Part 1

Note: Errors in German quotes and booktitles were mostly not corrected. A more detailed transcriber’s note can be found at the end of this text.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.[1]

[1] NOTE.—After the author had written the following article, she gathered most of the material contained in the notes. That the origin and development of the use of masks as given in the Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, 1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see note 32) is similar to the origin and development of the werewolf superstition itself, as given in the following pages, was an unexpected coincidence. The author has italicized some words in the quotations.

The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that is, a wolf which is really a human being.[2] So the werewolf was a man in wolf’s form or wolf’s dress,[2] seen mostly at night,[3] and believed generally to be harmful to man.[4]

[2] According to Mogk, in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie III. 272 _wer_ means “man,” found in Old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Old High German, and werewolf a man in wolf’s form. Kögel connects _wer_ with Gothic _wasjan_ “kleiden.” “Darum bedeutet _werwolf_ eigentlich Wolfsgewand úlfshamr; ähnlich bedeutet vielleicht _berserkr_ Bärengewand,” therefore werewolf according to Kögel means a wolf’s dress. See also Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde.

[3] Post p. 24.

[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XV. 90 fol., 1883:—Beastform in mythology proper is far oftener assumed for malignant than for benignant ends. See note 52.

The origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorily explained. Adolf Erman[5] explains the allusion of Herodotus[6] to the transformation of the Neurians (the people of the present Volhynia, in West Russia) into wolves as due merely to their appearance in winter, dressed in their furs. This explanation, however, would not fit similar superstitions in warm climes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy to primitive Totemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the members of a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.[7] Still another explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as the original werewolf.[8]

[5] Reise um die erde durch Nordasien, Berlin, 1833, I. 232.

[6] Herodotus says of the Neurians, that among Scythians and Greeks settled in Scythia they pass for magicians, because once a year every Neurian becomes a wolf for a few days, and then resumes the human form. See concerning this also Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 120.

[7] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXIII. 467 fol.

[8] Note 102, also see note 22.

The explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves must be one which will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstition is found pretty much all over the earth,[9] especially to-day[10] however in Northwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in the lands where the wolf is most common.[11][12] According to Mogk[13] the superstition prevails to-day especially in the north and east of Germany.[14]

[9] See also Mogk in Paul’s Grundriss, III. 272. Dr. Rud. Leubuscher, Über die Wehrwölfe und Thierverwandlungen im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1850, mentions cases in ancient Arcadia, in Arabia, Abyssinia (hyenas), and the almost epidemic disease in the Middle Ages. Dr. W. Hertz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart, 1862, ascribes the superstition to Armenia, Egypt, Abyssinia (hyenas), Greece (pages 20-28), but not to India, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below; on p. 133 he says: “Tierverwandlungen sind allgemein menschlich, finden wir überall. Die eigentümliche Entwicklung der Werwolfsagen aber finden wir vorzugsweise bei einer bestimmten Völkergruppe, den arischen Stämmen der Griechen, Römer, Kelten, Germanen und Slaven; bei den südwärts gezogenen Stämmen der Inder und Iranier sind uns gleiche Sagen nicht begegnet [but see below]. Am massenhaftesten treten die Werwölfe bei den Slaven auf, und ihnen gehört die älteste historische Erwähnung der Sage; viel älter aber ist der Lykaon Mythus und arkadische Werwölfe”. According to Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart, 1878, ss. 62-80, the superstition is found in every European country (amongst Anglo-Saxons, English, French, Bretons, Poles, Tschechs, Lithuanians, White Russians of Poland, inhabitants of island Oesel, Russians, Italians, Portuguese, Provencal peoples, Greeks, Kelts, in Asia, Africa, America; but not in India nor Persia, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below), especially though in northwestern Germany and in Slavic lands.

As to the American Indians, see Ethnological Report for 1880-81, p. 83, “From their close relations with wild animals Indians’ stories of transformations into beasts and beasts into men are numerous and interesting.... In times of peace, during the long winter evenings, some famous storyteller told of those days in the past when men and animals could transform themselves at will and hold converse with one another.”

Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Bell & Sons, 1883, II. 668 says no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in Germanic antiquities than that of men into werewolves. Thus Fenrisûlfr, a son of Loki, makes his appearance in wolf’s shape among the gods.

Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol., under the heading Lycanthropy, states:—A belief firmly rooted among all savages is that men are in certain circumstances transformed temporarily or permanently into wolves and other inferior animals. In Europe the transformation into a wolf is by far more prominent and frequent (amongst Greeks, Russians, English, Germans, French, Scandinavians). Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence. Thus the were-_wolf_ prevails in Europe, also in England, Wales, Ireland; and in S. France, the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, he can hardly be pronounced extinct now (see note 12). In Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland the _bear_ competes with the wolf for pre-eminence. In Persia the _bear_ is supreme; in Japan the _fox_; in India the _serpent_ vies with the _tiger_ (contrary to Mogk in Paul’s Grd., III. 272, who says:—“Nur Griechen, Römer, Kelten, Germanen, Slaven unter den indogermanischen Völkern kennen den Werwolf, den Indern und Iraniern ist er unbekannt.” Compare notes 6 and 9, Hertz, p. 133); in Abyssinia and Borneo the _hyena_ with the _lion_; in E. Africa the _lion_ with the _alligator_; in W. Africa the _leopard_ is perhaps most frequently the form assumed by man; among the Abipones the _tiger_, among the Arawaks the _jaguar_, etc.

In Brockhaus’ Konversations-Lexikon, for the Middle Ages the werewolf belief is ascribed to all Slavic, Keltic, Germanic and Romanic peoples; found to-day especially in Volhynia and White Russia.

Paul, Grundriss, III. 272:—Bei den Angelsachsen lässt sich der Werwolf im 11. Jahrh. nachweisen: Knut befahl den Priestern, ihre Herden vor dem werewulf zu schirmen.... Das älteste Zeugnis auf deutschem Gebiete vom Werwolf ist vom Burchard v. Worms (11 century).

[10] See note 9.

[11] Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol.:—There can nowhere be a living belief in contemporary metamorphosis into any animal which has ceased to exist in the particular locality. Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence. (See note 12.) In none of these cases however is the power of transformation limited exclusively to the prominent and dominant animal.

[12] Encyc. Brit. XXIV. 628 fol. under _Wolf_:—The wolf is found in nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, North America from Greenland to Mexico, the Indian peninsula, but not in Ceylon, Burmah or Siam; and not in South America or Africa, in the two latter jackals instead.

Meyer’s Kleines konversations-lexikon:—Der wolf “ist häufig in Ost- und Nordeuropa, Mittel- und Nordasien, Nordamerika, seltener in Frankreich und Belgien, den Herden gefährlich, besonders in Russland.” Encyc. Brit., XXIV under _Wolf_:—In northern countries the wolf is generally larger and more powerful than in the southern portion of its range. Its habits are similar everywhere. It has from time immemorial been known to man in all the countries it inhabits as the devastator of his flocks of sheep. It has speed and remarkable endurance. They usually assemble in troops or packs, except in summer, and by their combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower and kill even such great animals as the American bison. Children and even grown people are not infrequently attacked by them when pressed for hunger. The ferocity of the wolf in the wild state is proverbial. Even when tamed, they can rarely be trusted by strangers.

[13] Paul, Grundriss, III. 272.

[14] Gustav Freytag, Bilder aus neuer zeit, Leipzig, 1904, p. 275 fol., speaking of the Polish borderlands, says: “Noch lebte das Landvolk in ohnmächtigem Kampf mit den Heerden der Wölfe, wenig Dörfer, welchen nicht in jedem Winter Menschen und Thiere decimirt wurden,” and in the same note 2, pp. 275-6:—“Als 1815 die gegenwärtige Provinz Posen an Preussen zurückfiel, waren auch dort die Wölfe eine Landplage. Nach Angaben der Posener Provinzialblätter wurden im Regierungsbezirk Posen vom 1. Sept. 1815 his Ende Februar 1816, 41 Wölfe erlegt, noch im Jahre 1819 im Kreise Wongrowitz 16 Kinder und 3 Erwachsene von Wölfen gefressen.”

The werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.[15] The point in common everywhere is the transformation of a living human being into an animal, into a wolf in regions where the wolf was common[16] into a lion, hyena or leopard in Africa, where these animals are common; into a tiger or serpent in India;[17] in other localities into other animals characteristic of the region.[18] Among Lapps and Finns occur transformations into the bear, wolf, reindeer, fish or birds; amongst many North Asiatic peoples, as also some American Indians, into the bear; amongst the latter also into the fox, wolf, turkey or owl; in South America, besides into a tiger or jaguar, also into a fish, or serpent. Most universal though it seems was the transformation into wolves or dogs.[19]

[15] Thus in note 6 was mentioned Herodotus’ (484-425 B. C.) statement about the Neurians. The oldest werewolf legend, according to Hertz, is that of Lykaon, the son of Pelasgos, the first king of ancient Arcadia. These Arcadians lived as huntsmen and shepherds. According to J. Oppert (Andree, p. 65; and notes 6 and 9) the werewolf superstition existed amongst the Assyrians; and Andree states, the oldest Hellenic werewolf myth is found in Pausanias (died 467 B. C). In the Norse “Edda” we find Odin’s wolves, also Sköll, Hati and Fenrir. In the Völsunga Saga, Sigmund and Sinfjötli become wolves. For other reflections of the fear in which wolves were held, see the 10th century ms. of the “Wiener Hundesegen” against male and female wolves (Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 6. aufl. 1907, p. 85). Jacob Grimm,—Geschichte der deutschen sprache s. 233:—“Unsere thierfabel stellt vortrefflich das gebannte raubthier des waldes dar, und lehrt die nähe des wolfs und fuchses.”

C. Lemcke, Aesthetik, 6. aufl. II. 1890, s. 562:—“In die ältesten Zeiten hinauf reicht auch bei Jägervölkern die Tiersage, in ihrer Weise zum Teil die Eigentümlichkeiten der Tiere erklärend, ihr Gebahren erzählend. Die furchtbaren und die listigen Tiere boten sich am besten dar.... Wo die Menschen städtisch beisammen wohnen, bleibt Tier Tier; wo sie einsamer mit Tieren leben, bekommen diese eine höhere Bedeutung. So wird dem Wäldler Bär und Wolf zum ebenbürtigen Räuber und Kämpfer, menschlicher aufgefasst zum Gegner voll Mut, List, Rachsucht, der Gedanken hat wie der Mensch selbst.”

[16] Volhynia, Europe, Northern Asia. Formerly, according to Andree, p. 65, the wolf was as common throughout Europe as it is to-day in Russia. Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 187, says: “Der Wolf ist überall in Europa verbreitet gewesen, der Bär ist aber ganz sicher ein Waldtier.”

[17] Note 9.

[18] Cf. note 9, Encyc. Brit.

[19] Leubuscher, p. 1:—Weil die Verwandlung vorzugsweise in Hunde und Wölfe geschehen sollte, so erhielt die Krankheit den namen Lykanthropie.

As the superstition is so widespread—Germany, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, America, it either arose at a very early time, when all these peoples were in communication with each other[20] or else, in accord with another view of modern science, it arose independently in various continents in process of the natural psychical development of the human race under similar conditions.

[20] Or as Mogk in Paul’s Grd., III. 272 expresses it, for example amongst the West Indogermanic peoples when they still formed a whole, as shepherds, by whom the wolf as robber of herds was especially feared. Leubuscher, p. 55 writes: “Die meisten Lykanthropen waren Hirten, die im Freien lebten, mit Tieren viel verkehrten, und der Wolf schwebte ihrer Einbildungskraft am öftersten vor, weil sie am meisten damit zu kämpfen hatten. Wenn das Gespenst des Wehrwolfes sich in Einzelnen als Krankheit erhob, war die Gegend wahrscheinlich von Wölfen besonders beunruhigt worden, und wahrscheinlich manche Mordthat nur von Wölfen begangen.” Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 282:—“The Dakotas have long believed in the appearance from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human beings. The superstition was perhaps suggested by the bones of mastodons, often found in the territory of those Indians.”

The origin of the superstition must have been an old custom of primitive man’s of putting on a wolf’s or other animal’s skin[21] or dress, or a robe.[22] Thus Leubuscher,[23] says: “Es ist der Mythenkreis eines jeden Volkes aus einfachen wahren Begebenheiten hervorgewachsen.”[24][25] Likely also the notion of attributing speech to animals originated from such disguising or dressing of men as animals. In the following we shall examine into primitive man’s reasons for putting on such a skin or robe.

[21] Ethn. Rep. 1893-94, p. 267:—In celebrations it is possible that the foxskin so universally worn by the animistic personifications is a survival comparable with the skin of the animal in which formerly the whole body was clothed.

[22] Hertz, p. 17, gives the origin as follows: “In der ältesten Naturreligion ist die Gottheit des Todes und der winterlichen Erde als Wolf gedacht. Ihre Priester trugen wohl in der Vorzeit Wolfsfelle und hatten nach dem Volksglauben die Gabe, sich in das Tier der Gottheit zu verwandeln. Der Wolf, als das schnelle, kampfgewandte Tier, war zum raschen Zurücklegen weiter Wege und zur Erlegung von Feinden besonders geeignet. Darum nahmen die Götter und die zauberbegabten Menschen zu solchen Zwecken Wolfsgestalt. Der Wolf ist von Natur gefährlich und wurde darum als diabolisch gedacht, und beim Werwolfe auch ist Drang nach Mord und Zerstörung die Hauptsache. Die Ursprünge des Werwolfglaubens waren also 1. religiöse Vorstellungen, 2. Rechtsvorstellung (der friedlose Mörder ist ein Wolf bei Griechen und Germanen); 3. die Geisteskrankheit der Lykanthropie.” Page 51. “Die Verwandlung in Wölfe geschieht vorzugsweise durch Wolfshemden.” Page 57: “Dass die von allem menschlichen Verkehr abgeschnittenen Waldflüchtigen sich in Tierfelle kleideten, ist nahe liegend.”

[23] Page 46. See also note 9.

[24] Similarly Dilthey, Erlebnis und Dichtung, 1906, p. 153 fol.;—“Ist so die Einbildungskraft in Mythos und Götterglauben, zunächst gebunden an das Bedürfnis des Lebens, so sondert sie sich doch allmählich im Verlauf der Kultur von den religiösen Zweckbeziehungen und erhebt jene zweite Welt zu einer unabhängigen Bedeutsamkeit”—like Homer, Dante, etc. See note 20, close, and Encyc. Brit., Lycanthropy:—“Insane delusions must reflect the usages and beliefs of contemporaneous society.”

[25] Notes 20, 21 and 27.

Primitive man was face to face with animal foes, and had to conquer them or be destroyed. The werewolf superstition in Europe arose probably while the Greeks, Romans, Kelts and Germanic peoples were still in contact with each other, if not in the original Indo-Germanic home, for they all have the superstition (unless, as above, we prefer to regard the belief as arising in various localities in process of psychical development under similar conditions; namely, when people still lived principally by the chase.[26]) Probably the primitive Indo-European man before and at the time of the origin of the werewolf superstition, was almost helpless in the presence of inexorable nature. This was before he used metal for weapons. The great business of life was to secure food. Food was furnished from three sources, roots, berries, animals, and the most important of these was animals.[27] Without efficient weapons, it was difficult to kill an animal of any size, in fact the assailant was likely himself to be killed. Yet primitive man had to learn to master the brute foe. Soon he no longer crouched in sheltered places and avoided the enemy, but began to watch and study it, to learn its habits, to learn what certain animals would do under certain circumstances, to learn what would frighten them away or what would lure them on. So at least the large animals were to early man a constant cause of fear and source of danger; yet it was necessary to have their flesh for food and their skins for clothing.[28]

[26] See note 15.

[27] Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 54, says:—Traces of the fear in which buffalo “were held may still be discovered in the traditional stories of certain tribes, which set forth how, in those days,” [i. e. in the stone age] “before men were provided with arms, the buffalo used to chase, kill, and eat the people. Such tales show very clearly how greatly the buffalo were dreaded in ancient times, and such fear could hardly have arisen save as the result of actual experience of their power to inflict injury and death.” Pliny informs us how the Romans kept the wolf out of their fields, see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1241. Whether the Indians lived on the steppes, in the woods, on the coast, or in the mountains, the animals were their whole study. They moved with the animals, followed them for food.

[28] Note 27.

Very soon various ingenious contrivances were devised for trapping them. No doubt one primitive method was the use of decoys to lure animals into a trap. Some could be lured by baits, others more easily by their kind. Occasionally masks were used,[29] and similarly, another form of the original decoy was no doubt simply the stuffed skin of a member of the species, whether animal or bird, say for example a wild duck.[30] Of course the hunter would soon hit on the plan of himself putting on the animal skin, in the case of larger animals; that is, an individual dressed for example in a wolf’s skin could approach near enough to a solitary wolf to attack it with his club, stone or other weapon, without exciting the wolf’s suspicion of the nearness of a dangerous foe.[31] So the animal disguise, entire or partial, was used by early man acting in the capacity of a decoy, firstly, to secure food and clothing. Secondly, he would assume animal disguise, whole or partial, in dancing and singing; and both these accomplishments seem to have arisen from the imitation of the motions and cries of animals,[32] at first to lure them, when acting as a decoy. With growth of culture came growth of supernaturalism, and an additional reason for acquiring dance and song was to secure charms against bodily ills,[33] and finally enlivenment.[34] In both dance and song, when used for a serious purpose, the performers imagined themselves to be the animals they were imitating,[35] and in the dance they wore the skins of the animals represented.[36]

[29] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 122, note:—It seems that masks were occasionally used as decoys.... Next to the otter the most valuable animal in the estimation of the Kadiak men, is the species of seal or sea-dog called by the Russians nerpa. The easiest manner of taking it is to entice it toward the shore. A fisherman, concealing the lower part of his body among the rocks, puts on his head a wooden cap or rather casque resembling the head of a seal and makes a noise like that animal. The unsuspicious seal, imagining that he is about to meet a partner of his own species, hastens to the spot and is instantly killed. Compare note 57.

[30] Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 132:—Bering Strait Eskimo stuff rudely the skin of the bird called ptarmigan, and mount it upon a stick which holds the head outstretched, then imitate the call of the bird, which is trapped in the net attached to the decoy. Other decoys are made by molding soft snow into the form of a bird; for the ptarmigan, brown moss is put around the neck for plumage. The call then brought the real birds.