Werewolves
Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg, Die Emeis oder Quadragesimale (Strasbourg, 1516)
The classic description of lycanthropy as an unusual but natural ailment was provided by Paulus Aeginita in the 7th century AD: "Those labouring under lycanthropia go out during the night imitating wolves in all things and lingering about sepulchres until morning. You may recognize such persons by these marks: they are pale, their vision feeble, their eyes dry, tongues very dry, and the flow of saliva stopped; but they are thirsty, and their legs have incurable ulcerations from frequent falls. Such are the marks of the disease. You must know that lycanthropia is a species of melancholy."
St Augustine [De civitate Dei 8.18] took a strong stand against the belief that the Devil could transform humans into animals and this position was repeated by medieval theologians such as St Thomas Aquinas. Nevertheless, reports of transformations continued and were inserted into the demonological tradition during the period of the witch-hunts. Sceptical demonologists such as Johann Weyer and Reginald Scot argued that the belief was the product of deranged minds and, notably, Jean Nynauld, in his De la Lycanthropie, Transformation, et Extase des Sorciers (1615) insisted that the belief was the result of ointments applied by witches to themselves: "Belladonna root, nightshade, the blood of bats and hoopoes, aconite, celery, sopoforic nightshade, soot, cinquefoil, calamus, parsley, poplar leaves, opium, henbane, hemlock, varieties of poppy, and the crustaceans...." However, Nynauld did believe that werewolves did actual evil. The more fervent demonologists either suggested that the transformation was an illusion created by the Devil, that the Devil himself performed the evil deeds in the guise of a wolf while the witch slept, or that such a widespread belief must have some foundation of truth. Nicolas Rémy and Guazzo held that transmutation was impossible, whereas Jean Bodin believed that it was. In some respects, whether it was an illusion was an irrelevance to demonologists, being a topic more fit for natural philosophy. As Henri Boguet remarked, in his Discours des Sorciers (1602), "even if they were guilty in nothing but their damnable intention , they should still be thought worthy of death...I may add that such people would never have this intention, except they have already renounced God and heaven."
The werewolf has been little studied by historians. There were sporadic panics and prosecutions during the period of the witch-hunts and werewolves were regarded as singularly evil sorcerors, for the most part. However, it is not clear that this was always the case, and there is a strong suspicion that the werewolf was originally regarded as a fighter against the witches, like the benandanti described by Carlo Ginzberg.
This line of thought associates werewolves with shamanic tradition, and is given support by significant numbers of werewolf-magician prosecutions in Eastern Europe, notably Livonia and Latvia. The werewolves were generally born with a caul, like the benandanti, or with a double set of teeth. They achieved trance states and then went out at night to do combat with the witches. Those historians who see the roots of folk beliefs about witchcraft in the Indo-European past would argue that these warrior-shamans are thus simply the other half of the witchcraft system. In his 1970 study of the Hungarian witchcraft trials, Ferenc Schram supplied the example of János Somogyi, a shepherd from Sopron County. He was a werewolf and had a lidérc, a familiar spirit in animal form. He was a seer and healer, saw lost horses, and identified thieves. Under torture, this belief system became demonic.
The change may well have come about as a result of witch-hunting and the shape-shifting that was associated with witches by the demonologists, but more pressing was the insistence of religious authorities that all magical activity was demonic. The depredations of the dwindling numbers of actual wolves in mountainous areas, especially during hard winters, and occasional attacks on humans by wild dogs or rabid wolves may well have been attributed to human evil, but the main drive appears to have come from the demonization of good magicians.
It is interesting to consider various versions of the folktale, "Little Red Riding Hood", in the context of this belief system. Originating from oral tradition, the tale dates from the period of werewolf trials in France. Examined in the context of French practices and beliefs of the time, the story shows that women required male guidance and protection. Placing herself outside male control, Red Riding Hood was subjected to moral tensions between false choices and warnings from God and consequently fell into prostitution, witchcraft, and cannibalism. Subsequent versions of the tale, such as the familiar one from the Brothers Grimm, were rewritten to conform with new sets of social values, that excluded the earlier beliefs.
pamphlet account of the trial and execution of Stubbe Peter
Robin Briggs, "Dangerous Spirits: Shapeshifting, apparitions, and fantasy in Lorraine witchcraft trials"
Richard Chase Jr. and David Teasley, "Little Red Riding Hood: Werewolf and Prostitute", Historian 57 (1995) 769-776
Kathryn Edwards, "Why Werewolves? Transformations and the Supernatural in Early Modern Europe"
Gabor Klaniczay, "Shamanistic Elements in Central European Witchcraft", in M. Hoppál and J.Pentikäinen, eds., Shamanism in Eurasia (Göttingen, 1984) 131-69
Richard A. Ridley, "Wolf and Werewolf in Baltic and Slavic Tradition", Journal of Indo-European Studies 4 (1976) 321-31
Dennis M. Kratz, "Fictus Lupus: The Werewolf in Christian Thought", Classical Folia 30 (1976) 57-79
Philippe Ménard, "Les Histoires de Loup-Garou au Moyen Age", in Symposium in Honorem Prof. M. de Riquer (Barcelona, 1984) 209-38
Carlo Ginzburg, "Freud, der Wolfsmann und die Werwölfe", Zeitschift für Volkskunde 82 (1986) 189-99, and discussion in ibid., 200-26
Charlotte F. Otten, A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture (Syracuse, N.Y., 1986)
Caroline Oates, "The Trial of a Teenage Werewolf, Bordeaux, 1603", Criminal Justice History 9 (1988) 1-29
Caroline Oates, "Metamorphosis and Lycanthropy in Franche-Comté, 1521-1643", in Michael Feher, ed., Fragments for a History of the Human Body, part 1 (New York, 1989) 304-63
Gaël Milin, Les Chiens de Dieu: La Représentation du Loup-Garou en Occident (XIe-XXe siècles) (Brest, 1993)
Claude Lecouteux, "Geiler de Kayserberg et Das Wütende Heer", Études Germaniques 50 (1995) 367-76
Juan Luis Rodríguez-Vigil Rubio, Bruxas, Lobos
e Inquisición: El Proceso de Ana María García, la
Lobera (Oviedo, 1996)
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