Only a few minutes remained before he reached the safety of his home. Only a few minutes, but it was too late. The clouds overhead parted, and the great, silvery disk of a full moon appeared in the opening. Struck by the moonlight, he began to scream. His voice changed more and more until it became a piercing, animalistic howl. The mouth from which the roar had emanated became a muzzle filled with sharp fangs. His nose widened and darkened, and bristly whiskers sprouted on either side of his muzzle.
He continued to flee, now on all fours. His body grew stronger; animalistic muscles tore at the clothes he wore. He grew thick fur from the crown of his head to the tip of his shaggy tail. The transformation was complete. He became a wolf.
The physical transformation of a human into a wolf, or any other animal, is considered impossible. Despite this, belief in werewolves was widespread throughout medieval Europe. Myths, legends, and tales about these creatures arose in Scandinavia, France, Germany, Sicily, Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Greece. In America, too, for many years before Columbus's discovery, the local population, the Native Americans, lived in fear of werewolves.
It is believed that tales of werewolves date back to prehistoric times, when hunters donned wolf skins, believing they gave them the strength and courage of a dangerous animal. This is also how myths about belts and skins that people wore and became werewolves arose.
A practically inseparable and characteristic motif of werewolf legends is the full moon, which triggers the transformation. This characteristic is also attributed to prehistoric times. Early in the breeding of the first wild dogs, people noticed that these animals often howled at the full moon.
It's impossible to find wolf myths anywhere in the world that don't include one of the elements: the moon, wolves, and hunting. Many beliefs share a common feature: the goddess of the moon, who is also the patroness of hunting (Roman Diana, Greek Artemis, and Babylonian Ishtar), whose hunting dogs are humans transformed into wolves.
Lycanthropy, or so-called wolf madness, certainly influenced the origins of werewolf legends. Lycanthropy is a real mental disorder, the first cases of which were recognized as early as the 2nd century AD by Marcellus Sidetes.
A person suffering from this condition believes themselves to be a wolf or believes they could become one at any moment. Depending on the severity of the condition, the sufferer may tear raw meat with their teeth, howl at the full moon, or even attack people. In some cases, the attacker was forced to drink human blood, and the "possessed" would bite the victim's neck.
Historical chronicles abound with accounts of werewolves. The highest recorded cases occurred in the Middle Ages. Between 1520 and 1630, 30,000 loup garou (werewolf) trials were held in France.
A medieval engraving depicting a werewolf biting a woman.
A teenage shepherd, Jean Grenier, from near Bordeaux, France, "confessed" during his trial in 1603 to having bitten and devoured 50 children in the form of a wolf. He believed he owed his transformation to a mysterious, dark visitor he had encountered years earlier in the depths of the forest. This visitor, referred to in many stories as the Devil, supposedly gave the shepherd a magical balm and a wolf's skin. At sunset, the boy smeared himself with the wolf's skin, thus becoming a werewolf.
Tests conducted on the boy revealed that he was simply a village chatterbox, creating fantastical stories he himself believed in. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with lycanthropy and sent to a monastery for lifelong treatment.
People in the Middle Ages believed that a werewolf could be recognized by features unique to a human wolf: pointed ears, protruding teeth, broad eyebrows converging at the bridge of the nose, hairy hands, curved fingernails, and long middle fingers.
If such a thing as a werewolf existed, people must also have known where it came from. Many theories arose, as numerous as the identifying marks. A werewolf was created by donning a wolf's skin and participating in magical rites. It was believed that if someone drank from a puddle of wolf feet or from a stream frequented by wolves, they would surely become a werewolf. Eating wolf meat or the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf could also be fatal.
A bunch of garlic hung on a door was said to provide protection against werewolves, and the beast was killed with a blessed bullet, preferably a silver bullet, shot through the heart.
Brak komentarzy:
Prześlij komentarz