Werewolf
In folklore, a werewolf, or occasionally lycanthrope, is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf or therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either voluntarily or involuntarily due to a curse or other affliction. In modern fiction, especially film, transformations are often depicted as triggered by the full moon and transmitted by a bite or scratch from another werewolf. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Petronius and Gervase of Tilbury.
The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the Middle Ages. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs spread to the Western Hemisphere with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland, especially the Valais and Vaud, in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century.
The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, with accusations of lycanthropy being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials. During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with the persecution of wolf-charmers recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in Carinthia and Styria.
After the end of the witch trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre. Werewolf fiction as a genre has premodern precedents in medieval romances and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional" chapbook tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern popular culture.
Names
The Modern English werewolf descends from the Old English werwulf, which is a cognate of Middle Dutch weerwolf, Middle Low German warwulf, werwulf, Middle High German werwolf, and West Frisian waer-ûl. These terms are generally derived from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as *wira-wulfaz, itself from an earlier Pre-Germanic form *wiro-wulpos. An alternative reconstruction, *wazi-wulfaz, would bring the Germanic compound closer to the Slavic meaning, with other semantic parallels in Old Norse úlfheðnar and úlfheðinn, Old Irish luchthonn, and Sanskrit Vṛkājina.The Norse branch underwent taboo modifications, with Old Norse vargúlfr replacing *wiraz with vargr, perhaps under the influence of the Old French expression leus warous ~ lous garous, which literally means 'wolf-werewolf'. The modern Norse form varulv was either borrowed from Middle Low German werwulf, or else derived from an unattested Old Norse *varulfr, posited as the regular descendant of Proto-Germanic *wira-wulfaz. An Old Frankish form *werwolf is inferred from the Middle Low German variant and was most likely borrowed into Old Norman garwaf ~ garol, with regular Germanic–Romance correspondence w- / g-.
The Proto-Slavic noun *vьlko-dlakь, meaning "wolf-haired", can be reconstructed from Serbian vukòdlak, Slovenian vołkodlȃk, and Czech vlkodlak, although formal variations in Slavic languages and the late attestation of some forms pose difficulties in tracing the origin of the term. The Greek Vrykolakas and Romanian Vîrcolac, designating vampire-like creatures in Balkan folklores, were borrowed from Slavic languages.
The same form is found in other non-Slavic languages of the region, such as Albanian vurvolak and Turkish vurkolak. Bulgarian vьrkolak and Church Slavonic vurkolak may be interpreted as back-borrowings from Greek. The name vurdalak first appeared in Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's work Pesni, published in 1835. The source of Pushkin's distinctive form remains debated in scholarship.
A Proto-Celtic noun *wiro-kū, meaning 'man-dog', has been reconstructed from Celtiberian uiroku, the Old Brittonic place-name Viroconium, the Old Irish noun ferchu, and the medieval personal names Guurci and Gurki. Wolves were metaphorically designated as 'dogs' in Celtic cultures.
The modern term lycanthropy comes from Ancient Greek lukanthrōpía, itself from lukánthrōpos, meaning 'wolf-man'. Ancient writers used the term solely in the context of clinical lycanthropy, a condition in which the patient imagined himself to be a wolf. Modern writers later used lycanthrope as a synonym of werewolf, referring to a person who, according to medieval superstition, could assume the form of wolves.
History
Indo-European comparative mythology
The European motif of the devilish werewolf devouring human flesh harks back to a common development during the Middle Ages in the context of Christianity, although stories of humans turning into wolves take their roots in earlier pre-Christian beliefs.Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology, wherein lycanthropy is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the kóryos warrior class, which may have included a cult focused on dogs and wolves identified with an age grade of young, unmarried warriors. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone's 1987 work.
Classical antiquity
A few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and Greek mythology. Herodotus, in his Histories, wrote that according to what the Scythians and the Greeks settled in Scythia told him, the Neuri, a tribe to the northeast of Scythia, were all transformed into wolves once every year for several days and then changed back to their human shape. He added that he was unconvinced by the story, but the locals swore to its truth. The tale was also mentioned by Pomponius Mela.File:Lycaon Transformed into a Wolf LACMA M.71.76.9.jpg|thumb|Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf, engraving by Hendrik Goltzius.In the second century BC, the Greek geographer Pausanias related the story of King Lycaon of Arcadia, who was transformed into a wolf because he had sacrificed a child on the altar of Zeus Lycaeus. In the version of the legend told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, when Zeus visits Lycaon disguised as a commoner, Lycaon wants to test if he is really a god. To that end, he kills a Molossian hostage and serves his entrails to Zeus. Disgusted, the god turns Lycaon into a wolf. However, in other accounts of the legend, like that of Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca, Zeus blasts him and his sons with thunderbolts as punishment.
Pausanias also relates the story of an Arcadian man called Damarchus of Parrhasia, who was turned into a wolf after tasting the entrails of a human child sacrificed to Zeus Lycaeus. He was restored to human form 10 years later and became an Olympic champion. This tale is also recounted by Pliny the Elder, who calls the man Demaenetus, quoting Agriopas. According to Pausanias, this was not a one-off event, for men have been transformed into wolves during sacrifices to Zeus Lycaeus since the time of Lycaon. If they abstain from tasting human flesh while wolves, they will be restored to human form nine years later; if they do not abstain, they will remain wolves forever.
Lykos of Athens was a wolf-shaped herο whose shrine stood by the jury court, and the first jurors were named after him.
Pliny the Elder likewise recounts another tale of lycanthropy. Quoting Euanthes, he mentions that in Arcadia, once a year, a man was chosen by lot from the Anthus's clan. The chosen man was escorted to a marsh in the area, where he hung his clothes on an oak tree, swam across the marsh, and transformed into a wolf, joining a pack for nine years. If during these nine years, he refrained from tasting human flesh, he returned to the same marsh, swam back, and recovered his previous human form, with nine years added to his appearance. Ovid also relates stories of men who roamed the woods of Arcadia in the form of wolves.
Virgil, in his poetic work Eclogues, wrote of a man called Moeris who used herbs and poisons picked in his native Pontus to turn himself into a wolf. In prose, the Satyricon, written circa AD 60 by Petronius, one of the characters, Niceros, tells a story at a banquet about a friend who turned into a wolf. He describes the incident as follows, "When I look for my buddy I see he'd stripped and piled his clothes by the roadside... He pees in a circle round his clothes and then, just like that, turns into a wolf!... after he turned into a wolf he started howling and then ran off into the woods."
Early Christian authors also mentioned werewolves. In The City of God, Augustine of Hippo gives an account similar to that found in Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Augustine explains that "It is very generally believed that by certain witches' spells men may be turned into wolves..." Physical metamorphosis was also mentioned in the Capitulatum Episcopi, attributed to the Synod of Ancyra in the 4th century, which became the early Christian Church's doctrinal text in relation to magic, witches, and transformations such as those of werewolves. The Capitulatum Episcopi states that "Whoever believes that anything can be...transformed into another species or likeness, except by God Himself...is beyond doubt an infidel."
In the works of the early Roman Christian writers, werewolves often received the name versipellis. In City of God, Augustine instead used the phrase "in lupum fuisse mutatum" to describe the metamorphosis of werewolves, which is similar to phrases used in the medieval period.