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In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction, often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf, with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228).
The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christianization of underlying European folklore developed during the Middle Ages. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland, especially the Valais and Vaud, in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.
The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, with accusations of lycanthropy being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials. During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy (transformation into a wolf) were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp (1589) led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with the persecution of Wolfssegen recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in Carinthia and Styria.
After the end of the witch trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre. Werewolf fiction as a genre has premodern precedents in medieval romances (e.g., Bisclavret and Guillaume de Palerme) and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional" chap book tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern popular culture.
The Norse branch underwent Word taboo, with Old Norse vargúlfr (only attested as a translation of Old French garwaf ~ garwal(f) from Marie's lay of Bisclavret) replacing * wiraz ('man') with vargr ('wolf, outlaw'), perhaps under the influence of the Old French expression leus warous ~ lous garous (modern loup-garou), which literally means 'wolf-werewolf'.DEAF G:334–338. The modern Norse form varulv (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) was either borrowed from Middle Low German werwulf, or else derived from an unattested Old Norse *varulfr, posited as the regular descendant of Proto-Germanic * wira-wulfaz. An Old Frankish form *werwolf is inferred from the Middle Low German variant and was most likely borrowed into Old Norman garwa(l)f ~ garo(u)l, with regular Germanic–Romance correspondence w- / g- (cf. William / Guillaume, Wales / Galles, etc.).FEW 17:569.
The Proto-Slavic noun * vьlko-dlakь, meaning "wolf-haired" (cf. * dlaka, "animal hair", "fur"), can be reconstructed from Serbian vukòdlak, Slovenian vołkodlȃk, and Czech vlkodlak, although formal variations in Slavic languages (* vьrdl(j)ak, * vьlkdolk, * vьlklak) and the late attestation of some forms pose difficulties in tracing the origin of the term. The Greek language Vrykolakas and Romanian Vîrcolac, designating vampire-like creatures in Balkan folklores, were borrowed from Slavic languages.
The same form is found in other non-Slavic languages of the region, such as Albanian vurvolak and Turkish vurkolak. Bulgarian vьrkolak and Church Slavonic vurkolak may be interpreted as back-borrowings from Greek. The name Wurdulac (вурдалак; 'ghoul, revenant') first appeared in Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's work Pesni, published in 1835. The source of Pushkin's distinctive form remains debated in scholarship.
A Proto-Celtic noun * wiro-kū, meaning 'man-dog', has been reconstructed from Celtiberian uiroku, the Old Brittonic place-name Viroconium (< * wiroconion, 'place of man-dogs, i.e. werewolves'), the Old Irish noun ferchu ('male dog, fierce dog'), and the medieval personal names Guurci (Old Welsh) and Gurki (Old Breton). Wolves were metaphorically designated as 'dogs' in Celtic cultures.
The modern term lycanthropy comes from Ancient Greek lukanthrōpía (λυκανθρωπία), itself from lukánthrōpos (λυκάνθρωπος), meaning 'wolf-man'. Ancient writers used the term solely in the context of clinical lycanthropy, a condition in which the patient imagined himself to be a wolf. Modern writers later used lycanthrope as a synonym of werewolf, referring to a person who, according to medieval superstition, could assume the form of wolves., s.v. lyncanthropy, n. and lyncanthrope, n.
Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology, wherein lycanthropy is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the kóryos warrior class, which may have included a cult focused on dogs and wolves identified with an age grade of young, unmarried warriors. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone's 1987 work.Kim R. McCone, "Hund, Wolf, und Krieger bei den Indogermanen" in W. Meid (ed.), Studien zum indogermanischen Wortschatz, Innsbruck, 1987, 101–154
In the second century BC, the Greek geographer Pausanias related the story of King Lycaon of Arcadia, who was transformed into a wolf because he had sacrificed a child on the altar of Zeus Lycaeus. In the version of the legend told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, when Zeus visits Lycaon disguised as a commoner, Lycaon wants to test if he is really a god. To that end, he kills a Molossians hostage and serves his entrails to Zeus. Disgusted, the god turns Lycaon into a wolf. However, in other accounts of the legend, like that of Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Zeus blasts him and his sons with thunderbolts as punishment.
Pausanias also relates the story of an Arcadian man called Damarchus of Parrhasia, who was turned into a wolf after tasting the entrails of a human child sacrificed to Zeus Lycaeus. He was restored to human form 10 years later and became an Olympic champion. Pausanias 6.8.2 This tale is also recounted by Pliny the Elder, who calls the man Demaenetus, quoting Agriopas.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, viii.82. According to Pausanias, this was not a one-off event, for men have been transformed into wolves during sacrifices to Zeus Lycaeus since the time of Lycaon. If they abstain from tasting human flesh while wolves, they will be restored to human form nine years later; if they do not abstain, they will remain wolves forever.
Lykos (Λύκος) of Athens was a wolf-shaped herο whose shrine stood by the jury court, and the first jurors were named after him. Suda, eta, 271
Pliny the Elder likewise recounts another tale of lycanthropy. Quoting Euanthes,Pliny the Elder, Natural History, viii.81. he mentions that in Arcadia, once a year, a man was chosen by lot from the Anthus's clan. The chosen man was escorted to a marsh in the area, where he hung his clothes on an oak tree, swam across the marsh, and transformed into a wolf, joining a pack for nine years. If during these nine years, he refrained from tasting human flesh, he returned to the same marsh, swam back, and recovered his previous human form, with nine years added to his appearance.The tale probably relates to a rite of passage for Arcadian youths. (2025). 019513575X, Oxford University Press. 019513575X Ovid also relates stories of men who roamed the woods of Arcadia in the form of wolves.
Virgil, in his poetic work Eclogues, wrote of a man called Moeris who used herbs and poisons picked in his native Pontus to turn himself into a wolf. In prose, the Satyricon, written circa AD 60 by Petronius, one of the characters, Niceros, tells a story at a banquet about a friend who turned into a wolf (chapters 61–62). He describes the incident as follows,
Early Christian authors also mentioned werewolves. In The City of God, Augustine of Hippo gives an account similar to that found in Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Augustine explains that Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, XVIII.17 Physical metamorphosis was also mentioned in the Capitulatum Episcopi, attributed to the Synod of Ancyra in the 4th century, which became the early Christian Church's doctrinal text in relation to magic, witches, and transformations such as those of werewolves. The Capitulatum Episcopi states that
In the works of the early Roman Christian writers, werewolves often received the name versipellis ("turnskin"). Augustine instead used the phrase " in lupum fuisse mutatum" (changed into the form of a wolf) to describe the metamorphosis of werewolves, which is similar to phrases used in the medieval period.
Gervase of Tilbury, in Otia Imperialia, reveals to the reader that belief in such transformations—he also mentions women turning into cats and snakes—was widespread across Europe; he uses the phrase ('it is known') when discussing transformations. Writing in Germany, he also notifies the reader that the transformation of men into wolves cannot be easily dismissed, for ().Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperiala, Book I, Chapter 15, translated and edited by S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 86–87.
Further evidence of the widespread belief in werewolves and other human-to-animal transformations can be seen in theological attacks made against such beliefs. Conrad of Hirsau, writing in the 11th century, forbids reading stories in which a person's reasoning is obscured following such a transformation. Conrad specifically refers to the tales of Ovid in his tract. Pseudo-Augustine, writing in the 12th century, follows Augustine of Hippo's argument that no physical transformation can be made by any but God, stating that in his Liber de Spiritu et Anima.Pseudo-Augustine, Liber de Spiritu et Anima, Chapter 26, XVII
Marie de France's Song poetry Bisclavret (), a Breton lai, is another example: the eponymous nobleman Bisclavret, for reasons not described, had to transform into a wolf every week. When his treacherous wife stole his clothing needed to restore his human form, he escaped the king's wolf hunt by imploring the king for mercy, accompanying the king thereafter. His behavior at court was gentle until his wife and her new husband appeared one day—so much so that his hateful attack on the couple was deemed justly motivated, and the truth was revealed.Marie de France, "Bisclavret", translated by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby, in The Lais of Marie de France (London: Penguin Books, 1999), 68.
The lai follows many themes found within other werewolf tales: the removal of clothing and attempted refrain from the consumption of human flesh can be found in Pliny the Elder, as well as in Gervase of Tilbury's werewolf story about a werewolf named Chaucevaire. Marie de France also revealed the continued existence of werewolf-related beliefs in Brittany and Normandy in using the Norman language word garwulf, which, she explains, are common in that part of France wherein .Marie de France, "Bisclavret", translated by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby, in The Lais of Marie de France (London: Penguin Books, 1999), 68. Gervase supports this terminology when relating that the French used the term gerulfi to describe what the English called "werewolves".Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperiala, Book I, Chapter 15, translated and edited by S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 87. Melion and Biclarel are two anonymous lais that share the theme of a werewolf-knight being betrayed by his wife.
The German word werwolf was recorded by Burchard von Worms in the 11th century and Bertold of Regensburg in the 13th century but was not used frequently in medieval German poetry or fiction. While Baring-Gould argues that references to werewolves were rare in England (presumably because whatever significance the "wolf-men" of Germanic paganism had carried), their associated beliefs and practices had been successfully repressed by Christianization; if they persisted, he writes, they did so outside of the sphere of evidence available.Baring-Gould, p. 100. Other examples of werewolf mythology in Ireland and the British Isles can be found in the work of the 9th-century Welsh people monk Nennius. Female werewolves appear in the Irish work Acallam na Senórach (Tales of the Elders) from the 12th century, and Welsh werewolves are noted in the 12th- to 13th-century work Mabinogion.
Germanic pagan traditions associated with wolf-men persisted longest in the Viking Age. Harald I of Norway is known to have had a body of an ulfhedinn (, ; pl. ulfheðnar), being mentioned in the Vatnsdæla saga, Hrafnsmál, and Völsunga saga. The ulfheðnar were similar to the berserkir ('berserkers') but dressed in wolf rather than bear hides and were reputed to channel the spirits of the animals they wore to enhance effectiveness in battle. The ulfheðnar were resistant to pain and vicious in battle, much like wild animals. The ulfheðnar and berserkir are closely associated with the Norse god Odin.
The Scandinavian story traditions of the Viking Age may have spread to Kievan Rus', giving rise to the Slavs werewolf tales. The 11th-century prince Vseslav of Polotsk was recounted in The Tale of Igor's Campaign to have been a werewolf capable of moving at superhuman speeds:
The mythology described during the Middle Ages gave rise to two forms of werewolf folklore in early modern Europe. In one form, the Germanic werewolf became associated with European witchcraft; in the other, the Slavic werewolf () became associated with the revenant or vampire. The Eastern werewolf-vampire is found in the folklore of Central Europe and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans, while the Western werewolf-sorcerer is found in France, German-speaking Europe, and the Baltics.
Being a werewolf was a common accusation in witch trials. It featured in the Valais witch trials, one of the earliest such trials, in the first half of the 15th century.
In 1539, Martin Luther used the form beerwolf to describe a hypothetical ruler worse than a tyrant who must be resisted.; as specified in Luther's Collected Works, 39(ii) 41-42
In Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555), Olaus Magnus describes (Book 18, Chapter 45) an annual assembly of werewolves near the Lithuania–Courland border. The participants, including Lithuanian nobility and werewolves from the surrounding areas, gather to test their strength by attempting to jump over a castle wall's ruins. Those who succeed are regarded as strong, while weaker participants are punished with whippings.
Lycanthropy received peak attention in the late 16th to early 17th century as part of the European witch-hunts. A number of treatises on werewolves were written in France during 1595 and 1615. In 1598, werewolves were sighted in Anjou. In 1602, Henry Boguet wrote a lengthy chapter about werewolves. In 1603, a teenage werewolf was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bordeaux.
In the Swiss Vaud region, werewolves were convicted in 1602 and 1624. A treatise by a Vaud pastor in 1653, however, argued that lycanthropy was purely an illusion. After this, the only further record from the Vaud dates to 1670. A boy claimed he and his mother could change into wolves, which was not taken seriously. At the beginning of the 17th century, witchcraft was prosecuted by James I of England, who regarded "warwoolfes" as victims of delusion induced by "a natural superabundance of melancholic".
After 1650, belief in lycanthropy had mostly disappeared from French-speaking Europe, as evidenced in Diderot's Encyclopedia, which attributed reports of lycanthropy to a "disorder of the brain". Although there were continuing reports of extraordinary wolflike beasts, they were not considered to be werewolves. One such report concerned the Beast of Gévaudan, which terrorized the general area of the former province of Gévaudan, now called Lozère, in south-central France. From 1764 to 1767, it killed upwards of 80 men, women, and children.
The part of Europe which showed more vigorous interest in werewolves after 1650 was the Holy Roman Empire. At least nine works on lycanthropy were printed in Germany between 1649 and 1679. In the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, belief in werewolves persisted well into the 18th century. As late as in 1853, in Galicia, northwestern Spain, Manuel Blanco Romasanta was judged and condemned as the author of a number of murders, but he claimed to be not guilty because of his condition of lobishome (werewolf).
Until the 20th century, were an occasional, but still widespread, feature of life in Europe. Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. This is said to be corroborated by the fact that areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; in Africa, in India, as well as werepumas ("") Facundo Quiroga, "The Tiger of the Argentine Prairies" and the Legend of the " runa uturuncu". The Legend of the runa uturuncu in the Mythology of the Latin-American Guerilla. and werejaguars ("" or " tigre-capiango") The Guaraní Myth about the Origin of Human Language and the Tiger-men. J.B. Ambrosetti (1976). Fantasmas de la selva misionera (" Ghosts of the Misiones Jungle"). Editorial Convergencia: Buenos Aires. in southern South America.
An idea explored in Sabine Baring-Gould's work The Book of Werewolves is that werewolf legends may have been used to explain serial killer. Perhaps the most infamous example is the case of Peter Stumpp, executed in 1589, the German farmer and alleged serial killer and cannibal, also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg.
This is argued against by Woodward, who points out how mythological werewolves were almost invariably portrayed as resembling true wolves, and that their human forms were rarely physically conspicuous as porphyria victims. Others have pointed out the possibility of historical werewolves having been people with hypertrichosis, a hereditary condition manifesting itself in excessive hair growth. Woodward dismissed the possibility, as the rarity of the disease ruled it out from happening on a large scale, as werewolf cases were in medieval Europe.
Woodward suggested rabies as the origin of werewolf beliefs, claiming remarkable similarities between the symptoms of that disease and some of the legends. Woodward focused on the idea that being bitten by a werewolf could result in the victim turning into one, which suggested the idea of a transmittable disease like rabies. However, the idea that lycanthropy could be transmitted in this way is not part of the original myths and legends, and only appears in relatively recent beliefs. Lycanthropy can also be met with as the main content of a delusion; for example, the case of a woman has been reported who during episodes of acute psychosis complained of becoming four different species of animals.Dening T R & West A (1989) "Multiple serial lycanthropy". Psychopathology 22: 344–347
Werewolves were said in European folklore to bear telltale physical traits even in their human form. These included the Unibrow at the bridge of the nose, curved fingernails, low-set ears and a swinging stride. One method of identifying a werewolf in its human form was to cut the flesh of the accused, under the pretense that fur would be seen within the wound. A Russian superstition recalls a werewolf can be recognized by bristles under the tongue.
The appearance of a werewolf in its animal form varies from culture to culture. It is most commonly portrayed as being indistinguishable from ordinary wolves, except for the fact that it has no tail (a trait thought characteristic of witches in animal form), is often larger, and retains human eyes and a voice. According to some Swedish accounts, the werewolf could be distinguished from a regular wolf by the fact that it would run on three legs, stretching the fourth one backwards to look like a tail.
After returning to their human forms, werewolves are usually documented as becoming weak, debilitated and undergoing painful nervous depression. One universally reviled trait in medieval Europe was the werewolf's habit of devouring recently buried corpses, a trait that is documented extensively, particularly in the Annales Medico-psychologiques in the 19th century.
The 16th-century Swedish writer Olaus Magnus says that the werewolves were initiated by draining a cup of specially prepared beer and repeating a set formula. 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 Satanism allegiance for the most loathsome ends, often for the sake of sating a craving for human flesh. "The werewolves", writes Richard Verstegan ( Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1628),
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; although 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 the outcome of divine judgment. Werewolf literature shows many examples of God or saints allegedly cursing those who invoked their wrath with lycanthropy. 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 by the 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 fallen angel, have the power of transmutating our bodies") was the dictum of Thomas Aquinas. Saint Patrick was said to have transformed the Wales 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 80-year-old man named Thiess. In 1692, in Jürgensburg, Livonia, Thiess testified under oath that he and other werewolves were the Hounds of God.Gershenson, Daniel. Apollo the Wolf-God. (Journal of Indo-European Studies, Monograph, 8.) McLean, Virginia: Institute for the Study of Man, 1991, pp. 136–137. He claimed they were warriors who descended into hell to battle witches and . Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for idolatry and superstitious belief.
In medieval Europe, traditionally, there are three methods one can use to cure a victim of lycanthropy: medicinally (usually via the use of Aconitum), surgically, or by exorcism. 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. One Danish belief holds that merely scolding a werewolf will cure it. Conversion to Christianity was a common method of removing lycanthropy in the medieval period. A devotion to Hubertus has been cited as both cure for and protection from lycanthropes.
The werewolves were known to exterminate all kind of farm animals, especially sheep. The transformation usually occurred during the winter solstice, Easter and a full moon. Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary were not only conducted against witches, but against werewolves, too, and many records exist documenting connections between the two. Vampires and werewolves are closely related in Hungarian folklore, both being feared in antiquity.Szabó, György. Mitológiai kislexikon, I–II, Budapest: Merényi Könyvkiadó (év nélkül) Mitólogiai kislexikon.
Among the South Slavs, and among the ethnic Kashubians in present-day northern Poland, 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 shapeshifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf. (1997). 9780749917395, Piaktus. ISBN 9780749917395
vukodlaks traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolfskins and hang them from trees. They would then get a hold of another vulkodlaks skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the vukodlak from whom the skin came.
In Mexico, there is a belief in a creature called the nagual. In Haiti, there is a superstition that werewolf spirits known locally as Jé-rouge (red eyes) can possess the bodies of unwitting persons and nightly transform them into cannibalistic lupine creatures. The Haitian jé-rouges typically try to trick mothers into giving away their children voluntarily by waking them at night and asking their permission to take their child, to which the disoriented mother may either reply yes or no. The Haitian jé-rouges differ from traditional European werewolves by their habit of actively trying to spread their lycanthropic condition to others, much like vampires.
English folklore, prior to 1865, showed shapeshifters to be vulnerable to silver: Sabine Baring-Gould. "The Book of Were-Wolves". (1865) p. 101 the city of Greifswald, Germany was infested by werewolves. Temme, J.D.H. Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rugen. Translated by D.L. Ashliman. Berlin: In de Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1840.
The 1897 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 age patriarchy".Sellers, Susan. Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction, Palgrave Macmillan (2001) p. 85. In "Dracula's Guest", a band of military horsemen coming to the aid of the protagonist chase off Dracula, depicted as a great wolf stating the only way to kill it is by a "Sacred Bullet". This is also mentioned in the main novel Dracula as well. Count Dracula stated in the novel that legends of werewolves originated from his Szekely racial bloodline, who himself is also depicted with the ability to shapeshifting into a wolf at will during the night but is unable to do so during the day except at noon.
The 1928 novel The Wolf's Bride: A Tale from Estonia, written by the Finland author Aino Kallas, tells story of the forester Priidik's wife Aalo living in Hiiumaa in the 17th century, who became a werewolf under the influence of a malevolent forest spirit, also known as Diabolus Sylvarum.Chantal Bourgault Du Coudray, The Curse of the Werewolf : Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. (pp. 112, 169)
The first feature film to use an anthropomorphism werewolf was Werewolf of London in 1935. 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, as lead actor Henry Hull was unwilling to spend long hours being made up by makeup artist Jack Pierce.Clemens, pp. 119–120. Universal Studios drew on a Balkan tale of a plant associated with lycanthropy as there was no literary work to draw upon, unlike the case with vampires. There is no reference to silver nor other aspects of werewolf lore such as cannibalism.Clemens, pp. 117–118.
A more tragic character is Lawrence Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941's The Wolf Man. With Pierce's makeup more elaborate this time,Clemens, p. 120. the movie catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness. Sympathetic portrayals are few but notable, such as the comedic but tortured protagonist David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London, and a less anguished and more confident and charismatic Jack Nicholson in the 1994 film Wolf. Over time, the depiction of werewolves has gone from fully malevolent to even heroic creatures, such as in the Underworld and Twilight series, as well as Blood Lad, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Rosario + Vampire, and various other movies, anime, manga, and .
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 a 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, Silver bullet or blade; this attribute was first adopted cinematically in The Wolf Man. This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involves lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or 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, superhuman speed and strength, and falling on their feet from high falls. Aggressiveness and animalistic urges may be intensified and more difficult to control, such as hunger, and 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.
Werewolves are typically envisioned as "working-class" monsters, often being low in socioeconomic status, although they can represent a variety of social classes and at times were seen as a way of representing "aristocratic decadence" during 19th-century horror literature.Crossen, Carys Elizabeth. The Nature of the Beast: Transformations of the Werewolf from the 1970s to the Twenty-first Century. University of Wales Press, 2019, p. 206Senn, Bryan. The Werewolf Filmography: 300+ Movies. McFarland, 2017, p. 8Wilson, Natalie. Seduced by Twilight: The allure and contradictory messages of the popular saga. McFarland, 2014, p. 39
Two fictional depictions of "Operation Werwolf"the US television series True Blood and the 2012 novel Wolf Hunter by J. L. Benétmix the two meanings of "Werwolf" by depicting the 1945 diehard Nazi commandos as being actual werewolves.
(2025). 9781443871433, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443871433 The first movie to feature the transformative effect of the full moon was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany used Werwolf, as the mythical creature's name is spelled in German, in 1942–43 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.
See also
Notes
Citations
Secondary sources
John T. Koch (2025). 9781907029325, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. ISBN 9781907029325
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