Shape shifters or were-creatures transcend every major culture from the Aztecs, to the Greeks to the Scandinavians. The ability of turning from human into animal plays a part in much literature and writings of the past. However, the most infamous of them all is the werewolf.
Werewolf legends appeared to have originated in the German countryside around Cologne and Bedburg in the year 1591. A much different life played out in that era and the wolf stood as a representation of fear and loathing. Many claimed to have found torn limbs on their properties and scores feared to travel in their surrounding wooded areas, despite little proof that wolves attacked people unless they were rabid or starving.
One infamous case of arrest and trial of a werewolf was Peter Stubbe. He allegedly held a special strap made of human flesh, given to him by the devil, allowing him to change into a wolf and feed on humans. Charged with killing men, women and children over a twenty-five year span, he willfully confessed his entire life to the court. He spoke of murdering his own son and eating his brains. His tales of feasting on girls in the fields while they milked cows caused panic and dread in the village.
After confessing to the heinous crimes, he was sentenced to death. Put on the wheel, a torture device, they pulled the flesh from his body with red, hot pincers. Then, his legs and arms were broken and he was eventually beheaded and burned to a heap of ashes. The investigation also implicated his mistress and his daughter as accomplices. They were burned alive that day with Peter on October 31, 1589.
The Magistrate of the town of Bedburg erected a macabre shrine to Peter. One that paid tribute to his victims but also reminded the townspeople that Satan’s followers would be destroyed. They placed the torture wheel upon a pole and decorated it with his severed head. Pieces of wood hung from the wheel to commemorate his victims. A pamphlet was distributed reminding those that practiced evil to take heed.
Peter Stubbe is only one of thousands of documented executions for the crime of being a werewolf. Between 1520 and 1630, over thirty-thousand people were accused in France alone. Many were burned at the stake. The madness had taken Europe by storm, pushing the pursuit of werewolves into the realm with witches and sorcerers.
Possibly the first recorded notes on werewolves lie in the Epic tale of Gilgamesh. The goddess Ishtar turns a shepherd into a wolf who is then devoured by his own dogs. The next recording of a werewolf story is in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. In the story, King Lycaon tries to trick the god Zeus into eating human flesh. Zeus catches the trick before it plays out, and curses Lycaon with lycanthropy. Although he is turned into a wolf, he still retains some of his human traits.
Many societies throughout the world’s history make some reference to one time or another to the werewolf and to werecreatures, in general. And while there are traces of werewolf mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Eight Eclogue, and Saint Albeus (Ailbhe) is said to have been suckled by wolves, the belief took shape in as early as 1407, when they are mentioned in a European witch trial.
Engraving entitled Lycaon changed into a wolf.
English: Lycaon. Engraving by Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book I, 209 ff.
WEREWOLF:
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English werwulf (akin to Old High German werwolf werewolf), from wer man + wulf wolf — more at virile, wolf
Date: before 12th century
: a person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form .
(Merriam-Webster Dictionery)
