Werewolf In ancient and medieval European folklore and mythology, a werewolf is a shapeshifter, a human being who is either cursed into transforming into a wolf-like creature or who does so at will.
A werewolf often enjoys the taste of human flesh and hunts for living people at night.
Similar ideas are found on just about every continent. And if the wolf motif is not present, some other threatening animal suffices–for instance, the Chinese and Japanese tiger; the African leopard, lion and crocodile; the Greek and Turkish boar; the North American bear; and the South American jaguar.
In North America the Navaho are said to change into a wolf and practice witchcraft to the detriment of living human beings.
The belief in werewolves was rampant in the 15th and 16th centuries. Stuart Gordon says some 30,000 people are said to have been destroyed in France for this occult offense against man and nature (The Encylopedia of Myths and Legends, London: Headline, 1993, p. 727).
As with Vampire myths, some interpret the werewolf as nothing but a metaphor for a human who displays arrested psychological development, deficient moral judgment, serious lack of self-control and an extremely strong sex drive–i.e. a sexual predator.
A contemporary ‘werewolf’ in the figurative sense of the word could also be a criminal psychopath who calculatingly marries a naive person to advance a career, gain social legitimacy, and so on.
Although we usually hear a lot about male werewolves, female werewolves have been depicted in fiction. A notable contemporary example is found in the Canadian film Ginger Snaps (2000).
Today, fictional werewolves are also depicted as coming into being through some kind of hereditary condition or infectious disease transmitted through the blood, a kind of fusion of modern scientific theory and ancient myth.
Further Reading:
- Maria Leach, ed., The Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, New York: Harper & Row, 1984, p. 1170.
» Animus, Lycanthropy, Myth, Reincarnation, Vampires
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why dont u tell us who destroyede the werewolf
Comment by monika — August 6, 2008 @ 4:52 am |
i love werewolf s and i anyone else does i reckon u should visit this website and join my clan. http://www.monstersgame.co.uk/?ac=vid&vid=11082903 In this game there is a battle between vampires and werewolf’s that has been going on since the beginning of life. With all of ur help we can finally rid the world of these blood sucking beasties.
Comment by katrina — September 22, 2008 @ 3:43 pm |