The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition

Note: Errors in German quotes and booktitles were mostly not corrected. A more detailed transcriber’s note can be found at the end of this text.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.[1]

[1] NOTE.—After the author had written the following article, she gathered most of the material contained in the notes. That the origin and development of the use of masks as given in the Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, 1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see note 32) is similar to the origin and development of the werewolf superstition itself, as given in the following pages, was an unexpected coincidence. The author has italicized some words in the quotations.

The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that is, a wolf which is really a human being.[2] So the werewolf was a man in wolf’s form or wolf’s dress,[2] seen mostly at night,[3] and believed generally to be harmful to man.[4]

[2] According to Mogk, in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie III. 272 wer means “man,” found in Old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Old High German, and werewolf a man in wolf’s form. Kögel connects wer with Gothic wasjan “kleiden.” “Darum bedeutet werwolf eigentlich Wolfsgewand úlfshamr; ähnlich bedeutet vielleicht berserkr Bärengewand,” therefore werewolf according to Kögel means a wolf’s dress. See also Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde.

[3] Post p. 24.

[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XV. 90 fol., 1883:—Beastform in mythology proper is far oftener assumed for malignant than for benignant ends. See note 52.

The origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorily explained. Adolf Erman[5] explains the allusion of Herodotus[6] to the transformation of the Neurians (the people of the present Volhynia, in West Russia) into wolves as due merely to their appearance in winter, dressed in their furs. This explanation, however, would not fit similar superstitions in warm climes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy to primitive Totemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the members of a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.[7] Still another explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as the original werewolf.[8]

[5] Reise um die erde durch Nordasien, Berlin, 1833, I. 232.

[6] Herodotus says of the Neurians, that among Scythians and Greeks settled in Scythia they pass for magicians, because once a year every Neurian becomes a wolf for a few days, and then resumes the human form. See concerning this also Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 120.

[7] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXIII. 467 fol.

[8] Note 102, also see note 22.

The explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves must be one which will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstition is found pretty much all over the earth,[9] especially to-day[10] however in Northwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in the lands where the wolf is most common.[11][12] According to Mogk[13] the superstition prevails to-day especially in the north and east of Germany.[14]

[9] See also Mogk in Paul’s Grundriss, III. 272. Dr. Rud. Leubuscher, Über die Wehrwölfe und Thierverwandlungen im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1850, mentions cases in ancient Arcadia, in Arabia, Abyssinia (hyenas), and the almost epidemic disease in the Middle Ages. Dr. W. Hertz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart, 1862, ascribes the superstition to Armenia, Egypt, Abyssinia (hyenas), Greece (pages 20-28), but not to India, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below; on p. 133 he says: “Tierverwandlungen sind allgemein menschlich, finden wir überall. Die eigentümliche Entwicklung der Werwolfsagen aber finden wir vorzugsweise bei einer bestimmten Völkergruppe, den arischen Stämmen der Griechen, Römer, Kelten, Germanen und Slaven; bei den südwärts gezogenen Stämmen der Inder und Iranier sind uns gleiche Sagen nicht begegnet [but see below]. Am massenhaftesten treten die Werwölfe bei den Slaven auf, und ihnen gehört die älteste historische Erwähnung der Sage; viel älter aber ist der Lykaon Mythus und arkadische Werwölfe”. According to Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart, 1878, ss. 62-80, the superstition is found in every European country (amongst Anglo-Saxons, English, French, Bretons, Poles, Tschechs, Lithuanians, White Russians of Poland, inhabitants of island Oesel, Russians, Italians, Portuguese, Provencal peoples, Greeks, Kelts, in Asia, Africa, America; but not in India nor Persia, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below), especially though in northwestern Germany and in Slavic lands.

As to the American Indians, see Ethnological Report for 1880-81, p. 83, “From their close relations with wild animals Indians’ stories of transformations into beasts and beasts into men are numerous and interesting.... In times of peace, during the long winter evenings, some famous storyteller told of those days in the past when men and animals could transform themselves at will and hold converse with one another.”

Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Bell & Sons, 1883, II. 668 says no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in Germanic antiquities than that of men into werewolves. Thus Fenrisûlfr, a son of Loki, makes his appearance in wolf’s shape among the gods.

Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol., under the heading Lycanthropy, states:—A belief firmly rooted among all savages is that men are in certain circumstances transformed temporarily or permanently into wolves and other inferior animals. In Europe the transformation into a wolf is by far more prominent and frequent (amongst Greeks, Russians, English, Germans, French, Scandinavians). Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence. Thus the were-_wolf_ prevails in Europe, also in England, Wales, Ireland; and in S. France, the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, he can hardly be pronounced extinct now (see note 12). In Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland the bear competes with the wolf for pre-eminence. In Persia the bear is supreme; in Japan the fox; in India the serpent vies with the tiger (contrary to Mogk in Paul’s Grd., III. 272, who says:—“Nur Griechen, Römer, Kelten, Germanen, Slaven unter den indogermanischen Völkern kennen den Werwolf, den Indern und Iraniern ist er unbekannt.” Compare notes 6 and 9, Hertz, p. 133); in Abyssinia and Borneo the hyena with the lion; in E. Africa the lion with the alligator; in W. Africa the leopard is perhaps most frequently the form assumed by man; among the Abipones the tiger, among the Arawaks the jaguar, etc.

In Brockhaus’ Konversations-Lexikon, for the Middle Ages the werewolf belief is ascribed to all Slavic, Keltic, Germanic and Romanic peoples; found to-day especially in Volhynia and White Russia.

Paul, Grundriss, III. 272:—Bei den Angelsachsen lässt sich der Werwolf im 11. Jahrh. nachweisen: Knut befahl den Priestern, ihre Herden vor dem werewulf zu schirmen.... Das älteste Zeugnis auf deutschem Gebiete vom Werwolf ist vom Burchard v. Worms (11 century).

[10] See note 9.

[11] Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol.:—There can nowhere be a living belief in contemporary metamorphosis into any animal which has ceased to exist in the particular locality. Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence. (See note 12.) In none of these cases however is the power of transformation limited exclusively to the prominent and dominant animal.

[12] Encyc. Brit. XXIV. 628 fol. under Wolf:—The wolf is found in nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, North America from Greenland to Mexico, the Indian peninsula, but not in Ceylon, Burmah or Siam; and not in South America or Africa, in the two latter jackals instead.

Meyer’s Kleines konversations-lexikon:—Der wolf “ist häufig in Ost- und Nordeuropa, Mittel- und Nordasien, Nordamerika, seltener in Frankreich und Belgien, den Herden gefährlich, besonders in Russland.” Encyc. Brit., XXIV under Wolf:—In northern countries the wolf is generally larger and more powerful than in the southern portion of its range. Its habits are similar everywhere. It has from time immemorial been known to man in all the countries it inhabits as the devastator of his flocks of sheep. It has speed and remarkable endurance. They usually assemble in troops or packs, except in summer, and by their combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower and kill even such great animals as the American bison. Children and even grown people are not infrequently attacked by them when pressed for hunger. The ferocity of the wolf in the wild state is proverbial. Even when tamed, they can rarely be trusted by strangers.

[13] Paul, Grundriss, III. 272.

[14] Gustav Freytag, Bilder aus neuer zeit, Leipzig, 1904, p. 275 fol., speaking of the Polish borderlands, says: “Noch lebte das Landvolk in ohnmächtigem Kampf mit den Heerden der Wölfe, wenig Dörfer, welchen nicht in jedem Winter Menschen und Thiere decimirt wurden,” and in the same note 2, pp. 275-6:—“Als 1815 die gegenwärtige Provinz Posen an Preussen zurückfiel, waren auch dort die Wölfe eine Landplage. Nach Angaben der Posener Provinzialblätter wurden im Regierungsbezirk Posen vom 1. Sept. 1815 his Ende Februar 1816, 41 Wölfe erlegt, noch im Jahre 1819 im Kreise Wongrowitz 16 Kinder und 3 Erwachsene von Wölfen gefressen.”

The werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.[15] The point in common everywhere is the transformation of a living human being into an animal, into a wolf in regions where the wolf was common[16] into a lion, hyena or leopard in Africa, where these animals are common; into a tiger or serpent in India;[17] in other localities into other animals characteristic of the region.[18] Among Lapps and Finns occur transformations into the bear, wolf, reindeer, fish or birds; amongst many North Asiatic peoples, as also some American Indians, into the bear; amongst the latter also into the fox, wolf, turkey or owl; in South America, besides into a tiger or jaguar, also into a fish, or serpent. Most universal though it seems was the transformation into wolves or dogs.[19]

[15] Thus in note 6 was mentioned Herodotus’ (484-425 B. C.) statement about the Neurians. The oldest werewolf legend, according to Hertz, is that of Lykaon, the son of Pelasgos, the first king of ancient Arcadia. These Arcadians lived as huntsmen and shepherds. According to J. Oppert (Andree, p. 65; and notes 6 and 9) the werewolf superstition existed amongst the Assyrians; and Andree states, the oldest Hellenic werewolf myth is found in Pausanias (died 467 B. C). In the Norse “Edda” we find Odin’s wolves, also Sköll, Hati and Fenrir. In the Völsunga Saga, Sigmund and Sinfjötli become wolves. For other reflections of the fear in which wolves were held, see the 10th century ms. of the “Wiener Hundesegen” against male and female wolves (Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 6. aufl. 1907, p. 85). Jacob Grimm,—Geschichte der deutschen sprache s. 233:—“Unsere thierfabel stellt vortrefflich das gebannte raubthier des waldes dar, und lehrt die nähe des wolfs und fuchses.”