. She wanders only at night, with doors and locks springing open at her approach. When morning arrives, she reverts to human form and removes her wolfskin. The transformation is generally said to be involuntary, but there are alternate versions involving voluntary metamorphosis, where the women can transform at will.

This Is Not a Werewolf Story

The Naskapis believed that the caribou afterlife is guarded by giant wolves which kill careless hunters venturing too near. The Navajo people feared witches in wolf's clothing called "Mai-cob". Woodward thought that these beliefs were due to the Norse colonization of the Americas. Belief in the loup-garou present in Canada , the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan [35] and upstate New York , originates from French folklore influenced by Native American stories on the Wendigo. In Mexico , there is a belief in a creature called the nahual , which traditionally limits itself to stealing cheese and raping women rather than murder.

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Most modern fiction describes werewolves as vulnerable to silver weapons and highly resistant to other injuries. This feature appears in German folklore of the 19th century. The novel Dracula and the short story " Dracula's Guest ", both written by Bram Stoker , drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy ". Count Dracula stated in the novel that legends of werewolves originated from his Szekely racial bloodline, [42] who himself is also depicted with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf at will during the night but is unable to do so during the day except at noon.

The first feature film to use an anthropomorphic werewolf was Werewolf of London in The main werewolf of this film is a dapper London scientist who retains some of his style and most of his human features after his transformation, [44] as lead actor Henry Hull was unwilling to spend long hours being made up by makeup artist Jack Pierce.

There is no reference to silver nor other aspects of werewolf lore such as cannibalism. With Pierce's makeup more elaborate this time, [47] the movie catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness. Other werewolves are decidedly more willful and malevolent, such as those in the novel The Howling and its subsequent sequels and film adaptations.

The form a werewolf assumes was generally anthropomorphic in early films such as The Wolf Man and Werewolf of London , but larger and powerful wolf in many later films. Werewolves are often depicted as immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver objects, such as a silver-tipped cane, bullet or blade; this attribute was first adopted cinematically in The Wolf Man. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involves lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like an infectious disease by the bite of another werewolf.

In some fiction, the power of the werewolf extends to human form, such as invulnerability to conventional injury due to their healing factor, super-human speed and strength and falling on their feet from high falls. Also aggressiveness and animalistic urges may be intensified and harder to control hunger, sexual arousal.

Usually in these cases the abilities are diminished in human form. In other fiction it can be cured by medicine men or antidotes. Along with the vulnerability to the silver bullet, the full moon being the cause of the transformation only became part of the depiction of werewolves on a widespread basis in the twentieth century. Nazi Germany used Werwolf , as the mythical creature's name is spelled in German, in —43 as the codename for one of Hitler's headquarters. In the war's final days, the Nazi "Operation Werwolf " aimed at creating a commando force that would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Werewolf disambiguation. For other uses, see Wolf man disambiguation , Lycanthrope disambiguation , and Lycanthropy disambiguation. Werewolf witch trials and Wolfssegen. Hypertrichosis and Clinical lycanthropy. The recorded cases span the period of to , peaking during the period of — Leonhard im Lavanttal, Carinthia executed. Archived from the original on An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend and Myth.

Adler, Suidae lexicon , Leipzig: Symposium in honorem prof. Bracht Branham and Daniel Kinney. Diderot, d'Alembert and a Society of Men of Letters. A Lycanthropy reader , A Fennoscandian perspective" PDF. Acta Zoologica Lituanica, , Volumen 13, Numerus 1. Archived from the original PDF on Fantasmas de la selva misionera " Ghosts of the Misiones Jungle ".

Proc R Soc Med. Of Wolves and Men. Journal of Indo- European Studies, Monograph, 8. Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rugen. In de Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, Ch 3, Johnathon Harker's Journal. Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, aye, and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the werewolves themselves had come.

Werewolf fiction

Ch 18, Mina Harker's Journal. His power ceases, as does that all of all evil things, at the coming of the day. Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. Omg I live this book. McKenzie has had a very troubled life, one that at the moment, she doesn't remember. She knows that her parents were murdered and she knows that she along with her brother have been adopted by a sweet young couple, and most of all she knows that she doesn't want this semi-perfect life to end. But since when has life listened to your wishes? Posts and Comments Write a new post.

Permalink Comment Comments Are Closed. Nice i love it. This book is amazing. You are so talented. You should make another book. This one was a great book.

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