ABOUT FACTS NET

Beasts

Source: USDA

In ancient times werewolves weren't the only threats. There were also the dreaded werefoxes. If given the choice, I would take my chances with a werefox over a werewolf anytime :-). Since the werefoxes weren't as large as the werewolves they weren't considered as big a danger except to small animals and birds. I wonder if they got into your chicken coop and bit a chicken and didn't kill him if you would have a werechicken? Oh well back to the subject at hand.

Stories about werewolves are everywhere. There is the story of the children that were running and screaming when a soldier came across them. He asked them why they were screaming and crying. One of the children said that every time their mother left the house and their friend came over he turned into a werewolf. The soldier went back to the house and saw the friend change. The friend was shot later with a silver bullet killing him in his mother's arms. When he died it was said that a device called a wolf strap was found pressed to his head, this is why he transformed. The word werewolf has its roots in the Saxon language where wer meant man, so the literal meaning is man wolf. There are many people that think the word werewolf has different roots and the 'were' come from the Latin ver which seems to mean a group of men formed for defense, or that it comes from the Old Prussian word wirs meaning men. There is also a mental disorder called lycanthrope where a person thinks he is a wolf.

Viking warriors sometimes wore a coat made of wolf skin, this was to let their enemies know that they could change into a wolf during the battle making them even more ferocious. The Norse god Oden is said to have had two wolves at his side in battle. Even the Eskimos have a story about an old woman who was forced to survive on her own and eventually turned into a wolf. Its funny how so many cultures seem to have legends of werewolves. Many stories show that a vampire can turn into a wolf among other things. American indians believe that the wolf is a powerful spirit and respect the powers of the wolf. The Pawnee indians watched the wolf star (Sirius) and when it appeared and disappeared it signaled the coming and going of the wolf spirit. The Pawnee were known to many tribes as the wolf people.

In the middle 1700's there was a tale about a huge wolf with supernatural powers killing people in France. A man tracked it down and shot it with silver bullets killing the huge beast. Many people died from that animal. It is said that the gun used to kill it, is on display somewhere in France in a small church.

In 1958 a woman in Texas related this story:
It was a dark and stormy night. She heard a scratching at the door and reached for a flashlight. She saw a wolf like creature at her door with very sad looking eyes. It startled her. The creature ran into the brush and a short time after, a man emerged from the brush and walked down the road.

It seems that even today there are many people who believe that werewolves are with us. For proof of this assumption one has merely to enter the word werewolf into a search engine and look at the many pages of results which it returns. A statistic is sited on one of those sites that there were as many as 30,000 cases of werewolves in Transylvania between 1520 - 1630. Hum..... I guess this would have been a good place to stay out of. When a human is not in werewolf form there is no way to tell he is a werewolf unlike a vampire which casts no reflection and hates garlic, crosses and holy water.

Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service

According to some sources a werewolf can assume one of several shapes:
A normal man, a primitive man, ancient wolf form with slightly human characteristics,and a wolf.

Due to its regeneration of tissue a werewolf is almost immortal except that certain items applied properly to the wolf can kill him. Some believe these things to be a silver bullet, holy water in the mouth, and iron bar slammed to the head. They also say that salt or salt water ingested will kill the werewolf. Don't waste your time with garlic, it seems its only for vampires.

Literature seems to indicate that some werewolves can change shape voluntary and don't depend on the full moon. So next time you are walking on that dark path through the woods but feel safe because the moon isn't out, don't fee too safe and I would suggest running.