Werewolf: Cursed and Haunted Mythological Being

Today we are going to know in detail everything about the figure of the Werewolf. A character that appears in many mythologies in multiple cultures.

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Who is the Werewolf?

Werewolf, is a man who has been cursed or enchanted into a beast that hunts at night and craves human flesh. The word ‘werewolf’ translates to half man and half animal. There are many ways in which this transformation could occur.

Many legends say that a man would transform into this beast, if bitten or scratched by another werewolf in its animal form. There are also tales of children who were cursed to hunt as werewolves if they grew up in abusive homes. When the full moon rises, everyone knows to be on high alert.

The full moon has long been caused by strange changes in human behavior, but is perhaps more associated with the transformation of an exceptionally fearful being. These creatures have been part of European folklore for centuries, but became popular when citizens were judged to be “wolf-charmers” and lycanthropes in the late Middle Ages.

Mythology

There are many records of people willingly transforming into werewolves. One of the most common claims in order to transform into the beast was for a person to remove all of their clothes and wear a belt made of wolf skin. Similar stories are the same as individuals who wore all wolf fur. In both cases, he would need to find his clothes again to transform back into a human.

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There are also stories of magical balms that could transform a person. Other sources tell of enchanted streams that gave people the ability to transform. Other transformation rituals include drinking rainwater from a wolf’s footprint and sleeping with the light of the full moon on one’s face during a Wednesday or Friday summer night.

Possible connection to Christianity

Many areas where Christianity was the dominant religion speak of the transformations of this creature through an alliance with the Devil. Many historians believe this was a way to explain the violent and cannibalistic impulses of predatory serial killers in the Middle Ages.

Religious cultures sometimes explained werewolf transformations as divine punishment from God himself. In fact, those who were excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church were said to have been cursed with the werewolf. Although the transformation was thought to be a terrible curse, there were remedies rumored to cure the afflicted person.

Some cultures believed that extreme bouts of exercise would be enough to cure an afflicted individual. Others thought that hitting a werewolf on the scalp with a knife was enough to stop the transformation. There are also reports of piercing a werewolf’s hands with nails to produce a cure.

In Europe, where werewolf lore became more popular, there were thought to be three ways to cure the werewolf transformation: with werewolf (a poisonous plant), surgery, or exorcism. Unfortunately, many of the supposed cures that were supported by the early physicians of Europe killed most of the patients. The German tradition turns out to be much less violent – to cure an afflicted person, one must simply call the werewolf by its Christian name three times.

Physical Description

With the search for werewolves in the Middle Ages as paranoia about witches and other such creatures intensified by the Church, people began to look for telltale signs that an individual might be a potential werewolf. One of the most common identifiers of a suspected werewolf was an eyebrow. Other signs included curved fingernails (similar to claws), lower-than-normal ears, and a stride that resembled that of a wolf.

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If an individual was identified as a potential werewolf, he was often subjected to tests to see if the accusations against him could be sustained. One of the most common tests was to cut the skin of the accused to see if fur could be found under the wound. Russian folklore also claims that werewolves had bristles under their tongues that could not be found on normal humans.

When werewolves were in their animal form, it is said that there are surprisingly few differences between the creature and a real wolf. One of the biggest indicators of a werewolf would be the absence of a tail, although Swedish folklore suggests that some werewolves ran on three legs and kept their fourth leg behind them to appear as a normal wolf from a distance. Werewolves were also thought to have human eyes and voices.

One of the easiest ways to identify a suspected werewolf was to try to wound it with a mark that was easily identifiable. It was believed that when a werewolf was wounded in animal form, the same injury manifested itself in the human form of the being.

Werewolf Personality

One of the most common themes of werewolves is their craving for human flesh. At night, these creatures are said to hunt victims to satiate their deep hunger. There are many different versions and variations of werewolves, but many of these stories involve the transformation of a sinner into a wolf.

Several sources specify that a person who was guilty of committing a mortal sin would be cursed to become a werewolf at night for seven years. Many of these variations specify that werewolves prefer to eat children, although there are many stories that suggest that werewolves choose their victims indiscriminately.

There are also tales suggesting that werewolves might be seen in their human form because of their uncontrollable rage. This is perhaps influenced by the Ulfheonar – a Norse cult that worshipped the wolf and made their ultimate goal in life to transform into a wolf. These fierce warriors adopted all the traits of their patron and lived in the forest. They were believed to be immune to iron and fire when fighting and were similar to the Berserkers in their customs and practices.

When it comes to lycanthropes, many people believe that their claim to become wolves or other beasts was fueled in part by their violent and cannibalistic tendencies. Some historians believe that some of the lycanthropes who were persecuted in history were actually serial killers who were rationalized into something more easily understood by the public.

Werewolves vs. Lycanthropes

You’ve probably heard of many instances where the word “werewolf” was used as a synonym for “lycanthrope.” Although some people use the word interchangeably, they actually have two very different meanings. Just as is often the case with Centaurs.

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A werewolf refers to the idea that a person is capable of transforming into a wolf and assuming wolf-like mannerisms. Although the existence of werewolves has never been proven, they are common in folklore around the world, especially in Europe.

A lycanthrope, on the other hand, is simply a person who thinks he or she has the ability to transform into a wolf or other animal species. These individuals often have other disturbing symptoms such as psychosis or a strange craving for human flesh. It is believed that some individuals with lycanthropy believe they have the ability to transform into werewolves because they need internal justification for their violent tendencies or cannibalistic desires.

Werewolves and income

In the late 19th century a new belief emerged: revenants. Revenants were supposedly werewolves who were not properly destroyed and returned from the dead. They were believed to roam the battlefields and drink the blood of the dead and dying.

In northern Europe, some people believed that people who died in mortal sin returned as revenge. At night, they roamed and hunted as undead werewolves. By day, they returned to their human corpse form.To kill an avenger, it was thought that the beast in question had to be decapitated with a shovel.

The chiefs of those who took revenge were thrown into a river. It was thought that the weight of the avenger’s sins would keep the head at the bottom of the river and prevent them from returning as before. There were also some who believed that avengers could be treated in the same way as traditional vampires.

Possible inspiration for werewolf myths

Neuri

The Neuri were a tribe that lived north of the Tyres. They were said to be a tribe that had been driven from their original homeland due to a snake invasion. There are reports of a tale that the Neuri transformed into wolves once a year, although this is sometimes considered a reference to their shamanic practices.

Lycaon

According to Greek mythology, Lycaon was a mortal who tried to test Zeus’ omniscient abilities. To see if Zeus really was all-powerful and omniscient, Lycaon killed his own son and served his roasted flesh to Zeus. Zeus knew what Lycaon had done and punished him for his terrible deeds by turning him into a wolf.

Ulfheonar

Of all the characters that could have inspired the werewolf story, the Ulfheonar are the most likely candidates. The Ulfheonar were a group of elite Norse warriors who lived in the forest as a shamanic cult. Their patron animal was the wolf and it was said that the greatest of the Ulfheonar could transform into a wolf during battle. Although the Ulfheonar were feared by all (including their kin), they were also highly respected and regarded as Odin’s men.

Explanation of the Werewolf myth

There are many theories as to what or who may have inspired the werewolf myth. Some scholars say that the existence of some mythology of wolf creatures was inevitable in Europe because wolves were seen as one of the most fearsome predators of the time. Others believe that the fear of transformation may have simply been a misinterpretation of a medical condition. There are two diseases in particular that seem to be reasonable explanations for these stories – porphyria and hypertrichosis.

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Porphyria is a disease that makes its patients extremely sensitive to sunlight and is characterized by reddish teeth, anxiety, seizures and psychosis. Proponents of this theory claim that people may have been frightened by porphyria sufferers because they would only have been active at night, making them prime suspects in the werewolf transformation.

Others disagree with this analysis. While porphyria has all the symptoms expected of werewolf transformation culprits, this does not explain why werewolves are described as wolf-like in physical form. Instead of porphyria being the cause of alarm, they believe that hypertrichosis is the cause of werewolf hysteria.

Hypertrichosis

Hypertrichosis is a condition in which the affected person has excessive hair growth. This excess hair could have caused afflicted individuals to appear as werewolves if seen at night. Others argue that this is not plausible because the rarity in which this disease occurs makes it unlikely that it could have been encountered at the same prevalence as werewolves were reported.

There are some who think that werewolf transformation stories could have arisen from the spread of rabies. Supporters of this theory point to the fact that rabies victims can transmit the disease to others if they bite another individual. Regardless of how the stories of werewolf transformations came about, they will remain one of the most infamous folk tales that became a global phenomenon.

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