Werewolves

Werewolves are said to be the product of a human’s involuntary, usually temporary, transformation into a wolf. These beasts have been described in various ways, from looking like an ordinary though unusually ferocious wolf to looking half-wolf, halfhuman. For example, in 1972 several people in Ohio saw a “werewolf” that they described as having an upright, haircovered human body and the head of a wolf, complete with fangs; and in 1991 people in and near Delavan, Wisconsin, saw a creature on four legs that resembled a dog or wolf but had the musculature and arm and leg structure of a man. These sightings took place at night, when werewolves are believed to roam.

Werewolves were first mentioned directly in literature at least as early as the eleventh century A.D., but the concept of the werewolf has existed for much longer. Man-into-wolf transformations appear in ancient mythology, particularly Greek, and in ancient Germany, people believed that the spirits of wolves could enter human beings. At the time, this was considered a positive experience that enhanced the human’s abilities as a hunter and warrior. By medieval times, however, most of Europe associated the idea with demonic possession.

Still, medieval scholars did not automatically accept the notion that man-intowolf transformations were possible. In fact, there were great debates on the subject, until witch hunters managed to convince much of the public that what they called lycanthropy, the process of turning into a wolf, was the product of magic and that witches were capable of performing lycanthropy at will. After this, anyone suspected of being a werewolf was considered a servant of the devil just as witches were, and such a person was quickly put to death.

In at least one case, however, a suspected werewolf was allowed to live. In 1692 in Livonia, near the Baltic Sea, a man named Thiess, on trial for being a werewolf, insisted that he and all other werewolves deserved praise rather than prosecution because they did battle with witches and hated the devil. He described ferocious fights in which the agents of Satan were overcome by bands of werewolves from throughout Europe. Thiess’s unique defense brought him only ten lashes—an extremely light sentence, given that he could have faced imprisonment or execution.

Today some people accept the notion that large groups of werewolves roam about at night, largely unseen by ordinary humans. But these believers disagree on whether the werewolves’ transformation is an involuntary process or the product of intentional magic. Those believers who think that they personally can change into werewolves are said by medical professionals to be suffering from a serious mental illness that they refer to by the witch hunter’s term, lycanthropy. Some doctors also suggest that half-man, half-wolf sightings might be of people afflicted with a condition called porphyria. This illness causes a person’s skin to turn brown and become oddly textured; in addition, the sufferer becomes so sensitive to light that he or she can only comfortably venture outside at night.

SEE ALSO:

• Demons and the Devil
• Lycanthropy
• Witchcraft

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning