By The Full Of The Moon

A young man returns to his ancestral home after the death of his brother. The man falls in love with a beautiful woman who works in an antique store. He buys something as a pretext to see her. It is a cane with a wolf head on the handle.

One night he sees another young woman being attacked by a wolf. When he rushes to her defense he is bitten by the wolf before he kills it.

An old gypsy woman tells him that wolf was her son in wolf form. The bite meant that he would turn into a wolf when the moon was full.

That was the first werewolf movie that I ever saw. I thought that Lon Chaney Jr made a wimpy werewolf but I still liked the movie.

A werewolf is a man that transforms into a wolf under the right conditions. It is a cryptid meaning that although science has no real proof that there are werewolves there is also a good possibility that they might exist.

Were means adult human male. There are many were-animals but the most well known is the werewolf. According to the definition they are all adult males but you will see later that there are reported females and even children who transform into wolves.

The origin of werewolves depends on who you are talking to. Some believe the tales came from stories of babies being raised by wolves in the wild. The Norse myths talk of Berserkers who wore animal skins and were crazed by blood and blood-letting. Native Americans speak of men who became animals in order to hunt. There are stories from all over the world.

One comes from Greece. King Lycaeon was going to entertain the gods. Again stories vary as to whether he was trying to put one over on the gods or trying to please them. He served a young boy as part of the meat for the meal. The gods were so outraged that they caused Lycaeon to become a wolf and have to hunt for his own meat.

It is said that the only way to become a werewolf is to be bitten by a werewolf. Then again others claim you can transform yourself by use of incantations and/or potions. Some say witches turn people they are mad at into werewolves. Some say that there are whole families of werewolves and all babies will be werewolves too.

There are just as many ways to kill a werewolf. Silver bullets are supposed to be the only sure way. Garlic, crucifixes, and holy water that some people recommend probably don't have any effect. Salt will ward werewolves away. Some people also say that mercury (or quicksilver as it is sometimes called) works better than silver. Decapitation works as long as the head is not left anywhere near the body.

Is there any proof that werewolves exist? Well a few years ago a man in California made a video on his cell phone of a creature rushing at him. After seeing the footage a film company made a documentary about that and other sightings in California.

 In the 1500's in France there were trials to rival the Salem Witch Trials. Pierre Burgo and Michel Verdum were convicted of the mutilation and murder of a young boy, a 4 year old girl, and a woman. Jean Grenier murdered and ate 15 children. Gillas Garner was charged with mauling and killing children at the outskirts of his village.

The Tailor Of Chalons used his shop to lure kids in then he murdered them and saved some of the body parts for later. They found barrels full of bleached bones. His actions were so grisly that his name and a lot of the details were purposely deleted from legal records and now nobody even knows his real name.

All of the above were put to death.

In Texas a man-wolf was seen by a lot of the people who lived around there. He was more than 6 feet tall and stood on his hind legs. He had the yellow eyes of a wolf, long fangs, and a blunt snout. His face had some human features and some animal features. His body was covered with fur that was sort of patchy like a wild animal's fur might be. The creature killed sheep, cattle, chickens... whatever animals it could find for food.

One day a farmer went searching to find it to stop it from killing his livestock. The next morning his wife found her husband's foot with the toes gnawed off laying by the front door. Other body parts were found all over the farm.

The man's young son went out to avenge his father. He was never seen again. One by one the rest of the kids were attacked and killed. The wife and remaining daughter claimed that the wolfman then came into the house and attacked them both but they managed to get away. Some people said that the two women were werewolves too. After a few months the daughter gave birth. They immediately killed that werewolf baby.

The Werewolf of Bedburg  Little villages in Germany around Bedburg were plagued with what they thought were wolf attacks for many years. The victims' bodies were torn apart and partially eaten. Finally villagers were cornered and attacked by the huge wolf. But they fought back and captured the wolf.

The wolf turned into another villager named Peter Stubbe. They tortued him and he admitted to sorcery and making a pact with the devil. He admitted to killing 16 people mostly children. He even admitted that he had eaten his own son's brains. Death was his punishment. Then his body was burned.

East of the Baltic Sea was the country of Livonia. An 80 year old man admitted to being a werewolf. He claimed that witches were preventing crops from growing so the witches could take the grain to hell. This man with a group of werewolves fought with the witches three nights every year to protect the crops.

The judges at his trial were shocked that he claimed to be an agent against evil. They asked what happened to the souls of witches. They go to hell. What happened to the souls of werewolves? They go to heaven. The man claimed werewolves are the hounds of gods. His punishment was 10 lashes for idolatry and superstitious beliefs.

Prince Vseslav of Russia in the 11th century was believed to be a werewolf. During the day he would do his princely duties in human form. At night he turned into a wolf. That let him move to another town faster than his human form could take him.

 

In the middle 1900's there were a lot of werewolf sightings in Scotland, England , Germany, and North America.

Claudia Gaillard was seen behind a bush changing into a wolf with no tail. She was tortured but she shed no tears. Not one. She was burned at the stake.

In Pavia, Italy, a wolf attacked men and tore them to pieces. It was a farmer from the region. After he was captured he explained to his captors that the only difference between him and a real wolf was that a wolf's fur grows out from it's skin while his grew inward. They cut off his arms and legs to find proof. He died of his injuries.

In 1685 in Bavaria a large wolf held the villagers in terror. Rumor held that the werewolf was actually the mayor of the town. When it was finally caught and executed they dressed it in the mayor's clothes and displayed it in the town square until it was moved to a museum.

In what was probably the Fox tribe of Native Americans is the legend of Wisakachek. He was a shape changer who lived in the woods in what is now the state of Wisconsin and existed peacefully with humans.

One day while roaming in the woods he came across two young brothers from the Fox tribe. They had killed a deer and were dressing it to take back to the tribe. Wisakachek pretended to be a member of a neighboring tribe who was lost and hungry. The boys offered him some of the deer meat and he went on his way.

A week later he again saw the boys and stopped to talk to them. They told him that ever since the day they had last seen him they saw no game and the tribe was hungry.

Wisakachek showed them that he could shift forms into a wolf for hunting and said he would teach them. They had to promise that they would only hunt for food and never use their abilities to kill another human. They excitedly agreed and were able to supply the tribe with plenty of meat.

After many months one of the boys got into a fight with another boy of the tribe. He got mad and changed into a wolf and killed the boy. When the rest of the tribe understood what the boys could do they cast them out from the tribe.

Wisakachek saw them in the woods. When he found out what they had done he told the boy who had done the killing that he would forever after roam as a human by day and as a mindless wolf by night. Because the other boy had done no wrong he was left as a shapeshifter. That is the beginning of werewolves in America.

The final werewolf may surprise you. Remember the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood? The wolf in that story could talk. It knew how to dress in human clothing when it got to Grandma's house. It made it very clear that it planned to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Werewolf.