Читать книгу The Monster Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 31

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, far better known as the Brothers Grimm, were born in Hanau, Germany—Jacob in 1875 and Wilhelm in the following year. They are renowned for their popularization of folklore, myths, and legends, and for promoting the likes of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rumpelstiltskin. They also had an interesting tale to tell of werewolves. In 1816, they wrote:

“A soldier related the following story, which is said to have happened to his grandfather. The latter, the grandfather, had gone into the forest to cut wood with a kinsman and a third man. People suspected that there was something not quite right about this third man, although no one could say exactly what it was. The three finished their work and were tired, whereupon the third man suggested that they sleep a little. And that is what they did. They all laid down on the ground, but the grandfather only pretended to sleep, keeping his eyes open a crack. The third man looked around to see if the others were asleep, and when he believed this to be so, he took off his belt (or, as others tell the story, put on a belt) and turned into a wolf.

The Grimm Brothers (immortalized here in a statue in Hanau, Germany), wrote about werewolves in some of their stories.

“However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.

“Then he ran to a nearby meadow where a young foal was grazing, attacked it, and ate it, including skin and hair. Afterward he returned, put his belt back on (or took it off), and laid down, as before, in human form.

“A little later they all got up together and made their way toward home. Just as they reached the town gate, the third man complained that he had a stomachache. The grandfather secretly whispered in his ear: ‘That I can well believe, for someone who has a horse, complete with skin and hair, in his belly.’

“However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.”

“The third man replied: ‘If you had said that to me in the forest, you would not be saying it to me now.’

“A woman had taken on the form of a werewolf and had attacked the herd of a shepherd, whom she hated, causing great damage. However, the shepherd wounded the wolf in the hip with an ax blow, and it crawled into the brush. The shepherd followed, thinking that he could finish it off, but there he found a woman using a piece of cloth torn from her dress to stop the blood gushing from a wound.

“At Lüttich in the year 1610 two sorcerers were executed because they had turned themselves into werewolves and had killed many children. With them they had a boy of twelve years whom the devil turned into a raven whenever they were tearing apart and eating their prey.”