In folklore from around the world, a werewolf is a human with the capacity to transform into an unusually ferocious wolf. Active only at night and often (but not always) under a full moon, he devours men, women, children, and livestock, ripping out their throats with his claws and fangs. In some stories, a man who becomes a werewolf is the unwilling victim of bad genes, a curse, or a bite from another werewolf (as in the case of a certain Hogwarts professor). Much as he may loathe the harm he causes, he is unable to control his actions. In other tales, a sorcerer makes a conscious decision to become a werewolf--often by using an enchanted belt or special ointment--so that he can carry out his terrible deeds, usually in league with the Devil. Although werewolves are almost always men, tales of female and child werewolves also exist.
Tales of man-wolves habe been around since antiquity. Greek mythology tells of a bloodthirsty tyrant named Lycaon who greatly angered Zeus by serving him the flesh of a human chil. As punishment, Zeus turned Lycaon into a wolf, although some of his human features remained. This story is the source of the word "lycanthrope," another term for werewolf. Greek writers of the fourth century B.C. described folk beliefs in werewolves, and by the first century A.D., the Roman natural historian Pliny was writing of the creatures' existence as fact.
Werewolf legends and beliefs were fully entrenched in Europe by the early Middle Ages. Surprisingly, the image of the werewolf during this time was not all bad. While in some stories wicked stepmothers and villains turn out to be werewolves, in others the werewolf might be a hero, a saint, or a comic figure. In a famous French tale, when a nobleman confesses to his wife that he is a werewolf, she and her lover steal his clothing the next time he transforms. Unable to return to human form without his clothes, the nobleman is trapped as a wolf. He becomes a tame pet to the king until the truth is finally revealed. His clothes are returned, the evil wife and her lover are banished, and the noble werewolf is triumphant. In another legend, the people of a small village are startled to see a wolf dash down the main street and leap at a piece of meat left hanging up high to dry. Missing its target, the wolf falls into a well. When the townspeople look into the well, all they see is a very embarrassed naked woman!
By the sixteenths century, however, werewolves were no longer portrayed as heroes or figures of fun. Instead, they were regarded as a very real threat. As witch persecution gained momentum across Europe, dozens of people in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy were arrested, tried, and executed for being werewolves. Witch-hunters claimed that werewolves were actually witches or wizards who had made pacts with the Devil that enabled them to become wolves. Accused of horrific acts of mass murder and cannibalism, many of these alleged werewolves confessed under torture.
More than a dozen books on werewolves were published during this period. Many described how a wizard prepared for the transformation by shedding his clothes and rubbing his body with magic ointments made out of belladonna root, deadly nightshade, bat's blood, cinquefoil, henbane, soot, and an assortment of other, equally unpleasant ingredients. Next, the wizard donned a wolf's skin or an enchanted belt and uttered incantations to the Devil, who granted him the supernatural strength and speed with which to satisfy his appetite for human flesh and blood.
It is no coincidence that werewolf trials occurred in places where the problem of real wolves was quite serious. Wolf populations had surged in continental Europe after the great plague of the fourteenth century led to the abandonment of land formerly used for farming. Although wolves were much more likely to attack livestock than humans, they did occasionally claim a human victim, and such incidents were often attricuted to werewolves. In England, where wolves had become extinct by the sixteenth century, tales of werewolves were quite rare.
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