The Werewolf
The werewolf is one of history’s oldest monsters, dating as far back as 2000 B.C., when the Epic of Gilgamesh was first written down. Since then myth and hysteria has spread throughout the minds and hearts of the world like wildfire. Even such works as Homer’s Odyssey contains a hint of the belief in werewolves, and people great and small such as Prince Vseslav of Polock a.k.a. The Ukrainian Werewolf (1000 B.C.), the Neuri (500 B.C.), Gilles Garnier (1573), Peter Stubb (1589), and Antoine Leger (1824) were all accused of being lycanthropes. It was also reported that Damarchus, The Arcadian werewolf, won a boxing medal at the Olympics in 400 B.C..
Since then, thousands of books and dozens of films have been thrilling audiences worldwide for decades, but where did the whole silver bullet, full moon thing come from? Mostly a mixture of places. People took the most interesting, believable, or horrifying parts of the tale and blended it with others that they had heard from cultures all around the world.
The Windigo from Canadian lore was a gigantic, sub-arctic, man eating species with hearts of ice. They used trees as snowshoes, covering vast distances in a single step and were as tall as the trees, and packs of these creatures were said to play catch with human skulls.
At first glance, this folk creature seems nothing like the common idea of a werewolf. The word Windigo is Algonquin for “evil spirit” and “cannibal”, but here is where things get interesting, a bite or a scratch from the windigo would possess a human and turn them into one as well, though they would not grow to the gigantic height of its originator. They then crave human flesh, run wild in the woods, and grows a heart of ice. A person can also choose to become a windigo or can be transformed into one by an evil sorcerer and can be killed by; you guessed it, a silver bullet.
The common, universal lore contains many of the same elements. A person is able to choose to become a werewolf by one of many ways, including: climbing into a wolf skin, drinking water from the puddle of a wolf’s paw print, or ingesting certain magical potions. Many potions were dead ends, but those that “worked” all contained the same ingredient... hallucinogens. One such potion includes: nightshade, henbane, pig fat, turpentine, olive oil, and alcohol. Since drinking these potions left the many would be werewolves dead, they were instead made not to be ingested, but rather to be lathered over the person’s body instead. The hallucinogens would then work their way into the bloodstream through the skin and cause the person not only to believe he was a werewolf, but also gave them the ability to kill and mutilate animals and people with a drug induced, inhuman, strength.
In most werewolf lores, if the werewolf refrained from devouring human flesh than he could return to human form; if not, he was doomed to remain a werewolf forever, such as in Norwegian and Greek lore. In Germany, the wolf skin was held onto the body by a magical buckle. When the buckle broke so did the spell.
In some versions just telling a person they were a werewolf; or calling a werewolf by their human name would break the curse, but in all versions the only way to kill a werewolf was with a silver bullet. After that the body was beheaded and burnt, just to make sure.
Other effective methods of diversions are holy water and crosses. What is interesting to note is that most monsters, demons, and phantoms are affected by crosses, silver, and holy water or anointed oil, four very strong Christian items.
Holy water / anointed oil- water or oil blessed by God.
Cross- Symbol of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.
Silver- It was for thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, many people were arrested and put to death for being a werewolf when illness and bacteria were the real culprits. Due to a bacteria that grew in the wheat crop and was then baked into the towns bread supply an entire town was suffering from hallucinations those that weren’t seeing werewolves thought that they were werewolves. That in connection with a genetic condition called porphyria sent many innocent men and women to their deaths.
Porphyria, a genetic disorder, causes a hemoglobin deficiency which leads to severe photosensitivity, hypertrichosis (where thick, fur like hair covers part or all of the body including the face- this condition is not always in conjunction with porphyria, but has been documented many times on its own where individuals, usually men more recently dubbed “wolfmen” are perfectly healthy and suffer from no other illness or symptoms), and a discoloration of the skin pigmentation. Porphrins build up in the body and injure vital organs such as the liver, digestive system, brain, nervous system, and the skin itself. Symptoms usually don’t appear until adulthood and are usually triggered by drugs, alcohol, or even exposure to sunlight. If left untreated the disease leads to ulcerating skin lesions, deterioration of the nose, ears, eyelids, teeth, fingers and nails. The flesh, due to porphyrin deposits, turns to a disturbing red and brown color and soon after mental illness takes a hold. Mild hysteria, delirium, and manic depression eventually set in. These cases are rare, but with symptoms such as these it’s no wonder the victims were thought to be werewolves.
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Excerpt from
Costly Obsession: Decay