Oct

29

Crying Wolf.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

October 29, 2007 |

Even a man who is pure of heart

And says his prayers by night

May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

And the moon is full and bright.

–from the movie The Wolf Man (1941)

Because of Universal Studios’ golden age of horror films in the 1930’s and early 1940’s, the Wolf Man forms part of an unholy trinity with Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. Unlike the other two, however, the Wolf Man doesn’t have a specific literary point of origin; the film’s story is almost entirely the invention of scriptwriter Curt Siodmak. There is, however, a long history of werewolf literature, but rather than a single story it often takes the form of collections of folklore.

Generally considered to be one of the best werewolf books, and one of the first modern books to survey the history of the werewolf, is The Book Of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould. Born in 1834, Baring-Gould was a prolific writer, producing novels and theological writings as well as books on folklore and history, and editing collections of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. He became an ordained priest in 1865, the same year his book on werewolves was published. His book on werewolves is, as far as I know, the first to trace the etymological origins of the term “werewolf”, which combines the Anglo-Saxon term “were”, meaning “man” and “wolf”. He also associates the werewolf with the Viking berserkers, since there’s a theory that the term “berserk” derives from the words “bear” and “sark”, the latter being a Scandinavian term for coat or garment worn next to the skin. Baring-Gould also gives a long and frequently gruesome history of people either accused of being werewolves, or who, through their ferocity and cruelty, he simply decided to include in the category. While he’s been accused of making lycanthropy a lower-class problem, some of the people Baring-Gould cites as examples of werewolves are members of the nobility. In fact he spends three chapters on the Marechal de Retz, who was also known as Bluebeard. Unlike the fictional Bluebeard the Marechal murdered children, and would more accurately be termed a serial killer rather than a werewolf. Baring-Gould also tells the story of the Countess Bathory of Hungary, who, since she drained the blood of virgin women and bathed in it, has been more often associated with vampires.

In 1933 writer Montague Summers, who also wrote about vampires and witchcraft in Britain, would also begin his book The Werewolf In Lore And Legend with an etymological lesson on the origins of the term, but more narrowly focused on tales of people either transforming themselves into wolves or behaving in a wolflike manner. He limits his survey to Western Europe and Russia, with a concluding note on the werewolf in literature, but explains that the idea of lycanthropy is so widespread he could have easily expanded the book to include tales from around the world.

In recent years werewolf studies have proliferated, with werewolves filling every role from characters in role-playing games to objects of literary, philosophical, and psychological study. They’ve even become heroes in supernatural romance novels. Just a few contemporary books about werewolves specifically include The Beast Within: A History of The Werewolf by Adam Douglas, and The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within by Chantal Bourgault du Coudray. Journalist Linda Godfrey, researching sightings of what may or may not have been a werewolf in her town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, wrote The Beast of Bray Road (a funny book, but also the basis for an awful made-for-TV movie), and has written a broader investigative work, Hunting The American Werewolf. There’s also Half-Human, Half-Animal, by Jamie Hall, which explores not just lycanthropy but people who transform into everything from foxes to dolphins. (Check out Hall’s web site for more information not just about werewolves but other shapeshifters.) Although not strictly speaking a book about werewolves, the short-story collection A Werewolf Problem In Central Russia by Victor Pelevin is very funny. The title story uses a bit of werewolf lore that’s largely overlooked in contemporary accounts of the werewolf: a group of individuals who get together to turn themselves into werewolves. In fact the idea of the werewolf as a solitary, and often vicious, creature derives from a misinformed view of wolves. Montague Summers repeats this misinformed view, stating, “The distinctive features of the wolf are unbridled cruelty, bestial ferocity, and unbridled hunger.” Throughout Europe the wolf has for a long time been used as a symbol of evil. Even before Christianity found its way into Europe, though, the wolf was a common metaphor in the Bible for evil, or for duplicitous people. It’s been stated that agrarian societies, since they breed docile herd animals that make easy prey for wolves, fear the wolf while hunter-gatherer societies admire it, seeing the wolf as a counterpart. As human populations increased across Europe wolves, and their natural food sources, declined. Forced into smaller areas and competing with humans for food, wolves naturally found a new food source in docile sheep and even cows. The wolf became a competitor, preying on human food sources and, in very desperate circumstances, preying on humans. Wolves are, by nature, pack animals; their hunting methods are very similar to those of lions, but while the lion is considered a majestic, noble beast familiarity bred contempt of the wolf. Their close relationship to dogs probably didn’t help either; having been domesticated the dog could be seen as a civilized counterpart to the wolf. The wolf, and, consequently, the werewolf, is the antithesis of civilization.

Contemporary attitudes have changed, doing an almost complete-about face. In contemporary novels and recent films like Wolf with Jack Nicholson, the werewolf is now a hero. The modern werewolf is more difficult to define in our consciousness. It’s no longer a representative of a wild, uncontrollable self we have to repress, but rather something we can, cautiously, explore, even embrace. We still find evil in our world, but animals, or the wild, untamed areas, are less frequently metaphors for that evil. We find more evil in cities and factories of the Industrial Revolution than in the dark woods and jungles of earlier eras. Baring-Gould, if he were writing today, might have written about serial killers instead of werewolves. Part of it the reason for this change, I think, is that the wolf has been externalized. It is no longer a metaphor but rather a living animal, and better understood for its role in the ecosystem. Scientists have found that wolves actually benefit the herd animals, such as caribou, that they prey upon by culling the weak and sick, leaving better stock to survive and breed. The realization that the wolf is in serious decline, that the closest surviving relative of our best friend the dog may become extinct, has not only raised our awareness of the importance of wolves ecologically but also awakened a desire to preserve them. Attempts to reintroduce wolves to areas where they’ve been exterminated are controversial, but, while I’m sympathetic with farmers who don’t want wolves to come back, I think we need wolves and we need the wild, untouched areas where they and other animals survive. While I’m wary of such romantic theories, it could also be that we, as a global society, have become more conscious of something we knew all along: civilization can’t exist on its own without wildness. If we lose the wilderness, if we lose the ecosystems around the planet we depend on for the air we breathe and the food we eat, we destroy ourselves. Just as important is our need to acknowledge, and feed, the wildness in ourselves. The wolf, and the werewolf, are our past and our future.


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Crying Wolf. on December 23, 2007 3:19 pm

    [...] Crying Wolf. Baring-Gould also tells the story of the Countess Bathory of Hungary, who, since she drained the blood of virgin women and bathed in it, has been more often associated with vampires. In 1933 writer Montague Summers, who also wrote about … [...]

  2. Crying Wolf. on December 23, 2007 3:19 pm

    [...] Crying Wolf. Baring-Gould also tells the story of the Countess Bathory of Hungary, who, since she drained the blood of virgin women and bathed in it, has been more often associated with vampires. In 1933 writer Montague Summers, who also wrote about … [...]

  3. The Loopy Garou. : Just Write on October 17, 2008 12:38 am

    [...] try to indulge my werewolf fetish on a regular basis, but in October it seems to come on even stronger, so I have to pull out a few [...]

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