Werewolf Or The Mystery Of Transformation From Human To Animal - Alternative View

Werewolf Or The Mystery Of Transformation From Human To Animal - Alternative View
Werewolf Or The Mystery Of Transformation From Human To Animal - Alternative View

Video: Werewolf Or The Mystery Of Transformation From Human To Animal - Alternative View

Video: Werewolf Or The Mystery Of Transformation From Human To Animal - Alternative View
Video: Top 10 Werewolf Caught On Camera & Spotted In Real Life 2024, March
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The concept of "werewolf" is familiar to almost all peoples. For a modern person, this word is associated with another "horror movie" and is the embodiment of something magical.

For a huge number of years, official science has tried to attribute werewolf to pure fiction, but it turned out that this was impossible to do. After all, the fact remains: the stories about strange creatures collected in different parts of our planet coincide in an inexplicable way. The similarity in appearance, characters, behavior, and habits of werewolves in the legends of various peoples cannot be an ordinary accident.

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Legends say that a “shape-shifter” is a person who, within a few moments, can turn into a beast, and then, after some time, return to his usual appearance. Werewolves are phenomenally strong, practically invulnerable (they can only be dealt with with silver or obsidian) and are obsessed with the thirst for murder.

The transformation of an ordinary person into a monster often happens uncontrollably during the full moon. What is real, after all, did modern experts find in the nightmarish inventions of ancient and medieval authors? '

The legends about werewolves can be said to be a ubiquitous and very ancient phenomenon. They are found in almost all cultures. European peoples believed that sorcerers possessed such unique abilities, who took the form of a wolf for their needs. Werewolves were also called ordinary people who were turned into wolves by magic spells.

Interestingly, similar beliefs also existed on other continents, only in Africa a leopard appears instead of a wolf, in India - a tiger, and in South America - a jaguar. In Greece, however, they also believed that people can turn exclusively into wolves.

One of the legends even talks about a special island, which was located in Arcadia, in the middle of a deep swamp. A special group of human wolves allegedly lived on it, which could be joined by anyone who had passed the initiation ceremony. The inhabitants of Hellas even considered epileptic seizures as one of the manifestations of lycanthropy.

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There are especially many legends about people who know how to turn into wolves in Bavaria. True, these stories are so closely intertwined with stories about vampires, and the appearance of both versions of "evil" is so similar (both have long teeth and claws) that it is sometimes very difficult to separate a werewolf from a ghoul.

However, the "shape-shifters", according to the Bavarians, have very narrow pupils, and these creatures often gaze intently into the faces of ordinary people. In addition, in northern Germany, for some reason, there was a belief that the pronunciation of the word "wolf" in December provokes a werewolf attack on people.

The Danes were unshakably convinced that a werewolf could be recognized by looking at the shape of the eyebrows. And the Irish believed that shape-shifting was akin to a disease and therefore could affect entire families.

Creatures with anomalous abilities in Ireland have been specifically described. For example, the most famous legend about a werewolf from Meath says that the "shape-shifter" invited … a priest to his house. Padre had to look after the owner's sick wolf wife.

Over time, the concept of "werewolf" narrowed down. So they began to call a person who knows how to turn into a wolf. Why in this particular beast? If you carefully analyze the old legends, a certain pattern will become clear: stories about the atrocities of mysterious creatures appeared at a time when wolves, having multiplied, began to pose a real threat to human life.

In the Middle Ages, there was a belief that you can become a werewolf at the behest of a sorcerer or witch. Naturally, there was no shortage of “recipes” on how to get rid of this misfortune. The inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe were especially zealous. Here in the XV-XVII centuries a real cruel "witch hunt" took place.

Unfortunate people suspected of witchcraft were brutally tortured and then burned at the stake, drowned, wheeled or hung. In this case, werewolves "kept the company" of the next exposed witch. As the saying goes, “all this would be funny, whenever it was so sad”: according to official documents, in the 16th century the French parliament passed a law on the extermination of “shape-shifters”.

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As a result, from 1520 to 1630, more than 30,000 people were killed in the country on charges of witchcraft and werewolf …

Even after three centuries, the fear of "wolf men" has not disappeared. French peasants from remote areas of the country were afraid to leave their homes at night: they feared an attack by Lup-Garou (the French name for werewolf). By the way, the inhabitants of Brittany and Normandy still believe that a person can become a wolf.

Perhaps such a persistent conviction will not seem surprising if you flip through the old documents. In 1521, a traveler passing through the French border town of Poligny was attacked by a wolf. Fighting off the distraught beast, the man inflicted several wounds on the predator with a sword.

The wolf began to retreat towards the den. The traveler who was pursuing him went to the hut of a certain Michael Werdung at the very moment when the owner of the house was bandaging the wounds inflicted by the sword. Werdung was arrested on werewolf charges and taken to the city. Naturally, under torture the detainee could not remain silent for a long time.

He admitted that he rubbed his body with a special ointment, with which he turned into a beast, and then hunted people. Cannibal was burned at the stake after the trial.

Somewhat later, the case of a werewolf woman was considered in Auvergne (the husband of the “she-wolf informed the authorities about her), on whose account there were several human lives. During one of his "hunts" the "shape-shifter" lost her hand; the severed limb was presented to the court as evidence. After being tortured and confessing to committing a number of crimes, the woman was burned. There is a fair amount of such evidence.

In Eastern Europe, Germany and France, it was long believed that a werewolf could simply change its skin, turning it inside out with the side supposedly covered with thick fur. In order to return to human form, the monster needs to do the same operation again. Because of this superstition, thousands of people were literally cut to pieces by "truth seekers" who tried to turn their skin "fur outside".

In Slavic mythology, a werewolf was called a vovkulak (wolf lak, wolf). He had a specific character; there was clearly a mixture of folklore features and elements of Christian demonology. Among the Slavs, in contrast to the peoples of Europe, in ancient times a werewolf was a character … positive.

Our ancestors considered the fact of "throwing" into the beast an absolutely normal phenomenon; moreover, such practices, according to the ancients, were quite common in Slavic territory. In any case, Herodotus, without much surprise, stated the fact that the Neuro tribe (apparently, inhabiting the territory of modern Belarus) changes its appearance for several days every year, turning into a large pack of wolves.

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And if you remember the heroic epic of our ancestors, then in it the main character was often a werewolf and was described as a being of divine origin. Moreover, the "range" of capabilities of such heroes was surprisingly wide.

Heroes at the most critical moment could turn into a tur, a bear, a wolf or a lynx to help cope with the superior forces of the enemy; into an ermine or marten - to get into the camp of the enemy, to find out secrets, or to mess with someone else's warehouse and spoil the weapon; to the falcon - to survey the surroundings and quickly get to the desired place.

However, with the adoption of Christianity as the official state religion, everything changed radically. The former deities were given the status of demons; It is natural that the heroes and “shape-shifters” who have extraordinary abilities or helpers either urgently “lost” their unusual qualities, or turned into monsters, a collision with which threatens a person with torment and death.

True, despite this, stories about werewolves, from time to time changing their human appearance to a wolf's or bearskin, did not lose their popularity and continued to occupy a prominent place in folklore.

One of the varieties of werewolf legends are stories about children who were brought up in a wolf pack and therefore adopted all the habits and habits of wild animals. Unfortunately, such stories are created on a very real basis.

One of the earliest described cases of wolves feeding babies is the story of Romulus and Remus. And in the XIV century in Hesse, in the forests near the city, a strange creature appeared. When in 1344 the "beast" was caught, it turned out that it was an eight-year-old boy, completely feral and behaving completely like a wolf.

Around the same years, another Mowgli was found in the forests of Bavaria. Unfortunately, for this foundling, circumstances were almost hopeless: the boy was already over 12 years old, and at least 10 of them he spent in a wolf den.

Wild kids don't look like the cute cartoon Mowgli. They are covered with scars, sores, do not care about their hygiene, growl and bite.

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"Wild" people were found in different countries, but the largest number of them were found in India. From 1843 to 1933, 16 wolf children (of both sexes), several panther babies, leopards, monkeys and even an antelope boy were caught here.

It is difficult to say why some of the "human cubs" animals take under their protection and raise as their own offspring. However, those Mowgli who survived in the jungle perfectly adapted to the wild life (even their teeth changed!), Clearly repeated the habits of their adoptive parents and practically lost their human appearance.

Forcibly cut off from their already familiar life, they quickly perished in the human world … The wolf-boy Dean became unique in this sense: he "held out" among people for 20 years and during this time, with great difficulty, he learned to stand upright, dress, use dishes and understand others.

Of course, feral children cannot be considered werewolves in any way. However, the existence of such "demihumans" influenced the formation of legends about terrible "shape-shifters". After all, the appearance of Mowgli is indeed terrible for an ordinary person: the "savages" are dirty, covered with scratches and sores, with matted long hair, with broken teeth; mouth stained with blood from raw meat eaten.

Their nails are long, sharp and strong, therefore they resemble the claws of a predator.

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Mowgli take postures typical of animals, copy the behavior of other members of "their" flock, utter absolutely animal growls and howls, and are also distinguished by special ferocity.

The fact that real werewolves do exist has been talked about for a long time by parapsychologists. Naturally, representatives of official science categorically disagreed with this statement. For centuries, all attempts to logically explain the phenomenon of "shifters" in enlightened circles were considered outright nonsense.

However, some circumstances forced specialists to pay great attention to the "fabulous" problem. Relatively recently, they started talking about the fact that a rather rare disease - lycanthropy - can lie at the heart of all stories about werewolves.

This attack was named after the king of Arcadia Lycaon, mentioned in Greek mythology. Legend says that this ruler was distinguished by utter cruelty, brought human sacrifices to the gods and even tried to "treat" Zeus, who came to visit him, with the body of a newly slaughtered child.

For all the atrocities, the gods turned Lycaon into a wolf. At the same time, the king retained some signs of his natural appearance, understood everything that was happening to him and even tried to speak.

So, doctors dubbed lycanthropy a special form of insanity, in which the patient begins to believe that he has turned into an animal (most often - into a wolf). In addition, it turned out that even in ancient times they knew about this phenomenon.

In ancient Greece, this disease was called "wolf madness." And Marcellus Sidst in 125 BC. e. described a person affected by lycanthropy, pointing out that the victim of the disease is seized by madness, which is accompanied not only by wolf ferocity, but also by bouts of truly brutal hunger.

Finally, modern Aesculapians drew attention to the testimony of their ancient colleagues, as well as to the amazing "vitality" and widespread prevalence of stories about werewolves.

In 1963, the work "On Porphyria and the Etiology of Werewolves" was presented to the Royal Society of Medicine. Its author, Dr. Lee Illis from Hampshire, during his research processed a huge amount of documentary evidence and chronicles, as well as about 80 cases of similar diseases described and studied by certified doctors.

As a result, he presented a number of arguments explaining the outbreaks of lycanthropy in Europe and other parts of the world at different times. According to the doctor, all the appearance of werewolves has a reliable medical rationale.

Lee Illis stated: “I believe that the so-called werewolves (werewolves) of the past, at least in most cases, suffered from congenital porphyria. The evidence for this lies in the correspondence between the symptoms of this rare disease and the description of werewolves in the abundant evidence that has come down to us."

The author of the work indicated that porphyria is a consequence of a rare type of genetic disorder. They, in particular, lead to the fact that the unfortunate victim of the disease begins to develop a special skin sensitivity to light (especially sunlight).

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This phenomenon is called vesicular erythema and leads to the fact that the patient under the influence of light begins to become covered with inflamed spots. Usually, skin lesions are accompanied by excruciating pain, as a result of which people not only lose their human appearance, but also lose their mind.

Moreover, the matter does not end with one skin irritation. Inflammation quickly turns into deep ulcers, which then spread to cartilage and bones. The patient's eyelids, nose, ears and fingers are gradually destroyed. Sometimes the skin of the victim of a revolt of the hormonal system turns into dark spots, and the teeth, due to porphyrin deposited in the enamel, acquire a red or red-brown color. As a result, the patient, of course, does not turn into a wolf, but becomes a creature that is very far from a person in his physical and mental understanding.

In general, the condition of the porphyria sufferers, as medically outlined by Dr. Illis in his original work, corresponds exactly to that of a werewolf. Judge for yourself: the patient prefers to leave the house at night - daylight causes him intolerable pain; the mental manifestations of the disease gradually intensify, passing from mild hysteria to manic-depressive psychosis; inflammation on the exposed parts of the body and face resembles the abrasions and bites typical of the "changeling". The unfortunate beard is long and neglected - due to acute inflammation of the skin, it is not cut or shaved, and the distorted features of the patient's face sometimes resemble a terrible mask.

All these classic signs of the legendary werewolf are attested by many medieval judges.

The doctor points out that porphyria has several varieties. All of them are based on gene "failures" and arise as a result of metabolic disorders.

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But the kind of disease (congenital porphyria) that led to the birth of the myth of werewolves is fortunately extremely rare.

Of course, the author of the acclaimed book considered it nonsense to say that a person bitten by a sick person can become a lycanthrope.

However, Illis not only did not rule out the option of heredity, but in some cases called it natural. Indeed, the development of porphyria is influenced by both genetic abnormalities and the peculiarities of the climate of each locality, food and methods of nutrition.

This seems to explain the fact that in Western Europe "wolf madness" was such a frequent occurrence and sometimes covered entire villages (especially many such cases were recorded in Sweden and Switzerland). But in Ceylon, they have never heard of such a disease. Werewolf legends are not recorded here either.

In our days, attacks by lycanthropes on humans also occur. True, not often. Since 1990, 46 people have died of porphyria in Brazil, Spain and the United Kingdom. According to the United States, there are about a thousand people in their country suffering from this rare and terrible genetic disease.

The discovery of Lee Illis marked the beginning of research into the problem that humanity has faced since ancient times. Moreover, the version of the English doctor has not clarified all the issues related to werewolf. In particular, all sources mentioned that the “shape-shifter” could at the right moment (most often, after a few hours) regain his human form.

Illis wrote that the "reverse transformation" is theoretically possible, but … unlikely. The scientist also failed to explain why werewolves are so affected by the rapid growth of the moon.

By the way, in those rare cases when the appearance of the "shape-shifter" is not associated with the full moon, it is observed in special places described as "black earth", "black rocks", "black stones" (where there are minerals or rocks of a dark, almost black). Why? Medicine cannot yet answer this question. So the mystery of the wolf-man has not been fully disclosed to this day …