Werewolf!

     My first memory of discovering werewolves is the 1941 movie The Wolf Man written by Curt Siodmak.  

    I was maybe 9 years old, watching Lon Chaney, Jr. metamorphose into a monster on a Friday Night Creature Feature.

    I learned that anyone who is bitten by a werewolf and lives will become a wolf!

    I learned that transformation was caused by the full moon!

    I learned a werewolf can be killed only with a silver bullet, or a silver knife or a stick with a silver handle.

    I learned that the pentagram is the mark of the werewolf, and that it will appear in the palm of the next victim.

    Is that what you know about werewolves, too?

    Imagine my surprise when, decades later, I discovered all of this was made up out of whole cloth for this movie!  How many movies, cartoons, tv shows, comic books, and video games rely on at least some of these "rules"?

    It's a truly amazing feat of cultural influence.  In 1940, anyone who had heard of werewolves knew the shapeshifters were people using artificial means to become beasts at will.  Maybe it was a potion, or a belt made of wolf skin.  Maybe a belt of human skin.  Maybe incantations.  

    Lycanthropy was, at bottom, just another form of witchcraft.  Or delusion, of course.  The exception, perhaps, was vampires.  Vampires would often take the form of a wolf - especially before Europeans made it to South America and discovered the "vampire bat".

    The common theme of all the werewolf stories is that the change is a choice.  Generally speaking, the lycanthrope retained human intelligence as a wolf.

    In 1941, Curt Siodmak changed all that.  The werewolf became a tragic figure.  After all, there's that "old poem":

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

May become a wolf

when the wolfsbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

    Fantastic worldbuilding by Siodmak!  He wanted a monster, but a sympathetic monster.  Someone doomed not only to kill, but to kill the ones closest to him.  Many historical lycanthropes did kill their friends and family, but again, they had every intention of doing so.  In Siodmak's world, the wolf is as much a victim as the dead.

    Old Werewolf stories were basically Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Despicable people want to be despicable without losing their personal reputation, fortune, or freedom.  Newer ones were more like The Incredible Hulk -  an otherwise normal man with a monster thrust upon him.

   The pentagram, long a symbol of various secret societies and occult practices, was never associated with lycanthropy.  It was a pretty good gimmick though!  It became the symbol the cursed human sees in the palm of the next to die.  That one did not make it into many other movies, but silver and the full moon sure did.

    If there is one thing everyone knows about werewolves, it's that they change in the light of the full moon.  If there's another thing they know, it's that a silver bullet will kill them.  Amazing!  Hundreds or thousands of years of shapeshifting legends do not mention this AT ALL.  One writer puts them in a script, and they become maybe the most fundamental "truths" of the tale!

    That really is the power of a good story.  At least in North America, the legend of the werewolf all goes back to that film in 1941.  Even the previous werewolf movie - The Werewolf of London - had almost no impact on the imagination of the public at large.  Maybe the people just did not dig the story.

    The terror of the old-school werewolf is in being the unwitting victim of such a beast.  Being eaten is a pretty basic fear.  The werewolves of The Howling were more like these monsters.  They were usually transformed unwittingly though.  Siodmak stikes again!

    The terror of the 1941 werewolf is in being forced to become the monster and hurting those around you.  All control is taken form you.  It is a different fear, but to my mind, no less terrifying.

    There is room for both, of course, and all the hybrids of the two.  

    Two hybrids I'd like to recommend to you, if you are the reading type:

    The Wolfman, 2008 by Nicholas Pekearo

    The men in a family are cursed.  The father was cursed.  When he dies, the oldest son is cursed.  When he dies, it passes on to his son... A different take on the curse.  The full moon still triggers a transformation, and the man's mind is subsumed by the beast.  An interesting twist is the man can concentrate on specific tasks for the wolf, effectively "aiming" it at particular people.  Not too unlike Dexter in that way.  A cool twist.

    Pekearo died before the book was published, unfortunately, so this is the only book with this werewolf.

    Wolf's Hour, 1990 by Robert McCammon

    I often say this is my favorite WWII werewolf soldier story.  This one, too, starts with a curse passed on by a bite.  However, Michael will ultimately be able to control the transformation AND keep his wits about him.  A pretty sweet combination for a spy!  

        I would be interested to know what your favorite werewolves are, and what aspects of werewolf lore you prefer in a story.

    Until next time, I leave you with this:

                                
The way you walked was thorny,

through no fault of your own.

But as the rain

enters the soil,

the river enters the sea,

so tears run to

a predestined end.

Your suffering is over, my son.

Now you will find peace.

Happy Halloween!