The Epic Interactive Enc…lopedia of the Paranormal/The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia of the Paranormal (1997).iso/subjects/myths/werewolf_mythos/text

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 3KB | 55 lines

   Not so the werewolf. Theories as to their nature varied but many, if
they declined to accept the possibility of a complete physical trans-
formation, involved evil spirits. these were either truly supernatural
possessing the bodies of wolves and humans alternately; or were the vile
spirits of corrupted humans, who were capable of taking on a wolf's
form while leaving their human body safely stashed elsewhere. This
latter hypothesis was maintained by the 15th century Pierre Mamor,
Rector at the University of Poitiers, even though one of his less
charming.

   Anecdotes concerned a peasant, in human form, throwing up the hand
and arm of a child, devoured while he was in his wolfish form. The
literature is full of 15th century and later instances of apprehended
cannibalistic mass child-murderers confessing to having committed their
crimes in the form of wolves, but it is hard to take them seriously; the
methods used to extract confessions in those times were such that the
unfortunate suspects were willing to admit to virtually anything that
the lurid imaginations of their inquisitors might spawn. Yet other anec-
dotes have a certain naive charm. Olaus Magnus (or Magni; 1400-1558)
recounts in his Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555), possibly
written in part by his elder brother Johannes, Archbishop of Uppsala,
one such tale. A Russian gentlewoman was one day pontificating on the
impossibility of there being any such creature as the werewolf when one
of her servants shyly interrupted her. The transformation was possible,
he affirmed, and by way of proof he swiftly turned himself into a wolf
before the eyes of herself and her guests. Unfortunately, the dogs went
for the seeming wolf, inflicting terrible injuries on it - including
gouging out its eye - before it could escape. When the "human" servant
reappeared a few days later, he was indeed missing an eye. The tale is
of course, more implausible than most of its ilk: would servant or
mistress be so blase about the whole thing, and, anyway, surely the
gouging out of an eye was a most improbable injury for a dog to be able
to wreak. A similar and oft-cited story comes from the Auvergne. A
hunter encountered an aristocrat in the forest and was invited to bring
back his spoils, after the hunt, to the aristocrat's chateau for a bit
of feasting. Later in the day the hunter was attacked by a vicious wolf.
In driving it off he amputated its paw, which he kept as a souvenir. On
nearing the chateau he found to his astonishment that it had turned into
a woman's hand; and, when he arrived at his host's home, it was soon
discovered that the ring on one of the hand's fingers belonged to the
aristocrat's wife, of course, her ladyship was then located, clutching
the stump of her wrist; confessing her guilt, she was sent to the stake.
This latter anecdote is far too well constructed a tale for any credence
at all to be given to it.

PICTURE(01) One possible theory of the werewolf myth is the practice of
warriors donning the skins of wild animals. Other theories involve the
supernatural.

PICTURE(02) Great Bronze of Zeus, who was belived to have transformed
his exseducees into wild creatures.

PICTURE(03) 10th-century Viking slab showing Odin attacked by the Fenris
wolf.