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WHERE DID THE IDEA OF WEREWOLVES COME FROM?

October 25, 2017 Matt Blitz
Renae B. asks: Where did the idea of werewolves come from?

The clouds part on a dark night to reveal a full moon shining ever so bright.
Somewhere in the distance, there’s a shout, a cry and a roar of struggle.
Hideous noises pierce the still air as a sharp knife through flesh. Finally,
silence and everything is still. That is until a wolf’s howl echoes from the
ground towards the heavens before its descent to hell. It’s clear a werewolf is
amongst us, but a mere look at one’s reflection will reveal that werewolf… is
you.

Werewolf legends have been haunting humanity for, perhaps, as long as humans
have been aware of wolves. It’s rather difficult to pinpoint the first literary
reference to what we now call “werewolves,” but the Epic of Gilgamesh, written
in 2100 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, seems to be the first that has survived
through today. In the poem, Gilgamesh refuses to become the lover of Ishtar, a
goddess who has a reputation for turning men into wolves. Luckily for Gilgamesh,
this fate does not befall on him.

1500 years later, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of a tale he had heard in
his travels of a people who turn into wolves for only a few days a year. Ovid’s
The Metamorphoses, written in 8 CE, tells a tale similar of the one in Epic of
Gilgamesh, involving a vengeful god (this time, Zeus). In a nutshell, Zeus
decided to pay one King Lycaeon a visit, but His Majesty didn’t believe for a
second his supposedly divine guest was the real McCoy. King Lycaeon decided that
feeding his visitor human flesh during a banquet held in his honor would be the
best way to prove his hypothesis.  If Zeus was really a god, he’d presumably see
through the ruse.

It also didn’t help that Lycaeon attempted to kill Zeus in his sleep. Needless
to say, Zeus did not take kindly to Lycaeon’s behavior. He turned the
unfortunate king into a werewolf, figuring if Lycaeon enjoyed serving and eating
human meat so much, he would be better off inhabiting the body of a wolf.



Pliny the Elder and Virgil also wrote about humans turning into wolves as a
punishment for various crimes. The 13th century Nordic Saga of the Volsungs is a
story of how a father and son don wolf pelts, which turns them into wolves for
ten days. They go on a human-killing spree before the father turns on the son,
nearly killing him. The son survives thanks to a kind raven.

From these ancient sources came the word’s origin. It’s believed that the word
“werewolf” came around the 5th century, derived from the Old English “werewulf”.
Essentially, before “man” meant a male (for most of the word’s history it was
completely gender neutral- equivalent to “human” today), the word “wer” or
“wǣpmann” was commonly used to refer to “male human.”  “Wer” almost completely
died out around the 1300s, but survives somewhat in words like “werewolf,” which
literally means “man wolf.”

As for the creatures themselves, it’s obvious that the basis for werewolves came
from this ancient idea that wolves were violent creatures that had a taste for
human flesh. But was this perception of wolves true? Probably not, and
particularly not today. While wolves are opportunistic hunters (even killing
members of their own pack if starving or one is sick and dying), in reality,
wolves rarely attack humans. However, it should be noted that this is partially
a function of their massively diminished population today, and also that they
aren’t stupid, and quickly learn humans are much more dangerous prey than, say,
a deer or a rabbit.

But even historically, it would seem the only time that wolves typically posed a
real threat to humans was during especially brutal winters when food was scarce,
or if one was wandering alone in the woods in the evening or the like. (Such as
relatively recently: A Blogger’s Tale: In Which the Protagonist Decides to Step
Away from His Computer for a Day and Comes Seconds Away from Being Consumed by
Wolves)

Another factor is if they are sick, such as if they’ve been infected with
rabies. In this case, they can be very aggressive, disoriented, be seen during
the day and lose their sense of fear in this case.

This sort of thing, combined with significantly larger numbers (meaning more
frequent encounters with humans) throughout much of history, is speculated to be
what probably lead to the belief that wolves desired human flesh, even though
all evidence is they prefer much easier prey whenever possible.

In any event, the werewolf myth really kicked into gear during the latter
portion of the Middle Ages. As alluded to, wolves were very common throughout
Europe at the time. They were also something of a nuisance, getting into chicken
coops and attacking other small livestock under the cover of darkness. From
this, it should come as no surprise that “wolf” eventually became a derogatory
term to describe those who were willing to do anything to fulfill their greed.
Soon, wolves – like witches – were lumped in as products of the Devil. The term
“lycanthropy” was also coined around this time and it refers to mystical shape
shifting, often into a wolf.



Due to this, violent crimes of the day were sometimes blamed on the Devil’s
association with wolves. For example, in the 15th and 16th centuries, several
highly publicized killing sprees were blamed on so-called “werewolves,” or men
who claimed they had turned into wolves. To wit, Frenchmen Pierre Burgot and
Michel Verdun murdered several children in Medieval France. When interrogated,
they claimed it was because they procured an ointment that had transformed them
into wolves. They were promptly burned at the stake.

Another Frenchman, Gilles Garnier, known as the “Werewolf of Dole,” also claimed
that an ointment turned him into a wolf which led him to kill children and eat
them. He was also burned at the stake.

Even more famously, it was during this time when German farmer Peter Stubbe was
accused of a series of violent murders. According to legend, he said he had made
a pact with the Devil who had provided him a magic belt that transformed him
into a wolf. For years, this “werewolf” stalked the German countryside, hunting
animal and humans alike.

Whether any of these crimes actually occurred, let along if Stubbe was
responsible, or if they were simply a product of confessions given while being
tortured, isn’t fully clear today. However, the aghast community responded to
the horrific, inhuman acts supposedly committed by Peter by committing gruesome
acts of their own, such as pulling off Pete’s skin in various places on his body
with red-hot pincers.  They also ripped off his arms and legs (smashing them
after so he couldn’t regain their use if he came back from the dead) and then
decapitated him. For good measure, his daughter and mistress were also brutally
executed via flaying and strangling…

Even though Stubbe was dead and gone, his high-profile gruesome story and
execution ensured that werewolf legends would remain a part of the collective
conscious for some time to come. Because of this and other such stories, there
are those that believe that the popularity of the idea of werewolves in this era
was actually just an attempt to explain the phenomenon of the serial killer, as
people found it easier to believe that an animal – or monster – was responsible
for crimes considered too heinous and unspeakable for any human being to commit.
And given some of the confessions, like Peter’s, were extracted under torture,
it’s not out of the question that the suggestion that the individuals did it
because they were actually werewolves was proposed to said individuals to
confirm before the torture would stop.

As for how a full moon came into connection with the werewolf myth, that seems
to be a relatively modern phenomenon – perhaps even first popping up as recent
as the late 19th century. Unfortunately it isn’t known who first came up with
this idea, but given the nocturnal nature of wolves, and that under a full moon
you might be more likely to see a wolf, it’s not a stretch to see how the
association might have come about.



It also may have been attached to the long-held notion that full moons lead to
more acts of violence and unusual behavior, which may have originally been a
byproduct of the fact that a full moon simply means ample light for humans to do
nightly activities. If you’ve ever been out far away from city lights during a
full moon, you’ve likely experienced the fact that said light is perfectly
sufficient to see extremely well, even hundreds of yards away, just more or less
with the world in black and white, rather than color as in the day time. Before
widespread artificial lighting, this allowed for somewhat atypical outdoor
night-time activities.

Whether that’s really the source of the idea or not, studies have found there’s
no correlation between a full moon and any of these types of behaviors today.
 However, the endurance of the idea as a real thing may be a phenomenon of
illusory correlation or confirmation bias- as in, the perception of an
association that does not in fact exist. That is, if one witnesses an act of
violence or weird behavior and, then, realize it is a full moon, said individual
will draw the connection because they’ve heard there is a connection, casually
ignoring all the times a full moon came and went with no such weirdness. A
similar thing is likely how wolves themselves got the reputation for being
bloodthirsty creatures who love eating humans, despite this seeming to have been
a rare occurrence, even historically, and even more so today.

Whatever the case, unlike many other elements of modern popular mythology, it
would appear the idea of werewolves has been around pretty much as long as there
have been humans writing stories down.  The legend lives on to this day, albeit
in more cartoon-ish, less intimidating forms, trending more towards the
introspective anti-hero, constantly battling with their dark, untamed side; or
smooth-chested hunks of young beefcake that compete with emo, sparkly,
ephebophile vampires for the affection of an expressionless, underage, human
female…

Still, on dark nights when wispy clouds race over the face of the moon, it’s not
hard to imagine the primal fear our ancestors felt when they heard the wild howl
of the wolf nearby. After all, even in our enlightened age, we all still run
like mad up the stairs after shutting off the lights in the basement.  Not this
time basement monsters.  Not this time.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The
BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:

 * Where Do the Gypsies Originally Come From?
 * Why are Crazy People Called “Mad as a Hatter”?
 * The Fascinating Reason Witches are Commonly Depicted Flying on Broomsticks
 * The Fascinating Origin of the Word “Abracadabra”
 * The Origin of the Loch Ness Monster

Bonus Facts:

 * Contrary to popular belief (popularly spread by Animal Planet in 2003), a
   wolf’s howl does indeed echo.  In fact, all sounds echo given the right
   environment, namely: a good medium with which to reflect off of that is close
   enough where the sound is still audible when reflected back and also far
   enough away that the echo is perceptible (must be a delay of over 1/10th a
   second for the human ear/brain to distinguish it from the original sound). 
   The myth that their howls don’t echo probably came about as wolves often howl
   in the forest. The forest doesn’t provide a good medium for producing echoes;
   sound tends to get absorbed, rather than reflected.
 * Wolves will use echos to their advantage at times, often as a defense
   mechanism.  A few wolves in a small pack will howl all at the same time
   changing pitches very rapidly. This, combined with potential reverberation,
   will often make an enemy think there are more of them around. On that note,
   during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant once observed this when he reported
   thinking there were 20 or more wolves surrounding him, only to find out that
   it was just two wolves that were in front of him that changed their pitch
   rapidly; the echoes coming from all around him made it seem like he was
   surrounded.
 * Wolves often howl during a hunt to coordinate their efforts, such as to
   communicate where the thing hunted is or where each member of the rest of the
   pack is at any given moment. During a hunt, they are frequently spread out
   over great distances. Howling in this case is dangerous, however, if there
   are other packs around, so they won’t do it unless necessary.
 * The typical low pitch and long duration of a wolf’s howl produces sound waves
   that are well suited for transmitting sound at great distances through even
   dense forests.
 * “Lupus” is Latin for “wolf.”  Professor Lupin apparently was meant to become
   a wolf. 😉
 * The disease, lupus, got its name from Renaissance physician Paracelsus (or
   perhaps Giovanni Manardi- this is somewhat debated) comparing the ulcers to a
   hungry wolf eating flesh.
 * It isn’t known whether the dog was purposefully domesticated by humans or if
   they were self-domesticated, with certain of the gray wolves becoming
   friendly with humans from continually scavenging food scraps around human
   camps.  Also, similar to the domestic cat that all likely descended from just
   a handful of cats, it is thought that all dogs descend from just a handful of
   gray wolves in a small number of domestication events.  In the dog’s case,
   this probably took place in East Asia, with the dogs quickly being bred and
   spreading throughout the world, even to North America around 10,000 years
   ago.
 * Wolves are opportunistic hunters, meaning they’ll eat pretty much anything
   they can get their powerful mouths on, even other wolves.  In fact, in some
   cases they may even eat one of their own pack if it’s sick, dying, or dead.
   This sometimes includes wolves in their own pack that have been caught in a
   hunter’s trap.
 * According to National Geographic, a wolf can bite with approximately 400
   pounds per square inch.  For reference, a lion and a white shark bite at
   about 600 pounds per square inch in National Geographic’s testing.

Expand for References
 * “A BRIEF LOOK AT THE WEREWOLF THROUGH HISTORY” – Today I Found Out
 * “HISTORY OF THE WEREWOLF LEGEND” – History.com
 * “Werewolves: Lore, Legend & Lycanthropy” – Live Science
 * “Fantastically Wrong: The Strange Real-Life Origins of the Fiendish Werewolf”
   – Wired
 * “The origin of the werewolf superstition” – by Caroline T. Stewart,
   University of Missouri
 * ” Body Horrors « Body Horrors Talks Disease & Society on Skeptically Speaking
   Asymmetric (Gender) Warfare & Japan’s Rubella Virus Outbreak » The Bestial
   Virus: The Infectious Origins of Werewolves, Zombies & Vampires” – Discover
   Magazine
 * he Werewolf in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers
 * “Love is a Battlefield: The Legend of Ishtar, First Goddess of Love and War”
   – AncientOrigins.net
 * “The Life and Travels of Herodotus” by David Pipes
 * “Stop the Lunacy! 5 Mad Myths About the Moon” – Live Science
 * The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould
 * “Would Real Wolves Act Like the Wolves of ‘The Grey’?” – National Geographic
 * “The Medieval Werewolf” – Warwick Arts, Centre for Study of  the Renaissance
 * “Old Time Farm Crime: The Werewolf Farmer of Bedburg” – Modern Farmer




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ONE COMMENT

 * Jenny
   November 7, 2017 5:39 am
   
   well, someone was salty about Twilight lol
   
   On that note, “Remus Lupin” is basically Wolf Wolf, since “Remus” is most
   likely taken from “Remus and Romulus” who were raised by a she-wolf.
   Really subtle.
   
   
   


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