Since ancient times, there have been myths and legends about people capable of transforming themselves or transforming others into various animals (less often objects).
Werewolf beliefs play a prominent role in folk tales and are common across the globe. In different countries, the most common animals for transformation were predatory animals, for example:
Volkolak or wolfodlak is a lycanthrope in Slavic mythology.
Kitsune is a werewolf fox in Japanese mythology.
Tanuki is a raccoon dog.
Anioto are leopard people.
Rugaru is a wolf-headed man or a "hybrid" of a man with a dog, pig, cow, or even chicken (usually white).
Silks are the seal people in Celtic mythology.
Promotional video:
The stories about them of peoples of various races are very similar to each other.
The transformation of a person into an animal is a very common plot in the mythologies of different peoples of the world, which has been known since ancient times. People usually "turned" into the most dangerous animal in a particular area.
For example, many of the "Stone Age" drawings that have been discovered are images of animal and human hybrids. The creatures depicted have the animal features of a bison, deer, horse, cat, bat, kangaroo, the appearance of a bird, a lizard, and a fish. The oldest figurine of such a creature - a man with a cat's head - was found in Germany and dates back 32 thousand years ago.
One of the earliest sources that mention werewolves are Greek myths. They speak of Lycaon, the king, who offered Zeus a dish of human flesh; the angry thunderer turned Lycaon into a wolf.
And in the ethnic culture of the North American Indians, the conversion into an animal-totem of the tribe is an indicator of the highest fusion with the spirit of the ancestor. In Scandinavia, it was believed that berserkers know how to throw themselves into bears and wolves.
Among the Slavic legends, in addition to oral folk art, one can recall "The Lay of Igor's Host", which describes the capture of Novgorod by Vseslav of Polotsk and the battle on Nemiga. Vseslav is represented there as a sorcerer and a werewolf.
The myth of werewolves was widespread in almost all peoples and covered both wild animals, which were feared in a particular area, and domestic animals that were close to man. It became most famous from the beginning of the Middle Ages until the 16th century, then its prevalence began to fade.
Nowadays, rare references are sometimes found in modern urban legends and bylichs, but in the last 60 years this myth has been associated mainly with the activities of sorcerers and shamans.
We should also consider werewolves in modern culture. Here werewolves are among the most popular types of supernatural beings. Sometimes works with their participation are even classified as a separate subgenre of science fiction. Gothic literature of the 18th century and American budget magazines of the early 20th century are considered the historical roots of modern fiction about werewolves. The first film to feature an anthropomorphic werewolf is The 1935 London Werewolf.
At the moment, many books have been written on the topic of werewolves (for example, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, Watches), this image has been used in numerous computer games (for example, Nightlife and Werewolf: The Apocalypse) and films (for example, "Twilight" and "The Brothers Grimm"). At the same time, werewolves are both positive and negative characters.
Often in modern science fiction, the plot is built around the fact that vampires and werewolves are sworn enemies and fight with each other (for example, one of the deadly weapons for a vampire is a werewolf bite). Perhaps such a plot came from the idea that vampires cannot be positive characters, but werewolves can (although in modern culture the opposite is also possible, for example, in the film "Another World"). It has not yet been possible to find the original source of the plot about the war of werewolves and vampires.
However, the vampires themselves have long been considered werewolves (turning into bats, fog, etc.), such as, for example, is mentioned in the classic novel about vampires by Bram Stoker "Count Dracula". Thus, vampirism and shapeshifting are signs inherent in a supernatural being, and are not mutually exclusive.
Despite the vast distribution of werewolf stories, geographically and culturally, they share a number of common features.
In the minds of people, werewolves are divided into two types:
- Voluntary transformation (sorcerers, shamans, etc.)
- Charmed (people who became reversible after some action by a sorcerer, shaman, or by infection)
There are a number of actions attributed to werewolves (for example, wolves):
- makes you hungry;
- sucks blood from people and dogs;
- takes the image of a handsome guy and makes a young widow enter into a marriage with him;
- kills the victim, tearing it to pieces.
In external signs, common features are also observed:
- the body is covered with hair and completely or partially resembles the body of an animal;
- moves on four limbs and behaves like an animal;
- It is also believed that werewolves can possess many outstanding abilities (exceeding the capabilities of not only humans, but also animals): supernatural strength, agility and speed, long life, night vision, etc.
Folk fantasy paints the image of a wolf with bright colors: a yellowish face, pitted with deep wrinkles; disheveled, standing on end hair; red, bloodshot eyes; hands covered with blood to the elbows; iron teeth - pitch black; bluish mustache and saggy skin on the body - this is the appearance of a wolf.
Also, some peoples believed that the werewolf retains human thinking and essence, changing only the external appearance.
The transformation into a werewolf was accompanied by various rituals: jumping over a hoop or belt, taking certain infusions, smearing with a special ointment or throwing on a special, charmed skin.
Initially, it was believed that you can kill a werewolf by inflicting a fatal wound on him, for example, by striking him in the heart or chopping off his head. The wounds inflicted on the werewolf in animal form remain on his human body. In this way, you can expose a werewolf in a living person: if the wound inflicted on the beast later manifests itself in a person, then this person is that werewolf. In the modern tradition, you can kill a werewolf, like many other evil spirits, with a silver bullet or silver weapon. At the same time, traditional anti-vampiric remedies in the form of garlic, holy water and aspen cola are not effective against werewolves. After death, the beast turns into a man for the last time.
The transformation phenomenon has been known for a very long time. He found echoes in legends telling about brave warriors who fought without fear and with unprecedented strength. Terrified the villagers, who were afraid to be the victim of a sorcerer or a werewolf. And even now it sometimes pops up in eyewitness stories about giant dogs, talking animals, etc. But these stories and legends are now undergoing a change of definition - what would have been called the pranks of a werewolf can now be called, for example, "Chupacabra."
Man has an animal fear of the unknown, so most werewolf stories find eternal life on the pages of books or on the screen.