Page 60 - All About History - Issue 186-19

s Cranach the
Eld depiction of a
werewolf shows the
brutal role they played
in German myth

Imagesource:TheMetropolitanMuseumofArt Around 1200 CE the

French poem Guillaume
de Palerme told the
story of a queen turning
her stepson into a wolf

“To consider the werewolf so powerful that he might

independently change his form is in direct contradiction

to the belief that only God could hold such power”

werewolfery saw a sharp decline, and the belief FOLKLORE AND FAIRY TALES
in transformation was replaced by the diagnosis
of ‘melancholy’, a disease of the mind. This Nineteenth-century writers Jacob and Wilhelm
was, in large part, an attempt by Christian and Grimm collected the folk and fairy tales of the
Catholic authors to integrate belief in werewolf people, publishing them in volumes for the world
transformation with the omnipotence and power to read. One of their stories recorded a popular
of God, for to consider the werewolf so powerful German folktale in which three men go into
that he might independently change his form is the forest to cut wood. The first man was the
in direct contradiction to the belief that only God storyteller’s grandfather, the second man his
could hold such power. There are many texts from friend, but the third man was an unknown
this period that decry the werewolf transformation entity and, according to the narrator, there was
– authors as early as Saint Augustine of Hippo something sinister about him. This nefarious thing
(354-430 CE), through to Dutch physician Johann is revealed during the story when the third man
Weyer (1515-1588) and English author Reginald (believing the other two were asleep) put on a
Scot (1538-1599) all insisted that God could not be magical belt, turned into a werewolf (like a normal
responsible for such a monstrous beast. Even King wolf, only slightly different), ran off to devour a
James VI of Scotland, in his text Daemonologie foal in the neighbouring field and returned to
(1597), considered the werewolf to be a man his human form by removing the belt. In the late
suffering from delusions of transformation, which 1860s this was considered to be one of the most
was the cause of their ‘wolfish’ behaviour. It is, common werewolf tales in Germany.
however, important to remember that while the Due to the widespread movement from folk
upper echelons of educated society might have belief to science and reason during the 18th
lost their folkloric edge, the cultural belief in century, also known as the Enlightenment, the A medieval
werewolves remained and was integrated into the werewolf-tradition fairy tales soon morphed into illustration
realm of folklore and fairy tale. the literary werewolf of the 19th century. The of a werewolf
being tended
to by a monk

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