Читать книгу Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 26

In 1941, Hollywood reinvented the centuries-old legend of the werewolf in The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr., Evelyn Ankers, and Claude Rains. Just as the motion picture Dracula transformed the hideous vampire of folklore into an elegantly attired sex symbol granting eternal life to those once bitten, The Wolf Man transformed the savage lupine shape-shifter into a sympathetic individual tortured by the full Moon into becoming half-man/half-wolf. In both fictional reinventions of the monsters, vampires and werewolves increase their kind by biting or scratching humans, thereby initiating a process that will remake their victims in their own image.

In the old records that recounted vicious attacks by creatures described as werewolves, the victims were described as being torn to bloody pieces. In some cases, there was nothing left of the unfortunate victim but gory shreds of flesh and a few bones to be carried away by smaller predators. Surely, such bloody scraps could not begin the process of metamorphosis into a werewolf.

Although sprigs of garlic and crucifixes were deemed by some venerable traditions as a first line of defense against both vampires and werewolves, wolfbane, the silver bullet, and other means of warding off a werewolf were largely imagined by screenwriter Curt Siodmak for the 1941 classic film. Even the ancient “gypsy folklore” repeated by Ms. Ankers, the heroine, was created by Siodmak: “Even a man who’s pure in heart and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”

There is no known culture on this planet that has not at one time or another cowered in fear because of a belief in the savage attacks of a nocturnal predator known as a therianthrope, a human-animal hybrid such as a werewolf or a werebear. Such creatures were painted by Stone Age artists more than 10,000 years ago and represent some of the world’s oldest cave art.

The truth of the matter is that 10,000 years ago, humans truly wanted to become wolves—or at least be able to absorb some of their skills and their strengths. To the Native American tribes, the wolf was the great teacher. Such respect was also given to the wolf by the early Europeans. From the wolf, humans learned to hunt in packs, to cooperate in group survival, and to practice fidelity to one mate and their offspring.

Drawings of the werewolf can be found etched in cave walls by stone age artists more than 10,000 years ago. There is no culture on Earth that has not, at one time or another, feared the attacks of a therianthrope, a human-animal hybrid (illustration by Ricardo Pustanio).

Native American tribes tell of bear-people, wolf-people, fox-people, and so forth, and state that in the beginning of things, humans were as animals and animals as humans. Stories of women who gave birth to werecreatures are common among the North American tribal myths. Early cultures throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa formed totem clans and often worshipped minor deities that were half-human, half-animal.

Warriors went into battle wearing the skins of wild animals, hoping that the ferocity and strength of the beasts would magically rub off on them. In the Northern European tribes, the fierce animal of choice was the wolf or the bear.

In ancient Scandinavia, the Norse words ulfhedhnar (“wolf-clothed”) and ber-werker refer to the wolf or bear skins worn by the fierce Viking warriors when they went “berserk,” or war-mad, and fought with the fury of vicious animals against opponents. In the Slavonic languages, the werewolf is called vlukodlak, which translates to “wolf-haired” or “wolf-skinned,” once again suggesting the magical transference desired from wearing the skin of a brave animal into battle.

The prefix were in Old English means “man,” so coupled with wolf, it designates a creature that can alter its appearance from human to beast and become a “man wolf.” In French, the werewolf is known as loup garou; in Spanish, hombre lobo; Italian, lupo manaro; Portuguese lobizon or lobo home; Polish, wilkolak; Russian, olkolka or volkulaku; in Greek, brukolakas.

Although ritual dances and the wearing of wolf skins remain a part of the heritage of many Native American tribes, in early Europe the shamans began to create a magic and a sorcery that seemed more efficient than the old ways of achieving trance states and seemingly being transformed into wolves. By at least 850 B.C.E., the Greeks were fond of relating accounts of shape-shifters and sorcerers who would turn people into animals. A millennium later, circa 930, those who deliberately sought to become werewolves were generally evil sorcerers who sought the ability to shape-shift into the form of a wolf so that they might more effectively rob or attack their victims. Through incantations, potions, or spells, these wicked men took delight in their savage strength and their ability to strike fear into the hearts of all whom they encountered. Those who became werewolves against their will were individuals who had somehow run afoul of an evil sorcerer who had placed a curse of lupine transformation upon them.

Stories of werewolves have horrified people in European communities for centuries (Fortean Picture Library).

According to a number of ancient magical texts, one of the methods by which a sorcerer might willingly become a werewolf was to disrobe and to rub completely over one’s naked body an ointment made of the fat of a freshly killed animal and a special mixture of herbs. The person who wished to accomplish the lupine transformation should also wear a belt made of human or wolf skin around the waist, then cover his body with the pelt of a wolf. To accelerate the process of shape-shifting, the apprentice werewolf should drink beer mixed with blood and recite an ancient magical incantation.

To the people of the Middle Ages, there was little question that such creatures as werewolves truly existed. Switzerland can lay claim to the first official execution of werewolves, when in 1407, several individuals so accused were tortured and burned in Basel.

The Inquisitors in France have the dubious distinction of recording the most cases of werewolfism in all of Europe—30,000 between 1520 and 1630. The werewolf trials began at Poligny in 1521 when, after enduring the torture chamber, three men admitted to consorting with she-wolves and demons in order to gain the power to transform themselves into wolves—then they confessed to having killed and devoured many small children over a 19-year period. They were summarily burned at the stake.

The famous case of Gilles Garnier, who was executed as a werewolf at Dole, France, in 1573, provides grim details of attacks on numerous children, in which Garnier used his hands and teeth to kill and to cannibalize his young victims. In view of the heinous crimes and Garnier’s confession that he was a werewolf, the court was quick to decree that he should be executed and his body burned and reduced to ashes.

The infamous werewolf Peter Stubbe of Cologne revealed that he possessed a magic belt that could instantly transform him into a wolf. To return to human form, he had but to remove the belt. Although the authorities never found his magical werewolf belt, they beheaded him for his crimes in 1589.

In his book Discours des Sorciers (1610), Henri Boguet, an eminent judge of Saint-Claude in the Jura Mountains, recounts his official investigation of a family of werewolves and his observation of them while they were in prison in 1584. According to his testimony, the members of the Gandillon family walked on all fours and howled like wolves. Their eyes turned red and gleaming; their hair sprouted; their teeth became long and sharp; and their fingernails turned horny and claw-like.