Werewolves & Lycanthropy Lycanthropy and werewolves are an established rite in the film industry, ever since the first werewolf motion picture The Werewolf appeared in 1913. But what are they? How do they tie in with wolves? Lycanthropy Lycanthropy is the transformation of a human into the form of a wolf. Lycanthropy takes place by magic to satisfy the taste for human flesh or by desire of the gods as punishment for wrong doing. This definition is from the British lycanthropy scholar, priest, historian and novelist, Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), celebrated in werewolf circles for his carefully researched The Book Of Were-Wolves, published in 1865. He also noted that lycanthropy is a madness found in most lunatic asylums. The term lycanthropy is derived from the Greek lukos for wolf and 'anthropos' for man. In Greek mythology Lycaon was transformed into a wolf because of eating human flesh. Werewolves Werewolves are men who change into wolf form. But transformation is not unknown among women and children. As a werewolf you behave as a wolf and do what the body of a wolf does. Yet at the same time you retain your human power of reasoning to do what a man does. So if you wish you can combine killing sheep and cattle with breaking into houses, terrifying the occupants and stealing their beer. But you must watch out because if you come to harm as a werewolf you carry that injury back with you on returning to human form; if a sheep farmer blasts you in the leg with his shot-gun you will be lame on your return to humanity. The source of the were is uncertain but it might come from Latin via German or Old English, and basically means man. Werewolves are not vampires, which are dead people in human form. Werewolves are living people in wolf form. By his own admission Baring-Gould never saw a werewolf nor encountered their signs. But he believed in the reality of the hybrid and hoped his book would cast light on a shadowy period in the human mind. His book begins rationally, then passes to the sensational and on to grave desecration, blood mania, cannibalism and mass murder - a shocking grisly read for credulous readers of the Victorian public. Montague Summers (1880-1945), an English Catholic priest, was also a fervent religious believer in werewolfery. He devoted over 30 years of his life to the study of demonology and necromancy, publishing impassioned treaties on the gamut of werewolves, lycanthropy, witches, vampires and diabolism. Attaining Transformation The ability to change yourself into a werewolf is hereditary but it is also a talent you can learn. When intentionally transforming you must hid your clothes carefully because if you lose them you will not be able to change back into a human. Changing shape can also be forced on you. Baring-Gould tells of a damned person who, before departing, is first tormented in his grave: "...his moans and muffled howls ring from the tomb, through the gloom of night, the earth of the grave begins to heave, and at last, with a scream, surrounded by a phosphorescent glare, and exhaling a foetid odour, he bursts away as a wolf." You are most likely to transform into a werewolf in the winter, especially February, then at night you can retire to your local isolated cemetery and live like a wolf or dog. These ideas possibly arose because wolves were more likely to be seen in winter and people assumed they were werewolves. The bit about cemeteries likely comes from associating wolves with digging up and scavenging corpses. Twisted and fearful superstitions abound. Apparently you are more certain to become a werewolf if you are murdered, the son of a priest, eat a wolf, drink from a wild wolf's paw print, drink from haunted water, born on Christmas eve, conceived under a new moon, or sleep at night in the open with moonshine on your face. It is also said that as a werewolf you must sleep with your mouth agape as your jaws are difficult to free once shut. The Three-fold Way There are three commonly accepted ways to change into a werewolf. You can dress in the head and pelt of a wolf and the change is immediate when you don the attire. Alternatively, your essence can leave your human body and enter a second body you must borrow or create, in which case your cast off human form will appear dead or comatose. Or you can remain in your body but onlookers are spellbound and apprehend you as a werewolf. You know you are on the way to changing into a werewolf because there are certain indications: your perceptual awareness changes (wolves have a different visual capability compared with humans, sharper hearing and a better sense of smell); your tongue gets dry, you are thirsty and have an abnormal fear of water (akin to a rabid dog); your thumb nails grow long; your eyebrows meet (because you get hairier); and you show the devil's mark (a sign stamped on you by the devil to show he owns you). How Did It Start? Lycanthropy may have begun when prehistoric people donned wolf heads and pelts to capture the spirit of the wolf. Cave paintings thousands of years old show people dressed as animals. Baring-Gould suggests that transformation permits men to assume the nature of the creature they change into. So lycanthropy would grant you the vigour, cunning and hunting dexterity of the wolf, or whatever attributes you see in a wolf. Transformation into beasts is an important part of many mythological beliefs and is not confined to wolves. Diverse cultures have their own style of 'lycanthropy', transforming into werefoxes, werebears and weredogs in Europe, weretigers in India, werehyaenas and wereleopards in Africa, and werejaguars in South America. Non-predators can also be were-animals, like weredeer, but were less important than the carnivores. In biblical times, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC), is described in the Bible as imagining himself to be a werewolf for some years. Lycanthropic beliefs are found in folklore, fairytales and legends around the world and written accounts of lycanthropy go back at least to Ancient Greece and Rome. Herodotus, the world's first historian, living in fifth century BC Greece, travelled the known world learning first hand about the peoples he met. His book The Histories (originally written on papyrus scrolls) records him learning about the tribes living around the Black Sea. He says of the Neuri that each Neurian changes himself once a year into a wolf in which form he remains for some days before changing back into a human. Herodotus does not say whether he believed this or not. Caius Plinius Secundus, know in English as Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), was a Roman senator and military leader who spent much of his life keenly observing the world. He left voluminous notes on all kinds of subjects and wrote a substantial encyclopedia on natural history, Historia Naturalis, based on his observations. Pliny recounts stories of lycanthropy. Among people of Arcadia there is a house and race of the Antaei from which one member must always be changed into a wolf. Pliny does not say why. They choose the lucky man by casting lots. They take the wolf-to-be to a lake and strip him of his clothes which they hang on a tree. Then he swims to the other side of the lake and on reaching the wilderness on the far side transforms into a wolf and lives there in the company of wolves. He can only return to the same lake after nine years. Then he swims back, find his clothes still hanging from the tree, puts them on and resumes his human shape, but only if he has not eaten human flesh during his time as a wolf. Pliny says he does not believe men can transform into wolves. However, at least the stories of transformation existed or he would not have recorded them in his writings. Medieval Europe Medieval Europe was obsessed with werewolves, witches and demons. Werewolves were powerful because the wolf is the enemy of the lamb of God. Werewolves made pacts with the Devil selling their souls to him, hence the devil's mark. Many unfortunate people were burned alive as werewolf suspects. Protection against werewolves possibly derives from these times. Should you meet a werewolf you might protect yourself from his attentions by haranguing him with a sign of the Christian cross or by piercing him with a wooden stake. Exorcism might help in a difficult case if a priest is handy. Lycanthropy in the 21st Century Lycanthropy is alive in the 21st century. It is recognised as a rare psychosis. The more doctors look for this illness the more cases they find. People believe they turn into wolves (a lycanthrope is someone who believes he is a werewolf) and into other kinds of animal too, typically dogs, cats, tigers, gerbils, rabbits and birds. A sick person may pass through several animals one after another, so called 'multiple serial lycanthropy'. Psychotic lycanthropy can be dangerous to the public because it can turn from simple aggression to brutal acts and murder. It is partly for this reason in past centuries that werewolves were pursued by mobs and killed. There are many reports of people, perhaps with a lycanthropic state of mind, killing children. A celebrated case, described by Baring-Gould, is the woman from a powerful family in Hungary around the turn of the 17th century. She lured hundreds of young girls to the cellar of her castle, tortured them and cut up their bodies. Eventually the local authorities had enough and invaded the castle. They tried her and the servants she coerced into helping her. Her servants were executed and she was locked up for life. Final Lycanthropy is for people who take pleasure in supernatural beings. Yet the lives and times of real wolves are far more unusual, attractive, inspiring and educative - as well as entertaining. References Baring-Gould, Sabine (1865): The book of were-wolves: being an account of terrible superstition. Smith, Elder & Co, London. Herodotus. The Histories. Edited by Carolyn Dewald, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press. Pliny the Elder. Historia Naturalis. Book 8, Chapter 22: The Wolves. English Translation by Philemon Holland; 1601. Summers, Montague (1933): The Werewolf. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. London. © Wolf Trust 2004. All rights reserved.

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