Werwolves by Elliott O’Donnell

WHAT IS A WERWOLF? What is a werwolf? To this there is no one very satisfactory reply. There are, indeed, so many diverse views held with regard to the nature and classification of werwolves, their existence is so keenly disputed, and the subject is capable of being regarded from so many standpoints, that any attemptContinue…

WERWOLF METAMORPHOSIS COMPARED WITH OTHER BRANCHES OF LYCANTHROPY THE wolf is not the only animal whose shape, it is stated, man may possess the power of assuming; and it may be of some interest to inquire briefly into the varying branches of lycanthropy, comparing them with the one already under discussion. In Orissa, the powerContinue…

THE SPIRITS OF WERWOLVES IT seems that there is a disposition in certain minds to associate lycanthropy with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. A brief examination of the latter will, however, suffice to show there is very little analogy between the two. Transmigration of souls, a metempsychosis, deals solely with the passing ofContinue…

HOW TO BECOME A WERWOLF AS I have already stated, in some people lycanthropy is hereditary; and when it is not hereditary it may be acquired through the performance of certain of the rites ordained by Black Magic. For the present I can only deal with the more general features of these rites (which varyContinue…

WERWOLVES AND EXORCISM IN the preceding chapter I touched on one or two modes of evoking the spirits that have it in their power to confer the property of lycanthropy; I now pass on to the question of exorcism in relation to werwolves. Is it possible to exorcize the evil power of metamorphosis possessed byContinue…

THE WERWOLF IN THE BRITISH ISLES IT is commonly known that there were once wolves in Great Britain and Scotland. Whilst history tells us of a king who tried to get rid of them by offering so much for every wolf’s head that was brought to him, we read in romance how Llewellyn slew Gelert,Continue…

THE WERWOLF IN FRANCE IN no country has the werwolf flourished as in France, where it is known as the loup garou; where it has existed in all parts, in every age, and where it is even yet to be found in the more remote districts. Hence one could fill a dozen volumes with the stories,Continue…

WERWOLVES AND VAMPIRES AND GHOULS THROUGHOUT the Middle Ages, and even in the seventeenth century, trials for lycanthropy were of common occurrence in France. Among the most famous were those of the Grandillon family in the Jura, in 1598; that of the tailor of Châlons; of Roulet, in Angers; of Gilles Garnier, in Dôle, inContinue…

WERWOLVES IN GERMANY NO country in the world is richer in stories of everything appertaining to the supernatural than Germany. The Rhine is the favourite river of nymphs and sirens, to whose irresistible and fatal fascinations so many men have fallen victims. Along its shores are countless haunted castles, in its woods innumerable terrifying phantoms.Continue…

A LYCANTHROPOUS BROOK IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS; OR, THE CASE OF THE COUNTESS HILDA VON BREBER ANOTHER case of lycanthropy in Germany, connected with the Harz Mountains, occurred somewhere about the beginning of the last century. Count Von Breber, chief of the police of Magdeburg, whilst away from home on a holiday with his youngContinue…

WERWOLVES IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE BALKAN PENINSULA The Case of the Family of Kloska and the Lycanthropous Flower IN the mountainous regions of Austria-Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula are certain flowers credited with the property of converting into werwolves whoever plucks and wears them. Needless to say, these flowers are very rare, but I haveContinue…

THE WERWOLF IN SPAIN WERWOLVES are, perhaps, rather less common in Spain than in any other part of Europe. They are there almost entirely confined to the mountainous regions (more particularly to the Sierra de Guadarrama, the Cantabrian, and the Pyrenees), and are usually of the male species. Generally speaking the property of lycanthropy inContinue…

THE WERWOLF IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS BELGIUM abounds in stories of werwolves, all more or less of the same type. As in France, the werwolf, in Belgium, is not restricted to one sex, but is, in an equal proportion, common to both. By far the greater number of werwolfery cases in this country areContinue…

THE WERWOLVES AND MARAS OF DENMARK SINCE so much has already been written upon the subject of werwolves in Denmark, it is my intention only to touch upon it briefly. It is, I believe, generally acknowledged that, at one time, werwolves were to be met with almost daily in Denmark, and that they were almostContinue…

WERWOLVES IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN AS in Denmark, werwolves were once so numerous in Norway and Sweden, that these countries naturally came to be regarded as the true home of lycanthropy. With the advent of the tourist, however, and the consequent springing up of fresh villages, together with the gradual increase of native population, NorwayContinue…

WERWOLVES IN ICELAND, LAPLAND, AND FINLAND THE Bersekir of Iceland are credited with the rare property of dual metamorphosis—that is to say, they are credited with the power of being able to adopt the individual forms of two animals—the bear and the wolf. For substantiation as to the bona-fide existence of this rare property of dual metamorphosisContinue…

THE WERWOLF IN RUSSIA AND SIBERIA THE ideal home of all things weird and uncanny—is cold, grey, gaunt, and giant Russia. Nowhere is the werwolf so much in evidence to-day as in the land of the Czar, where all the primitive conditions favourable to such anomalies, still exist, and where they have undergone but littleContinue…