Some werewolves knew they would be wolves for certain periods of time (e.g. seven years); others did not know. In Ireland, "The Wolf Land," most werewolves were victims of hereditary curses.
To recognize a werewolf, you looked at: the shape of the eyes, the eyebrows, fingernails, length of the index or third fingers, a half-moon shape or pentagram (five pointed star) mark on the body; in short, anything that was different from most of the people in the area.
Word of mouth had a great deal to do with werewolf stories having a lot of characteristics in common. Although most of the werewolf stories we know today are of European or near European orgins, China and other Asian countries also have werewolf and other shape-shifting stories, some which were similar to the European ones. Marriage between a human being and a were-creature is a frequent theme in both African and Asian folklore. In most of these marriage stories it is an animal who changes into a person frequently so he can eat his spouse once the marriage ceremony is over. In China and Japan there are similar but less sinister marriage stories. Here the were-animal is usually a female fox.
Historians believe the Vikings of Scandinavia crossed over to North America first and possibly communicated their werewolf superstitions to many Indian tribes. However, it is more likely that North American werewolf stories developed independently, with their roots in hunting rituals, ancestor worship, or the closeness early man felt to his animal neighbors.
Some of the most detailed North American werewolf stories come from the Navajo Indians of the southwestern United States. Navajo werewolves preyed on animals and humans, robbed graves, caused sickness such as tuberculosis, revealed themselves to their victims with agonizing slowness, and were said to have powers connected to witchcraft. One sure way to tell if a fellow tribesman was a werewolf was to look inside his hogan for a wolf skin.
Canada had werewolves, too. They seem related to both Navajo and French ones. Canadian werewolves were called the same thing they were in France --loups garous.
During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, France could almost be called the werewolf capital of the world. It was as if all the werewolf legends and fears came together in that one European country, and caused a kind of long-term hysteria. Records of the 16th century show that there were almost 30,000 cases of werewolfery between the years 1520 and 1630, many in France.
It is partly due to the judge who passed severe sentences on many supposed witches and werewolves in 16th century France, Henri Bouget's, record-keeping that so many werewolf stories have survived to present day.
Toward the end of the 16th century people's ideas about werewolves were changing and they thought mental illness (lycanthropy) was a cause or even a major explanation for werewolfery. It is possible that werewolfery, or lycanthropy as the mental disorder is technically called, was at least partially caused by drugs, e.g. belladonna, henbane, hemlock, aconite, and opium.
Lycanthropy--the disease in which people think they are real wolves--may have physical as well as psychological causes, e.g. nutritional imbalances which could lead to cannibalism. Other logical explanations for lycanthropy are dreams; rabies since it causes extreme thirst which is considered a symptom of werewolfery; a rare little-known disease like the inherited disease, porphyria, which causes discolored teeth and sensitivity to light; or the inherited disease, hypertrichosis, which causes hair to grow all over the body.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, werewolves or lycanthropy were said to be astral projections.
Werewolf superstitions still exist today in some areas of the world.
< humans, robbed graves, caused sickness such as tuberculosis, revealed themselves
Home