Some history:

        Hopefully, you have heard some of the usual campfire stories involving werewolves. Werewolves are, according to some legends, people who morph into wolves, and others are a mutant combination of wolf and human.

        No one really knows where the werewolf legends came from, but some scholars believe that werewolves were first created in The Epic of Gilgamesh; which is one of the oldest western stories in history. Apparently, Gilgamesh had a potential lover that had turned her previous mate into a wolf. Gilgamesh broke up with her pretty soon after that.

        Werewolves also appeared in Greek Mythology with the Legend of Lycaon. According to the legend, Lycaon, the son of Pelagius, angered the king of the gods, Zeus, when he served him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy (yikes). His punishment was Zeus turning him and his sons into wolves.

        Werewolves are also in Nordic folklore (my favorite). The Saga of the Volsungs is a story of a. Father and a son who discovered some wolf pelts that had the power to turn people into wolves for ten days. They put on the pelts, transformed into wolves, and went on a killing spree in the forest. The killing ended when the father attacked his son, causing a Letha wound. The son survived, but only because a nice raven gave the father a leaf with healing powers (because duh- how else).

 

What it could really be:

Lots of stories have been solved by scientists and researchers.

There are medical conditions that actually make a person look

like, or believe that they are a werewolf:

• Lycanthropy (a rare, psychological condition that causes

people to believe they’re changing into a wolf or other animal)

• Food poisoning

• Hypertrichosis (a rare, genetic disorder causing excessive

hair growth)

• Rabies

• Hallucination, possibly caused by hallucinogenic herbs

 

Characteristics: Full moon, covered in fur, very tall, wolf head, claws, fangs, wolf body but upright, flannel, ripped-up jeans, unusually strong and fast

 

The well-known myth: At a full moon, (usually) a man turns into a werewolf and howls at the moon a and goes on a killing spree (to keep it simple)

 

Fun fact- According to some legends, you can be turned into a werewolf if you are bitten or scratched by one. According to others, If you put on a wolf skin belt while naked you will turn into one.

Fun fact #2- Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers.

 

How to cure - The ancient Greeks and Romans believed exhaustion was a way to cure someone of lycanthropy.

• In medieval Europe, there were three methods- medicinally,

with wolfsbane (right), surgically, or by exorcism.

• German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, if you addressed it

three times by its Christian name, it would return to normal

• A Sicilian belief of Arabic origin believes that if you strike

it on the head with a knife or piercing the werewolf's hands

with nails, it will be cured

• One Danish belief says that if you merely scold the

werewolf, that will cure it

• Conversion to Christianity is also a common method

 

How to kill- Silver