Werewolves

by Graeme Davis

  Sorcerous werewolves exhibit normal vulnerability to all types of weapons in all body forms. Standard police and SWAT equipment and tactics are usually effective in dealing with all but the most militant and heavily-armed covens. Trackers and dogs have been especially useful in tracing their movements and discovering their bases. Dog handlers report that a keen scent hound such as a bloodhound can track an individual through multiple shape changes.

  The enhanced efficacy of silver against sorcerous werewolves is still debated. In addition to its known effectiveness against viral lycanthropes, folklore and anecdotal accounts worldwide suggest that a silver wound will also break shapeshifting magic and force a witch to assume his or her human form immediately. For human rights reasons it has not been possible to test this theory in the field, and members of the 34th Specialist Regiment I interviewed were careful neither to confirm nor deny rumors that they carry non-lethal silver birdshot ammunition into action against suspected werewolf covens.

  While many victims of viral lycanthropy have described their condition as a curse, there are also a number of reports of werewolves being more literally cursed to lycanthropy, usually by angry gods and saints. For obvious reasons these tales come mainly from the Classical and medieval periods, but at least some of them have ramifications that continue to the present day.

  A werewolf curse frequently affects an entire community or bloodline rather than an individual. Sometimes its effects are limited to a certain number of generations, or it can be lifted by specific acts of penance, but more often it cannot. It carries on down the centuries, reminding each successive generation of their ancestors’ misdeeds.

  The most significant difference between a werewolf curse and other forms of lycanthropy is that it does not affect all of its subjects all of the time. Normally one or two members of the cursed family or community are required to be werewolves at any given time; they remain in wolf form for a fixed number of years (seven and nine are the most common), and if they survive, they are restored to human form permanently when their term is over. Sometimes there is an additional condition, normally to refrain from eating human flesh. Upon regaining human form, the cursed werewolf is replaced by another relative or neighbor.

  An illustration of the hunting of the Werewolf of Ansbach. (GL Archive / Alamy)

  Cursed werewolves normally have no control over their form, and cannot adopt the intermediate “wolf man” form: they spend the entire period of their curse as normal-seeming wolves. A cursed werewolf always retains full human intelligence – the better, one supposes, to retain a painful awareness of its condition and regret whatever actions resulted in the curse. In a few cases, it has been reported that cursed werewolves have retained some vestiges of human speech, the better to tell their cautionary tales to others. This may be no more than a storyteller’s device, however, since the tales of talking werewolves are almost exclusively found in the lives of early saints and similar morality tales.

  Case Studies

  The Antaei

  In his Naturalis Historia (“Natural History”) the first-century Roman writer Pliny the Elder tells of a werewolf clan called the Antaei from the remote mountains of Arcadia in southern Greece. They seem unrelated to the Libyan giant Antaeus who was defeated by Hercules.

  While Pliny does not mention how they became werewolves, the Antaei show all the signs of a bloodline cursed to lycanthropy. Every nine years, a man is chosen by lot to become a wolf. He hangs his clothing on a tree and swims across a sacred lake, assuming the form of a wolf when he reaches the far side. If he can refrain from eating human flesh for nine years, he regains human form by swimming back across the lake, where he takes his clothes down from the tree and resumes his human life. At all times, Pliny says, one member of the family must be transformed into a wolf.

  Ireland, 5th century

  A story about St Patrick gives a good example of a lycanthropic curse. The Kongs Skuggsjo, a Norse book compiled about 1250, tells that in Ireland Patrick encountered:

  one great race more hostile to him than the other people that were in the land… And when he preached Christianity to them … they took this counsel, to howl at him like wolves. But when he saw that his message would succeed little with these people, then he became very wroth, and prayed God that He might avenge it on them by some judgment, that their descendants might for ever remember their disobedience. And great punishment and fit and very wonderful has since befallen their descendants; for it is said that all men who come from the race are always wolves at a certain time, and run in the woods and take food like wolves; and they are worse in that they have human reason, for all their cunning, and such desire and greed for men as for other creatures. And it is said that some become so every seventh year, and are men during the interval. And some have it so long that they have seven years at once.

  Thankfully, the bite of a cursed werewolf is not infectious. Artwork by Hauke Kock.

  Ossory, Ireland, 9th–14th centuries

  The 14th-century Irish Book of Ballymote mentions “the children of the wolf” who ravaged the ancient Kingdom of Ossory, which occupied the modern counties of Laouis and Kilkenny. The Historia Brittonum (“History of the Britons”) of Nennius of Bangor, written in the 9th century, states that “The descendants of the Wolf are in Ossory,” and tells at length of “certain men of the Celtic race who have a marvelous power which comes to them from their forebears… they can at will change themselves into the shape of wolves with sharp tearing teeth, and often thus transformed will they fall upon poor defenseless sheep.” It is unusual for cursed werewolves to be able to change shape at will, and Nennius may have introduced this detail from some other werewolf tradition.

  In his Topographia Hibernica (“Topography of Ireland”) Gerald of Wales tells of a pair of werewolves, husband and wife, encountered by a traveling priest in Meath in 1182 or 1183. The husband explained that they came from Ossory, and that their people had been cursed by the 6th-century abbot (and later saint) Natalis of Kilmanagh. The curse condemned a man and a woman to wander as wolves for seven years, at the end of which, if they survived, they would regain their human form and be replaced as wolves by another couple. The werewolf humbly asked the priest to give his dying wife the last rites, pulling back her wolf-skin with one claw to reveal the body of an old woman beneath the fur. When the priest had done so, the werewolf thanked him kindly and sent him on his way with detailed directions for the rest of his journey.

  Creation

  Modern werewolf experts tend to agree that tales of divine curses belong to the realm of mythology rather than science. Yet the fact remains that there is a distinct form of lycanthropy that is consistent across a wide area and different from all other classes – leaving the question of how bloodlines and whole communities come to be affected by this specific form of lycanthropy.

  At the time of writing, there are two competing theories on the origins of this type of werewolf. One holds that the myths arose to explain a strain of hereditary lycanthropy that was probably viral in origin. The other suggests that they are garbled folk-memories of now-extinct wolf-cults.

  The Tyana Institute has sent DNA-collecting expeditions to both Arcadia and Ossory, under the guise of wildlife surveys. Neither expedition managed to locate any wolves, which are believed to have been hunted to extinction in Ireland around 1786 and have not been seen in Greece since the 1930s. DNA recovered from bones and skins is still being processed, but so far all the samples recovered have been identical to the DNA of normal wolves. Further analysis is ongoing.

  Anthropologists from Miskatonic University in Massachusetts visited Arcadia in 1932. The expedition was headed by Professor Tyler M. Freeborn of the Department of Anthropology and archaeologist Dr Francis Morgan, and visited Mount Lykaion and other sites associated with early wolf-cults. Through interpreters, the Americans interviewed many older residents, collecting local folklore about the area and its wolves, but the expedition had to be cut short owing to the political ins
tability that attended the abolition of the Greek monarchy and the birth of the Second Hellenic Republic.

  The expedition’s report was published by Miskatonic University Press in 1935, but the print run was just 250 copies and it is very hard to obtain today. Second-hand reports indicate that any local memory of a local werewolf clan has degenerated into a jumble of folktales similar to those from all across Europe. However, the papers of British classicist Humfrey Payne, now in the library of the British School at Athens, suggest that the local people “have long been accustomed to telling pretty tales to wealthy foreign visitors, while holding their own truths closely to themselves.” During the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II, both Italian Alpini and German Ahnenerbe personnel reported frequent wolf encounters in and around Mount Lykaion.

  LYCAON OF ARCADIA

  Although it does not seem to be connected with the Antaei or any other Greek werewolves, this Classical myth contains one of the first recorded instances of a divine wolf curse.

  According to Greek myth, Lycaon – whose name contains the Greek word lukos, meaning “wolf” – was the first king of Arcadia. He ruled at a time when gods still walked among mortals, and when Zeus came to visit him, he decided to test the god’s reputed omniscience by serving him the roasted flesh of another guest. Zeus realized what his host had done and punished Lycaon by turning him into a wolf – the notorious devourer of human flesh – and killing his 50 sons with thunderbolts.

  What became of Lycaon after he fled the god’s wrath is unknown. It is not recorded that he survived as a wolf, or that his descendants became werewolves. However, the Greek geographer Pausanias states that “they say that ever since the time of Lycaon a man has been transformed into a wolf at the sacrifice to Zeus in Lycosura, but the change is not permanent. If the wolf abstains from eating human flesh he will return to human form after nine years, but if he has tasted human flesh he remains a beast forever.”

  The story of Lycaon bears several similarities to the cult of Lycaean Zeus, described by the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder under its Latin name of Jupiter Lycaeus. It is discussed in a later chapter.

  Identification and Threat

  Of all the different kinds of werewolves, cursed werewolves are both the hardest to identify and the least threatening. This has led many werewolf scholars to conclude that they do not exist.

  Any reported wolf sightings in areas where the animals have long since become extinct are worth investigating, especially if the region is cut off from wild wolf populations by water (like Ireland) or by a narrow land bridge (like southern Greece). There are many such reports each year, along with reports of mysterious big cats, Bigfoot-like creatures, and other cryptids. Most werewolf study programs make a habit of monitoring cryptozoology websites and message boards for reports of wolf and werewolf sightings, although these sources contain a great deal of “noise” in the form of hoaxes, misidentifications and uninformed speculation.

  When a sighting looks promising, a small research team is normally dispatched to the site to investigate further. Ideally, a pattern of sightings should be established over a period of a few weeks, but in the case of wolves and other large predators it is better to move quickly in the hope of arriving before local farmers and hunters track down and kill the creature. This urgency naturally leads to some time and resources being wasted on false alarms caused by feral dogs, coyotes, and the like.

  For the most part, cursed werewolves behave in the same way as natural wolves while they are in wolf form. When their behavior differs, it is for the better, in human terms. Possessed of human intelligence, they are often reluctant to prey on their neighbors’ flocks and restrict their hunting to deer and small game. Some individuals even patrol their families’ fields and gardens, preying on rabbits and other pests that would otherwise damage the crops. In some communities, it is customary to help inexperienced, old, or infirm werewolves by putting out joints of meat by some landmark such as a hilltop cairn.

  While their unique nature and the mystery of their origins make them of particular interest to scholars, cursed werewolves are classified “lowest threat” by almost every werewolf-hunting organization in the world.

  Elimination and Prevention

  In the tales of early saints from Ireland and elsewhere, a fixed-term werewolf curse is comparable to a Catholic period of penance, and can only be imposed by a saint. If the sufferer outlives the term of the curse, he or she is restored to human form safe and well, and usually in a more pious frame of mind. On the rare occasions where such a curse is broken, it is due to the intercession of another saint to whom the werewolf has told its story and expressed fitting repentance.

  Physically, cursed werewolves seem identical to natural wolves, and have no special resistances or vulnerabilities. Therefore any equipment that is effective in dealing with natural wolves can be used with equal effectiveness against cursed werewolves.

  For the reasons already given, it is seldom necessary to use deadly force against a cursed werewolf. The vast majority of missions targeting this class of lycanthrope are to capture for study. Tracking and sedation are the primary tactics, although some circumstances may call for darting or netting from a helicopter.

  Most researchers into werewolf lore agree that the story of Little Red Riding Hood was an old, German cautionary tale about the danger of lycanthropy.

  A 16th-century illustration of the story of Lycaon.

  By far the greatest threat to an operation against cursed werewolves comes from the local community rather than the werewolves themselves. Those relatives and neighbors who are aware of the werewolf’s nature – some of whom may themselves have spent time as werewolves – are understandably reluctant to help capture or kill one of their own. Once they become aware of the mission’s objectives they will frequently respond with passive non-cooperation, which can escalate to sabotage and even confrontation. More than one mission has had to be aborted in order to avoid an international incident.

  Obsessive lycanthropy is perhaps the most controversial form of the condition. There are some, like Sabine Baring-Gould, who believe that all werewolves are obsessives, and that stories of physical transformation are either narrative embellishments or metaphors referring to the sufferer’s furious state. There are others who believe that it does not qualify as lycanthropy at all, but is instead a form of delusional psychosis or some other mental illness. Others still claim that it is a form of shamanic lycanthropy in which a human being is possessed by an aggressive wolf spirit. Montague Summers echoes the official Vatican line that these are cases of demonic possession.

  In obsessive lycanthropy, only the werewolf’s behavior changes. During an episode, the sufferer remains in human form but is convinced that he or she has turned into a wolf. The werewolf runs on all fours, howls, and attacks livestock, children, and occasionally adults. When the episode has passed, the werewolf’s human senses return, often accompanied by physical exhaustion. In most cases the werewolf retains clear memories of his or her actions, and may express regret or remorse for them.

  It is possible that there is more than one form of obsessive lycanthropy. Some sufferers have shown a fear of silver and become severely agitated at the time of the full moon, while others have not. It is quite possible, though, that this fear is informed by the sufferer’s knowledge of werewolf lore and has nothing to do with the condition itself. In some individuals, the lycanthropic fit seems to be a response to fear, anger, or other stressors, like the emergence of a strong, protective “alter” in a case of multiple personality disorder.

  Obsessive lycanthropy has been recognized at least since the 2nd century AD. The Alexandrian physician Paulus Aegineta described the condition as a form of melancholy due to an excess of black bile. At least some of the reports of Norse berserkers and ulfhednar match this form of lycanthropy, though there are many more that do not; it seems likely that the berserkers were a mixed group in which multiple forms of lycanthropy were present.

/>   English lexicographer Randle Cotgrave’s Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611) defines a werewolf as “A mankind Wolfe; such a one as once being flesht on men and children will rather starve than feed on any thing else; also, one that, possessed with an extreame, and strange melancholie, belevves he is turned Wolfe, and as a Wolfe behaves himselfe.” It is interesting that Cotgrave links obsessive lycanthropy with cannibalism here. The transcripts of medieval werewolf trials include frequent references to eating human flesh, and the consequent loss of interest in all other meat.

  An artistic depiction of the dual nature of the werewolf. Obsessive werewolves are often mistakenly assumed to have split-personality disorder.

  RABIES

  At least some medieval reports of lycanthropy seem to refer to cases of rabies. The name of this condition is taken from the Latin word for madness, and its symptoms are very similar to those described by Petrus Salius for lycanthropy: “Foam appears at the mouth, they tear with their teeth, bark like dogs or howl like wolves, grind their teeth, sweat, and convulse.” Montague Summers points out that these symptoms also appear in the New Testament as signs of demonic possession.