Folklore Methods to Become a Werewolf:
Get bitten by a werewolf.
Wear the skin of a Werewolf.
Drink water from a wolf’s print.
Eat dust from a wolf’s print.
Drink water from certain springs, especially in the Harz Mountains of Germany.
Eat a wolf’s brain.
The 7th of the 7th daughter were believed to be able to carry a werewolf.
Children born on the winter solstice or Christmas Eve have a higher chance than others of becoming a werewolf.
A Few Werewolf Cases in History:
Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun:
1521
Two French peasants
Tale goes that Burgot, while trying to gather his sheep during a storm, he met with three mysterious horsemen. They promised him future protection for his herd and money as long as Burgot obeyed of the horsemen as Lord. Eventually, this horseman returned and demanded that Burgot renounce all things holy.
Burgot then met Verdum who demanded he strip naked and rub a special ointment on himself. Ad he discovered he was becoming hairy, Verdum morphed into a werewolf as well and the two ran the French countryside committing murders. The supposedly tore a seven year-old boy to shreds, killed a woman and abducted a small girl who was said to have been eaten by them both.
Once captured, they were put to death. Their picture hung on the church doors of the village to remind all to heed warning that vile things could be accomplished by those possessed by Satan.
Gilles Garnier:
1573
A Hermit:
In the French town of Dole, half-eaten bodies of children were being found. Eventually a man named Gilles Garnier was arrested and convicted. It was claimed that he killed the children with his paws and teeth, cutting them into shreds, as he ate their flesh. He was sentenced to death.
Jacques Rollet:
1598
Tried for killing and eating a boy. Sent to a crazy house.
The Tailor:
The tailor hid out on the woods and waited for his victims. He alledgedly stored his victims in a cellar like meat. The court decided that the records compiled were so repulsive that they were destroyed.
The Child:
Jean Grenier of Aquitaire
Being an abused child, he ran away from home. He met a boy named Pierre La Tihaire. They met as horseman in the woods and were seduced by him. They rubbed their bodies in oil and transformed in werewolves. Fifteen children disappeared. When Grenier was captured in 1603, they found him to mentally disabled. He confessed and was sentenced to live in an asylum fir the remainder of his life. He lived for another eight years.
His case caused a shift in werewolf beliefs. He was later found to have been incapable of making rational decisions. One could not be punished for a crime they could not understand.
