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WERWOLF (from A.S. wer; cf. Lat. vir,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 526 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WERWOLF (from A.S. wer; cf. See also:Lat. vir, See also:man; and See also:wolf; or, according to a later See also:suggestion, from O.H.G. weri, See also:wear, i.e. wearer of the wolf-skin)  , a See also:man transformed temporarily or permanently into a See also:wolf . The belief in the possibility of such a See also:change is a See also:special phase of the See also:general See also:doctrine of See also:lycanthropy (q.v.) . In the See also:European See also:history of this singular belief, wolf transformations appear as by far the most prominent and most frequently recurring instances of alleged See also:metamorphosis, and consequently in most European See also:languages the terms expressive of the belief have a special reference to the wolf . Examples of this are found in the Gr . )vKavOponros, See also:Russian volkodldk, Eng . " See also:werwolf," Ger. wahrwolf, Fr. loup-garou . More general terms (e.g . See also:Lat., versipellis; Russ., Oboroten; O . Norse, hamrammr; Eng . " turnskin," " turncoat ") are sufficiently numerous to furnish some See also:evidence that the class of animals into which metamorphosis was possible was not viewed as a restricted one . But throughout the greater See also:part of See also:Europe the werwolf is preferred; there are old traditions of his existence in See also:England, in See also:Wales and in See also:Ireland; in See also:southern See also:France, See also:Germany, Lithuania, See also:Bulgaria, See also:Servia, Bohemia, See also:Poland and See also:Russia he can hardly be pronounced See also:extinct now; in See also:Denmark, See also:Sweden, See also:Norway and See also:Iceland the See also:bear competes with the wolf for pre-See also:eminence . In See also:Greek See also:mythology the See also:story of See also:Lycaon supplies the most See also:familiar instance of the werwolf .

According to one See also:

form of it Lycaon was transformed into a wolf as a result of eating human flesh; one of those who were See also:present at periodical See also:sacrifice on See also:Mount Lycaon was said to suffer a similar See also:fate . See also:Pliny, quoting Euanthes, tells us (Hist . Nat. viii . 22) that a man of the See also:family of See also:Antaeus was selected by See also:lot and brought to a See also:lake in See also:Arcadia, where he hung his clothing on an ash and swam across . This resulted in his being transformed into a wolf, and he wandered in this shape nine years . Then, if he had attacked no human being, he was at See also:liberty to swim back and resume his former shape . Probably the two stories are identical, though we hear nothing of participation in the Lycaean sacrifice by the descend-See also:ant of Antaeus . See also:Herodotus (iv . 105) tells us that the See also:Neuri, a tribe of eastern Europe, were annually transformed for a few days, and See also:Virgil (Ed. viii . 98) is familiar with transformation of human beings into wolves . There are See also:women, so the Armenian belief runs, who in See also:con-sequence of deadly sins are condemned to pass seven years in the form of a wolf . A spirit comes to such a woman and brings her a wolf's skin .

He orders her to put it on, and no sooner has she done this than the most frightful wolfish cravings make their See also:

appearance and soon get the upper See also:hand . Her better nature conquered, she makes a See also:meal of her own See also:children, one by one, then of her relatives' children according to the degree of relation-See also:ship, and finally the children of strangers begin to fall a See also:prey to her . She wanders forth only at See also:night, and doors and locks See also:spring open at her approach . When See also:morning draws near she returns to human form and removes her wolf skin . In these cases the transformation was involuntary or virtually so . But See also:side by side with this belief in involuntary metamorphosis, we find the belief that human beings can change themselves into animals at will and then resume their own form . The expedients supposed to be adopted for effecting change of shape may here be noticed . One of the simplest apparently was the removal of clothing, and in particular of a See also:girdle of human skin, or the putting on of such a girdle—more commonly the putting on of a girdle of the skin of the See also:animal whose form was to be assumed . This last See also:device is doubtless a substitute for the See also:assumption of an entire animal skin, which also is frequently found . In other cases the See also:body is rubbed with a magic salve . To drink See also:water out of the footprint of the animal in question, to partake of its brains, to drink of certain enchanted streams, were also considered effectual modes of accomplishing metamorphosis . Glans See also:Magnus says that the Livonian werwolves were initiated by draining a See also:cup of See also:beer specially prepared, and repeating a set See also:formula .

Phoenix-squares

Ralston in his Songs of the Russian See also:

People gives the form of See also:incantation still familiar in Russia . Various expedients also existed for removing the beast-shape . The simplest was the See also:act of the enchanter (operating either on himself or on a victim); another was the removal of the animal girdle . To kneel in one spot for a See also:hundred years, to be reproached with being a werwolf, to be saluted with the sign of the See also:cross, or addressed thrice by baptismal name, to be struck three blows on the forehead with a See also:knife, or to have at least three drops of See also:blood See also:drawn were also effectual See also:cures . In other cases the transformation was supposed to be accomplished by Satanic agency voluntarily submitted to, and that for the most loathsome ends, in particular for the gratification of a craving for human flesh . " The werwolves," writes See also:Richard Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1628),"are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an oyntment which they make by the See also:instinct of the devill, and putting on a certayne inchaunted girdle, doe not onely unto the view of others seeme as wolves, but to their owne thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so See also:long as they weare the said girdle . And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in wourrying and killing, and most of humane creatures." Such were the views about lycanthropy current throughout the See also:continent of Europe when Verstegan wrote . France in particular seems to have beeninfested with werwolves during the 16th See also:century, and the consequent trials were very numerous . In some of the cases—e.g. those of the Gandillon family in the See also:Jura, the tailor of Chalons and Roulet in See also:Angers, all occurring in the See also:year 1598, —there was clear evidence against the accused of See also:murder and See also:cannibalism, but none of association with wolves; in other cases, as that of Gilles Gamier in See also:Dole in 1573, there was clear evidence against some wolf, but none against the accused; in all the cases, with hardly an exception, there was that extra-See also:ordinary readiness in the accused to confess and even to give circumstantial details of the metamorphosis, which is one of the most inexplicable concomitants of See also:medieval See also:witchcraft . Yet, while this lycanthropy See also:fever, both of suspectors and of suspected, was at its height, it was decided in the See also:case of See also:Jean Grenier at See also:Bordeaux, in 1603, that lycanthropy was nothing more than an insane delusion . From this See also:time the loup-garou gradually ceased to be regarded as a dangerous heretic, and See also:fell back into his pre- Christianic position of being simply a " man-wolf-fiend," as which he still survives among the See also:French peasantry . In See also:Prussia, See also:Livonia and Lithuania, according to the bishops Claus Magnus and Majolus, the werwolves were in the 16th century far more destructive than " true and natural wolves," and their heterodoxy appears from the assertion that they formed " an accursed See also:college " of those " desirous of innovations contrary to the divine See also:law." In England, however, where at the beginning of the 17th century the See also:punishment of witchcraft was still zealously prosecuted by See also:James I., the wolf had been so long extinct that that pious monarch was himself able (Demonologie, See also:lib. iii.) to regard " warwoolfes " as victims of delusion induced by " a naturall superabundance of melancholie." Only small creatures, such as the See also:cat, the See also:hare and the See also:weasel, remained for the See also:malignant sorcerer to transform himself into; but he was firmly believed to avail himself of these agencies .

Belief in See also:

witch-animals still survives among the uneducated classes in parts of the See also:United See also:Kingdom . The werwolves of the See also:Christian See also:dispensation were not, however, all heretics, all viciously disposed towards mankind . " According to See also:Baronius, in the year 617, a number of wolves presented themselves at a monastery, and tore in pieces several friars who entertained heretical opinions . The wolves sent by See also:God tore the sacrilegious thieves of the See also:army of See also:Francesco Maria, See also:duke of See also:Urbino, who had come to See also:sack the treasure of the See also:holy See also:house of See also:Loreto . A wolf guarded and defended from the See also:wild beasts the See also:head of St See also:Edmund the See also:martyr, See also:king of England . St Oddo, See also:abbot of See also:Cluny, assailed in a See also:pilgrimage by foxes, was delivered and escorted by a wolf " (A. de See also:Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, 1872, vol. ii. p . 145) . Many of the werwolves were most See also:innocent and God-fearing persons, who suffered through the witchcraft of others, or simply from an unhappy fate, and who as wolves behaved in a truly touching See also:fashion, fawning upon and protecting their benefactors . Of this sort were the " Bisclaveret " in See also:Marie de France's poem (c . 1200), the See also:hero of " See also:William and the Were-wolf " (translated from French into See also:English about 1350), and the numerous princes and princesses, knights and ladies, who appear temporarily in beast form in the Mdrchen of the See also:Aryan nations generally . See also:Nay, the See also:power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but also to Christian See also:saints . " Omnes angeli, See also:boni et mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra," was the dictum of St See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas .

St See also:

Patrick transformed Vereticus, king of Wales, into a wolf; and St Natalis cursed an illustrious Irish family, with the result that each member of it was doomed to be a wolf for seven years . In other tales the divine agency is still more See also:direct, while in Russia, again, men are supposed to become werwolves through incurring the wrath of the See also:devil . Lancre, Tableau de l'inconstance de mauvais anges (See also:Paris, 1613) ; See also:Psellus, De operatione daemonum (Paris, 1615) ; see also Glanvil, Sadducismus triumphatus, for the English equivalents of lycanthropy . See also:Treatises solely confined to lycanthropy are rare both in medieval and in See also:modern times; but a few are well known, as, for instance, those of Bourquelot and Nynauld, De la lycanthropie (Paris, 1615) . See also Leubuscher, Uber See also:die Wehrwolfe (185o); See also:Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4, ii. and iii.; See also:Hertz, Der Werwolf (See also:Stuttgart, 1862); See also:Baring See also:Gould, The See also:Book of Were-wolves (See also:London, 1865) . Also the bibliography to LYCANTHROPY, and See also:Andree, Ethno- vaphische Parallelen, 1st See also:series, 62–8o; See also:Tylor, See also:Primitive Culture, i.; . Sebillot, Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne, i . 289 . (N . W . T.; J . F .

End of Article: WERWOLF (from A.S. wer; cf. Lat. vir, man; and wolf; or, according to a later suggestion, from O.H.G. weri, wear, i.e. wearer of the wolf-skin)
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COUNT VON JOHANN WERTH [WEERT] (c. 1595-1652)
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