Werewolves and Lycanthropy in Older Times, Article in the Leisure Hour 1889
BY Lycanthropy, strictly so called, is meant the transmutation of a man into a wolf, the man still retaining his human reason and knowledge, but becoming imbued with the fierce animal instincts of the brute into which he has been transformed.
In ancient times the same distinctions are to be observed. Lycaon, king of Arcadia, is transmuted into a wolf, but Io becomes a heifer; the companions of Ulysses, swine; Actaeon, a stag; Nisus, a hawk. The number of transmutations, indeed, is so numerous, that one of the great Latin poets has written a long poem descriptive of them. In the Hindu mythology Indra is represented as transmuting Rabandha into a monster, while the sons of Vasishtha convert Frisankla into a bear. In Scandinavian legends Sigmund becomes a wolf, but Tragli a wild boar. From the same sources La Mothe Fouqué has derived his wild and beautiful tale of the “Eagle and the Lion." There it is represented as being the common practice of Northmen at their pleasure to lay aside their human forms, and take those of some beast or bird. The braver and nobler spirits become lions or eagles, and achieve deeds of high daring, the meaner are transformed to wolves and bears. According to the Persian myths the ape, the serpent, and the dog are usually the animals into whom the changes are made. In the “Arabian Nights" Zobeide's sisters become black dogs, and the second Calender an ape. Among the Scythians and Greeks, again, the wolf is the brute chosen for these transmutations, as is the case in other parts of Europe. Herodotus tells us that among the Neuri, a race dwelling contiguously to the Scythians, everyone for a few days in the year becomes a wolf, at the end of that time returning to his ancient shape. Pliny quotes Evanthus, an author of some reputation, as affirming that, among the Arcadians, the family of one Anthus drew lots among themselves, which of them should repair to a certain pond, undress himself on the edge of it, hang his clothes on an oak, swim across the pond, and go into the deserts, where he would be changed into a wolf, and live with that species for nine years. If in the course of that time he did not devour a man, he might return to the same pond, recross it, and resume his original form, being, however, nine years older than when he laid it aside. In, short, there are endless fables in circulation among the natives of almost every country in the world, and to all of them the general title Lycanthropy will apply; though doubtless the term is commonly understood of the transmutations supposed to have taken. place in the dark and middle ages of European history.
Olaus Magnus, early in the sixteenth century, from whom we, might have hoped better things, tells a story of a nobleman travelling through a forest. He and his servants lose their way, and can find no house where shelter or food are to be obtained. In the extremity of their need, one of his retinue discloses to him, under a promise of secrecy, that he has the power of taming himself into a wolf, under which form he can doubtless obtain food. The promise is given: the man goes outinto the forest, under the semblance of a wolf, and returns with a lamb; after which he resumes his human shape.
John of Nuremberg, in his book “De Miraculis,” relates how in like manner a priest travelling in a strange country loses himself in a wood. Presently he sees a fire in the distance and makes for it. On reaching it, he finds a wolf sitting by it, who informs him that he is an Ossyrian, and that all his countrymen are obliged by a law imposed on them by an overruling power, to spend a certain number. of years in the shape of wolves.
In the year 1573, one Gilles Garnier, a native of Lyons, called from his secluded habits of life "The Hermit of St. Bonnet," was accused before the tribunals of being a loup-garou. It was affirmed that he prowled about like a wolf at night, and had devoured several infants. It was alleged that, on three occasions under the guise of a wolf, and once in his own proper form, he had seized, killed, and mangled children. It was, of course, difficult to establish identity in three of these instances; but in the fourth, several witnesses well acquainted with his person had seen him strangle a boy, and afterwards tear his flesh with his teeth. He was arrested and put to the torture, when he confessed the truth of the charges against him, and was burnt at the stake.
A few years afterwards, a tailor named Roulet, living near Angers, was tried on a similar charge of having slain, and then mangled with. his teeth, a lad of fifteen. It was declared in evidence that he had been seen, while in the shape of a wolf, to tear the body, and, pursuit having been made, he was caught in a thicket, but having now resumed his human form. At his examination he confessed that he had anointed himself with a magic salve, which turned him into a wolf, when it was his delight to seize and lacerate his human victims. He was condemned, and would doubtless have been burned at the stake, if he had not appealed to the Parliament. They wisely: and mercifully declared him to be a maniac, and placed him under confinement.
The case of Jean Grenier in the next generation very nearly resembles the above. He was a peasant lad of St. Antoine de Pizon, near Bordeaux. He was charged, on what seemed credible evidence, with having torn to pieces several children. He made an elaborate confession, in which he declared that a black man whom he met in the forest had given him an ointment which had the effect of making him a wolf for a time, and while in that condition he had killed and mutilated several children. The judges in this instance also pronounced the man to be a madman, and placed him in a convent to be cured and reformed.
Earlier in the same century a story, in most particulars very like the two just related, but with a more shocking termination, is told of a farmer near Pavia. He set upon some men, whom he lacerated with his teeth, but was seized and brought to trial. Here he made a confession to the effect that he was half man, half wolf, one side of his skin being human and the other covered with bristles. By magic power he was enabled to turn this skin as he pleased, and so become man or wolf, as the fancy possessed him. It is doubtful whether he made this declaration in the hope of terrifying his captors, or was like the others—insane. But the result was calamitous to him. His examiners, half believing his tale, cut off his arms and legs in order to test the truth of his assertion, and the unhappy man soon bled to death.
A very shocking history is that of a lady of Auvergne in 1588. Her husband, when returning from the chase, was accosted by a stranger, who informed him that he had been attacked by a savage wolf, from which he had freed himself by cutting off its fore paw. He produced the paw from under his sleeve as he spoke, and, lo! it had become a woman’s hand, with a ring on it. The gentleman thought be recognized his wife’s wedding-ring. He went straight home, and found his wife with her apron thrown over her arm. The apron being removed, it was seen that her hand had been recently cut off. She was accused of being a loup-garou, was convicted, and burned.
Baring Gould relates a still more horrible tale of a Hungarian lady of rank, who was proved to have killed and mangled several hundred girls in order to suck their blood. There is also the well known case of De Retz, marechal of France in the time of King Charles VII., who had murdered and revelled in the blood of, it was supposed, eight hundred children. The truth of the charge was proved beyond the possibility of doubt. He himself affirmed that he had been seized with the uncontrollable craving for human blood whilst reading Suetonius's description of the cruelties of Tiberius.
These stories might be multiplied to any amount; but, as has been already remarked, there is a great similarity between them, and the above are enough to enable us to arrive at an intelligible, if not a very satisfactory, conclusion respecting them.
It is clear that bodily disease is largely connected with them. An insatiable craving for blood is not by any means the only unnatural appetite known to science. There is nothing unreasonable in believing that the same craving, which induces many animals to mangle a succession of victims in preference to devouring any one of them, might take possession of a human subject also, whose physical system had become greatly deranged. As late as 1849 the case of Bertrand, a junior officer in a regiment quartered at Paris, attracted attention. The facts are too repulsive for full narration. In frantic fits of uncontrollable desire he frequented the burial ground of Pere la Chaise and exhumed and lacerated a great many bodies. After a while the guardians of the cemetery were alarmed, Bertrand was fired at and wounded. The police then captured him, and he made a full confession. He was put under medical treatment, and recovered.
BY Lycanthropy, strictly so called, is meant the transmutation of a man into a wolf, the man still retaining his human reason and knowledge, but becoming imbued with the fierce animal instincts of the brute into which he has been transformed.
In ancient times the same distinctions are to be observed. Lycaon, king of Arcadia, is transmuted into a wolf, but Io becomes a heifer; the companions of Ulysses, swine; Actaeon, a stag; Nisus, a hawk. The number of transmutations, indeed, is so numerous, that one of the great Latin poets has written a long poem descriptive of them. In the Hindu mythology Indra is represented as transmuting Rabandha into a monster, while the sons of Vasishtha convert Frisankla into a bear. In Scandinavian legends Sigmund becomes a wolf, but Tragli a wild boar. From the same sources La Mothe Fouqué has derived his wild and beautiful tale of the “Eagle and the Lion." There it is represented as being the common practice of Northmen at their pleasure to lay aside their human forms, and take those of some beast or bird. The braver and nobler spirits become lions or eagles, and achieve deeds of high daring, the meaner are transformed to wolves and bears. According to the Persian myths the ape, the serpent, and the dog are usually the animals into whom the changes are made. In the “Arabian Nights" Zobeide's sisters become black dogs, and the second Calender an ape. Among the Scythians and Greeks, again, the wolf is the brute chosen for these transmutations, as is the case in other parts of Europe. Herodotus tells us that among the Neuri, a race dwelling contiguously to the Scythians, everyone for a few days in the year becomes a wolf, at the end of that time returning to his ancient shape. Pliny quotes Evanthus, an author of some reputation, as affirming that, among the Arcadians, the family of one Anthus drew lots among themselves, which of them should repair to a certain pond, undress himself on the edge of it, hang his clothes on an oak, swim across the pond, and go into the deserts, where he would be changed into a wolf, and live with that species for nine years. If in the course of that time he did not devour a man, he might return to the same pond, recross it, and resume his original form, being, however, nine years older than when he laid it aside. In, short, there are endless fables in circulation among the natives of almost every country in the world, and to all of them the general title Lycanthropy will apply; though doubtless the term is commonly understood of the transmutations supposed to have taken. place in the dark and middle ages of European history.
Olaus Magnus, early in the sixteenth century, from whom we, might have hoped better things, tells a story of a nobleman travelling through a forest. He and his servants lose their way, and can find no house where shelter or food are to be obtained. In the extremity of their need, one of his retinue discloses to him, under a promise of secrecy, that he has the power of taming himself into a wolf, under which form he can doubtless obtain food. The promise is given: the man goes outinto the forest, under the semblance of a wolf, and returns with a lamb; after which he resumes his human shape.
John of Nuremberg, in his book “De Miraculis,” relates how in like manner a priest travelling in a strange country loses himself in a wood. Presently he sees a fire in the distance and makes for it. On reaching it, he finds a wolf sitting by it, who informs him that he is an Ossyrian, and that all his countrymen are obliged by a law imposed on them by an overruling power, to spend a certain number. of years in the shape of wolves.
In the year 1573, one Gilles Garnier, a native of Lyons, called from his secluded habits of life "The Hermit of St. Bonnet," was accused before the tribunals of being a loup-garou. It was affirmed that he prowled about like a wolf at night, and had devoured several infants. It was alleged that, on three occasions under the guise of a wolf, and once in his own proper form, he had seized, killed, and mangled children. It was, of course, difficult to establish identity in three of these instances; but in the fourth, several witnesses well acquainted with his person had seen him strangle a boy, and afterwards tear his flesh with his teeth. He was arrested and put to the torture, when he confessed the truth of the charges against him, and was burnt at the stake.
A few years afterwards, a tailor named Roulet, living near Angers, was tried on a similar charge of having slain, and then mangled with. his teeth, a lad of fifteen. It was declared in evidence that he had been seen, while in the shape of a wolf, to tear the body, and, pursuit having been made, he was caught in a thicket, but having now resumed his human form. At his examination he confessed that he had anointed himself with a magic salve, which turned him into a wolf, when it was his delight to seize and lacerate his human victims. He was condemned, and would doubtless have been burned at the stake, if he had not appealed to the Parliament. They wisely: and mercifully declared him to be a maniac, and placed him under confinement.
The case of Jean Grenier in the next generation very nearly resembles the above. He was a peasant lad of St. Antoine de Pizon, near Bordeaux. He was charged, on what seemed credible evidence, with having torn to pieces several children. He made an elaborate confession, in which he declared that a black man whom he met in the forest had given him an ointment which had the effect of making him a wolf for a time, and while in that condition he had killed and mutilated several children. The judges in this instance also pronounced the man to be a madman, and placed him in a convent to be cured and reformed.
Earlier in the same century a story, in most particulars very like the two just related, but with a more shocking termination, is told of a farmer near Pavia. He set upon some men, whom he lacerated with his teeth, but was seized and brought to trial. Here he made a confession to the effect that he was half man, half wolf, one side of his skin being human and the other covered with bristles. By magic power he was enabled to turn this skin as he pleased, and so become man or wolf, as the fancy possessed him. It is doubtful whether he made this declaration in the hope of terrifying his captors, or was like the others—insane. But the result was calamitous to him. His examiners, half believing his tale, cut off his arms and legs in order to test the truth of his assertion, and the unhappy man soon bled to death.
A very shocking history is that of a lady of Auvergne in 1588. Her husband, when returning from the chase, was accosted by a stranger, who informed him that he had been attacked by a savage wolf, from which he had freed himself by cutting off its fore paw. He produced the paw from under his sleeve as he spoke, and, lo! it had become a woman’s hand, with a ring on it. The gentleman thought be recognized his wife’s wedding-ring. He went straight home, and found his wife with her apron thrown over her arm. The apron being removed, it was seen that her hand had been recently cut off. She was accused of being a loup-garou, was convicted, and burned.
Baring Gould relates a still more horrible tale of a Hungarian lady of rank, who was proved to have killed and mangled several hundred girls in order to suck their blood. There is also the well known case of De Retz, marechal of France in the time of King Charles VII., who had murdered and revelled in the blood of, it was supposed, eight hundred children. The truth of the charge was proved beyond the possibility of doubt. He himself affirmed that he had been seized with the uncontrollable craving for human blood whilst reading Suetonius's description of the cruelties of Tiberius.
These stories might be multiplied to any amount; but, as has been already remarked, there is a great similarity between them, and the above are enough to enable us to arrive at an intelligible, if not a very satisfactory, conclusion respecting them.
It is clear that bodily disease is largely connected with them. An insatiable craving for blood is not by any means the only unnatural appetite known to science. There is nothing unreasonable in believing that the same craving, which induces many animals to mangle a succession of victims in preference to devouring any one of them, might take possession of a human subject also, whose physical system had become greatly deranged. As late as 1849 the case of Bertrand, a junior officer in a regiment quartered at Paris, attracted attention. The facts are too repulsive for full narration. In frantic fits of uncontrollable desire he frequented the burial ground of Pere la Chaise and exhumed and lacerated a great many bodies. After a while the guardians of the cemetery were alarmed, Bertrand was fired at and wounded. The police then captured him, and he made a full confession. He was put under medical treatment, and recovered.
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