Werewolf Resources
A collection of scholarly publications about the history of werewolves across Europe and the UK.
Werewolf Histories - Willem de Blécourt
Werewolf Histories is the first academic book in English to address European werewolf history and folklore from antiquity to the twentieth century. It covers the most important werewolf territories, ranging from Scandinavia to Germany, France and Italy, and from Croatia to Estonia.
The Myth of the Werewolf - Roger Bartra
This is a historical and anthropological study of the myth of the werewolf aimed at reflecting on the metamorphoses of evil and understanding the long evolution of a mythical structure. Legends and folklore allow us to explore the brutal bestiality of a figure loaded with sexuality, eroticism, and desire. From ancient times to the present day, the tragic narrative universe of a strange and dangerous wild world is unfolded, with elements of tenderness, that has contributed to defining the profile of civilization as its opposite.
The Werewolf: Past and Future - Maegan A. Stebbins
Since before recorded history, werewolves have captivated human imagination. Simultaneously, they represent our deepest fears as well as our desire to connect with our primal ancestry. Today, werewolves are portrayed negatively, associated with violence, cruelty, cannibalism, and general malevolence. However, in ages past, legends depicted them not as monsters, but as a range of neutral to benevolent individuals, such as traveling companions, guardians, and knights. The robust legacy of the werewolf spans from prehistory, through ancient Greece and Rome, to the Middle Ages, into the Early Modern period, and finally into present-day popular culture.To revive the many questions posed by lycanthropy, entertainment must show respect to the rich history of so many cultures all around the world – and rediscover the legend of the werewolf.
The Book of Were-Wolves: Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition - Sabine Baring-Gould
Originally published in 1865, this remains one of the favourites amongst werewolf scholars. Written tales of firsthand folklore and real trials of werewolves, sorcerers, witches and murderers fill this book, with strong focus on the early Renaissance/Modern eras and Scandinavia in particular.
Werewolf Legends - Willem de Blécourt, Mirjam Mencej
This book brings together contributions from anthropologists and folklorists on werewolf legends from all over Europe. Ranging from broad overviews to specific case studies, their chapters highlight the similarities and differences between werewolf narratives in different areas and attempt to explain them. The result of interaction between elite and popular culture, local and external influences, and nature and culture that lasted several centuries or even more, nineteenth- to twenty-first-century werewolf legends represent a kaleidoscope of the darker sides of human life.
The White Devil : The Werewolf in European culture - Matthew Beresford
The White Devil draws on a wide variety of sources in order to understand why the werewolf has been part of cultural beliefs and mythology across Europe, tracing mankind’s fascination with the beast over time. From the early wolf cults to the Anglo-Saxon criminal punishments, medieval werewolf executions and folkloric tales of noble werewolves, as well as psychological and medical explanations, it offers a new understanding of how the werewolf has survived within European culture for thousands of years.
The Werewolf in Lore and Legend - Montague Summers
Written by a venerable author of occult studies, The Werewolf in Lore and Legend is the first definitive book on werewolfery and the remarkable successor to Montague Summers's popular work, The Vampire. Unsurpassed in its sheer scope and depth, it employs an extensive range of historical documentation and folklore from throughout Europe to powerfully portray the horror associated with belief in werewolves.
Summers adopts a comprehensive theological and philosophical approach, cataloging a series of literary connections between witch and wolf. Drawing upon the work of anthropologists, totemists, and rationalists, he examines the supernatural practice of shapeshifting, notes the finer distinctions between werewolfery and lycanthropy, and explores the differences of opinion on exactly how ordinary humans are transformed into creatures of "unbridled cruelty, bestial ferocity, and ravening hunger."
A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture - Charlotte F. Otten
This book provides the historical context of werewolves. Drawing on primary sources, it is a comprehensive survey of all aspects of lycanthropy, with a focus on the medieval and Renaissance periods. Lycanthropes were on trial in the courtrooms of Europe, and on examination in medical offices and mental hospitals; they were the objects of communal fear and pity, and the subjects of sermons and philosophical treatises. In this book, Charlotte Otten shows that the study of lycanthropy uncovers basic issues in human life the significance of violence and criminality, the role of the demonic in aberrant behavior, and
ultimately the nature of good and evil.
Monstrous Lessons: Peter Stumpp, the Werewolf of Bedburg - Nathan Baillie
A true story of a murderous, rapist, cannibalistic man trialled and executed as a sorcerer in 1598, oft taken as a werewolf by modern researchers for his alleged ability to take wolven shape via a girdle granted to him by the Devil.