Legends about werewolves have been around since ancient times, and the stories cross all continents and cultures. While werewolf costumes for Halloween are not hugely popular right now, stories about werewolves fill novels and movie screens, with more and more coming out every year. And when I was doing some research for a super-secret writing project, I learned all sorts of strange and interesting facts about werewolves that could explain our fascination with these stories.
Werewolves are people who can change or shift into a wolf/human hybrid. Most movies and legends say that these creatures are scary monsters who hunt and prey on people. Werewolves are supposedly driven by a bloodlust that kicks in during the full moon, or the three days when the moon appears to be full. The earliest literary references to werewolves roaming the earth are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh (a poem from ancient Mesopotamia from around 2100 B.C.). In this huge literary work, the author references a moment in Gilgamesh’s life where he rejects a lover because they turned their mate into a wolf.
Both the Mesopotamian story and the Greek version can be found in poetic and philosophical writings. In 425 B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a nomadic tribe of men who could shift into wolves for several days a few times a year, usually around Ember Days which correspond to our solstices and equinoxes. This tribe was called the Neuri and they lived in an area call Scythia which is now part of Russia. These Neuri men used the fur from wolves to keep warm in the winter and it’s possible that the stories of these men came from their unusual cloaks.
Then, around 380 B.C., the Greek philosopher Plato told a story in his publication “The Republic” about a “Lycaon Zeus” (Wolf Zeus) shrine he saw in Arcadia, a region of ancient Greece. Plato talks about a harsh and brutal king named Lycaon who tries to trick Zeus (the head of all the gods) into eating the body of boy who the king had sacrificed. Zeus, horrified by the act and the attempt to turn a god into a cannibal, punishes Lycaon. Zeus changes Lycaon and his sons into a wolf/human hybrid. The story goes on to say that the character Socrates (who is narrating this part of the story) announces “…he who tastes one bit of human entrails minced up with those of other victims is inevitably transformed into a wolf”.
There is historical evidence that the members of this “Lycaon Zeus” cult used human flesh when they made ritual sacrifices to Zeus. Both of the ancient historians, Pliny the Elder and Pausanias, wrote about a young Greek athlete named Damarchus who was forced to taste the entrails of a young boy who’d been sacrificed to “Lycaon Zeus”. After Damarchus swallowed the meat, he turned into a wolf and stayed in that wolf form for nine years. But parts of this story say that Damarchus, who hated what had happened to him, became more of a protector of people than a predator.
Then Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, added a story about King Lycaon that included all the elements we see in modern werewolf legends like murder and cannabalism. In Ovid’s tale, Lycaon killed and mutilated one of Zeus’s prized prisoners. In retaliation, Zeus turned Lycaon into a wolf. Ovid even included a passage that details the Lycaon’s transformation–a transformation that requires the man must first be a human monster before turning into an animal monster.
“…He tried to speak, but his voice broke into an echoing howl. His ravening soul infected his jaws; his murderous longings were turned on the cattle; he still was possessed by bloodlust. His garments were changed to a shaggy coat and his arms into legs. He was now transformed into a wolf. “
This passage above gave the modern world the origin of the werewolf that we see in movies and read in books. King Lycaon’s wolf is now the “predator wolf trope” of today’s fictional stories.
Werewolves also appeared in the Nordic Saga of the Volsungs. This epic story offers a tale of a father and son who discover dead wolves who’d been skinned with their pelts nearby. When the father and son put on the wolf pelts to stay warm, they are turned into violent wolves for 10 days. Only after the 10 day period is up can they become human again. But while they are wolves, they grow fur and their teeth elongate. They run about the woods, howling and killing people and other animals. Finally, toward the end of the 10 days, the father and son turn on each other. But just as the father is about to kill his son, a raven (sent by Odin) brings medicinal leaves to the son and applies them to his wounds. Once the son is revived and healed, the 10 days are up and they turn back into men. Horrified at what they’d become, they burn the wolf pelts so no one else can ever suffer they way they did.
From the 15th to 17th centuries, people believed that werewolves were serial killers. France, especially, had trouble with serial killers in the 16th century. One story says that Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun, who’d sworn fealty to the devil, were given an ointment so they could change into wolves. While in wolf form, they killed many children until they were caught and burned at the stake. They were burned instead of hanged because deviltry was a crime against the church, not the state. Some people also believed that burning was one of the few ways to truly kill a werewolf. Not long after these two murderers were executed, another man in France, Giles Garnier (aka the “Werewolf of Dole”) supposedly also used this devil’s ointment to change into a werewolf and killed a bunch of children and then ate them. Once the authorities caught him, they burned Garnier as well.
But France wasn’t alone in its werewolf troubles. In the early 1500s, in Bedbug, Germany, a man named Peter Stubbe was also supposedly a werewolf. He was a farmer who claimed the devil gave him a magical belt that turned him into a werewolf. While in his wolf form, he killed and ate livestock, children, and local townsfolk. After hunters finally caught him (in his human form), the authorities tortured and executed him by cutting off his head just to make sure he was dead. No one ever found Stubbe’s magical belt, but they did find more gruesome evidence to prove he was a serial killer who’d killed more people than they realized. After this event, people started “seeing” werewolves everywhere. Accusations were made and many innocent people got caught up in the hysteria. Although, there are also written accounts of criminals dressing in wolf furs and skins to terrorize the populace.
As time passed, stories about werewolves evolved. When blaming the devil, magical oils and belts, or ancient gods fell out of favor, the cause of lycanthropy (the disease of becoming a werewolf) shifted. Now more modern stories blame genetic links passed down through family bloodlines, or being scratched or bitten by a werewolf, or just wearing a werewolf’s clothing. The ways of killing a werewolf have changed as well. Where beheadings and fire were once considered the best way to kill the beasts, now silver is key to taking down a werwolf. But why does silver work? Because when silver spends time interacting with the air, the metal tarnishes and turns black. Silver, though, is nonreactive which means is stays the same in water and air. But when small bits of a particular element that floats around in air hits the silver, the silver begins to tarnish. And the element that causes the black coating on silver is sulfur.
When sulfur, aka “the devil’s element”, is combined with silver a chemical reaction happens and you end up with silver sulfide. While silver sulfide is isn’t toxic, it is not water soluble. That means that if you inject silver sulfide into an animal (or werewolf), it can poison the bloodstream and destroy blood vessels. Silver sulfide kills the werewolf (or any other animal infected with it). It’s possible that since burnings were also how witches were executed, storytellers wanted a unique form of execution to kill off their werewolves. Silver made the stories more “romantic” in a gothic kind of way, and once that concept was introduced in the late 17th century, it’s been with us ever since.
While werewolves aren’t real, they’ve become a huge part of our storytelling canon, especially around Halloween. And from their recent rising popularity in fiction novels, I have a feeling they’ll be howling at our full moons for a long, long time.
