Lycanthrope and Vampire Info07:47 Jul 19 2006
Times Read: 753
Lycanthropes and Vampyres......
What is a Werewolf?
A werewolf is a man or a woman who can turn into a wolf. The word "werewolf" comes from the Anglo-Saxon: wer means man, wulf is wolf. They are also called lycanthropes, and are either true werewolves, or a weird and horrible version - a human whose wolf skin is furry on the inside!
It can also describe an individual who is able to take on many of the same mental characteristics of a wolf.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little abreviated lore about werewolves:
This is a listing of varous werewolves in different cultures that was found on the AHWW newsgroup. Included is vampires in this list as many vampires were believed to change shape as well.
Alp (German)
A vampyre-incubus or predatory blood-drinking ghost in German lore. An
accomplished shapeshifter the Alp can appear as a bird, cat, pig or dog
and wears a "cap of concealment" (Tarnkappe) which bestows invisibility
and magic powers when worn. From the same Teutonic root as Alf or Elf,
meaning the "Shining White One".
Agriogourouno (Macedonian)
"Wild boar" in Macedonian, a shapeshifting phenomena thought to afflict
Turks who have lead very wicked lives or never have eaten Pork.
Aptrgongumenn (Norse)
Walking dead
Baobhan Sith (Scottish)
Faery-vampyres, appear as young women dressed in green.
Blautsauger (Bosnian / German)
Literally bloodsucker, lurks in deserted burial grounds.
Bleiz-Garv (French)
Cruel wolf (Bretton French)
Broucalaque (see Burculacas )
Bruxsa (Portugese)
A female vampyre witch who can turn herself into a great night-bird.
Burculacas (Greek)
Term used for a vampyre lycanthrope
Cat-witches (European)
In parts of France the witches are always said to assume the form of
large black cats and gather in the old forest of Bonlieu.
Chesme (Turkish)
Vampyre cat spirit associated with springs and lakes
Chovihani (Romani)
Witch that assumes cat form after dusk.
Dachnavar (Armenian)
Spirit that drinks blood from travellers toes.
Deag-dul (Irish)
Red Blood Sucker, one female is said to dwell in Waterford. If found a
cairn should be built over the grave to stop them wandering.
Doppelsauger (Wendish)
Double sucker, can only return to it's previous dwelling place along the
path it's coffin was carried out. To prevent this the sill of the door
is lifed over the coffin as it leaves the house, and put back in place
after the funeral.
Dhampir (Serbian)
Son of a vampyre and a living woman, said to have shaman like powers and
a boneless rubbery body.
Draugr (Old Norse)
Death walker, zombie type being created by necromancers.
Dschuma (Roumanian)
Witch spirit.
Eretica (Russian)
Woman who has made a pact with the devil, joins in sabbats even after
death.
Frog (European)
A familiar of witches, and a form assumed by vampyres in Wallachian
folklore, particularly red-headed men.
Gairou (Haute Maine)
Werewolf
Garwaf (Norman)
Werewolf in old Normandy
Garwall, Guaroul and Garol (Bretton french)
Werewolf
Gerulphus (Low Latin)
In writings of the middle ages, werewolf
Ghierwolf (Dutch)
Werewolf in some districts of the Neatherlands.
Gorgol (Welsh)
Mediaeval tern, meaning man wolf
Kallikantzaros (Greek)
Aegean, Mainland Greece, Crete and Messenia, "Beautiful Centaurs", semi-
animal demonic creatures, horned black beings with hooves, fangs, talons
and tails.
Kara-kondjiolos (circssian Turkish)
Vampire witches that ride uprooted trees.
Kresnik (Slovanian)
Traditional vampyre slaying shaman, can take the form of boars, horses,
white dogs or bulls.
Krvoijac (Bulgarian)
Vampyre
Kudlak (Slovanian)
Vampyre can take the form of a black boar, horses, hounds or bulls.
Enemy of Kresnik.
Kunanthropos (Greek)
7th century, means "Dog-man"
Lampir (Bosnian)
Vampire
Leannan -Sidhe (Irish)
Faery mistress, lures young men, can assume form of a white deer.
Liderc Nadaly (Hungarian)
Vampyre
Liogat (Albanian)
Defined in 1854 as "Dead turks in winding sheets", mortal enemy, wolves
who tear off the Liogats legs causing them to retire vanquished to the
tomb never to wander again.
Lobishomem ( Portugese)
Or Lobis-Homem, one under an enchantment who occasionally becomes a
wolf. Has a short tail covered in yellow fur. According to the folk
tales the person has a crescent tattoo or mark, they go at night to a
deserted cross roads , spin around windershins five times. They then
fall to the earth and rise up again in wolf form.
Lobombre (Spanish)
Man-wolf in Pyrenees and Cantabrian mountains, humans that have drunk
from lycanthropous streams or come into contact with magical flowers.
Loup Garou (French)
Especially Brittany, sometimes thought to be the illigitimate son of a
priest. Common in 16th and 17th Century France, Jean Grenier case in
1603.
Lupin (French)
Werewolf that hangs around ingraveyards in Normandy howling at the moon.
Also said to gnaw the bones and converse in their own language.
Lupo-mannaro (Italian)
Naples men born on Christmas night are said to be werewolves, and posses
tails. In Sicily any one who sleeps bathed in the light of a full moon
may also become a werewolf, and certain springs are also said to cause
transformations in the Alps.
Meza-Tevs (Latvian)
Forest Father, priest - cheif of werewolf cult, said to drive away the
demons of infertility.
Meneur des Loups (Breton)
Very similar to Meza-Tevs, shapeshifts into a great wolf able to speak.
Can play the bagpipes to charm wolves into following him on moonlit
nights.
Miezvilki (Baltic)
Barley wolves that chase away demons who would steal the fertility of
the land.
Moroii (Roumanian)
Undead, steal beauty and youth as well as blood. Able to shapeshift, but
may also have clawed feet or be lizard like in appearance.
Mullo (Romani)
Spirit double or fetch.
Murony (Wallachian)
Shapeshifting vampyre.
Nachtzehrer (German/Baltic)
Vampyre that assumes the pig shape to raid graveyards.
Nelapsi (Slovakian)
Vampyre with two hearts, basilisk powers of killing with a glance, but
it's powers are stopped by sprinkling poppy seeds around the area.
Neuntoter (German)
Spreads plague and pestilence but incapacitated by placing a lemon in
it's mouth.
Nosferatu (Roumanian)
Indulges in orgies with it's victims, children from the union are ugly
and covered with hair. Appears to brides and grooms and makes them
unable to perform.
Ohyn (Polish)
Vampyre that preys on it's own family by gnawing on it's own flesh after
death.
Pamgri (Hungarian)
Seventeenth century vampyre.
Pijavica (Slovenian)
Vampyre
Prikolotsch (Wallachian)
Also Priculics or Priccolitsch, a werewolf vampire, a wolf coat.
Roggenwulf (Germany)
Rye wolf that steals away unwarey children.
Ruvaush ( Romani-gypsy)
Victim of Romani vampyre witch who is doomed to become a werewolf.
Periodically transform into Wolf-kings larger than the normal wolf.
Sanguisuga (Mediaevil latin)
Blood sucking corpse.
Streghoi (Wallachian)
Night flying vampire witch.
Stregoni Benefici (Italian)
Vampyre slaying sorcerer.
Strigele (Roumanian)
Witch lights
Strigoii (Roumanian)
Vampyre shamans
Strix/ Striga (Roman latin)
Witch that assumes form of a screech owl.
Taxim (Eastern European)
Rotting corpse out to get his own back.
Upir (Russo-slavonic)
Vampyre
Varcolac (Roumanian)
Also Velkudlaka, Vulcolaca, Vukodlak and Varcolac, all meaning Wolf-
Coat. Invoked when women spin at midnight in the moon beams, sw
eep dust
towards the setting sun or burn a stick they used to stir food.
Varcolacs fall into a trance whilst the fetch travels, the body should
not be moved in case the spirit can not find it's way home.
Can also appear as dark flying dragons and beasts with lots of
mouths.
Vjestica (Slavonic)
Succubus witch,has firey wings, partner of lycanthropic Voukodlak, can
assume hyena form.
Varou (Guernsey)
Werewolf linked with the Wild Hunt, heralds violent storms, follows
certain set routes and hidden tunnels between megalithic remains.
Versipellis (Latin)
Skin turner, Pliny mentions the werewolves of Arcadia as being
versippeles, a chosen member of the clan had to swim a lake naked and
assume wolf form for nine years.
Werewulf (Saxon)
Also Gothic Vairavulf, Swedish Warulf, Danish Varulv, Frisian Waerwulf,
Middle Dutch Weerwulf, and Old High German, Werawolf.
11th Century Church of England warned against wodfreca werewulfs or "furiously
audacious werewolves" who might attack their spiritual flock.
Zmeu (Moldavian)
Fairy vampyre with no back.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some werewolf terms from other cultures
Italian = Vrykolakas. However, it also means 'vampire'
Russian = 'Vlkodlak', from 'vulko' (wolf) and 'dlaka' (hair).
Brittany = "bisclaveret"
German: "weerwolf"
In French: "loup-garou"
Spanish = lobombre (lobo = wolf, hombre = man)
Latin = versipellis (turn-skin)
mentioned in "Lai du Bisclaveret", by Marie de France = louweerou
Byelorussian = wawkalak (specific type of werewolf)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Werewolf Charm
This charm/spell dates at least as far back as the Middle Ages, and probably further, evident by the plea to the Devil to give the individual the power to become a werewolf. During that period, wolves were believed by Europeans to be servants of the Devil, and any that attacked people were often believed to be witches turned into wolves by the Devil or werewolves give the power by the Devil. I have included it here only for curiosity's sake, and firmly do not believe it has any power at all, nor do I want to hear of anyone who has actually tried to invoke it. It was published in The Were-wolf and Other Tales from the Dark Side of the Moon, edited by John Miller and Tim Smith.
Spitits from the deep
Who never sleep,
Be kind to me.
Spirits from the grave
Without a soul to save,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of the trees
That grow upon the leas,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of the air,
Foul and black, not fair,
Be kind to me,
Water spirits hateful,
To ships and bathers fateful,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of earthbound dead
That glide with noiseless tread,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of heat and fire,
Destructive in your ire,
Be kind to me.
Spirits of cold and ice,
Patrons of crime and vice,
Be kind to me.
Wolves, vampires, satyrs, ghosts!
Elect of all the devilish hosts!
I pray you send hither,
Send hither, send hither,
The great gray shape that makes men shiver!
Shiver, shiver, shiver!
Come! Come! Come!
Come, spirit so powerful! Come spirit so dread,
From the home of hte werewolf, the home of the dead.
Come, give me thy blessing! Come, lend me thine ear!
O spirit of darkness! Oh spirit so drear!
Come mighty phantom! Come great Unknown!
Come from thy dwelling so gloomy and lone.
Come, I beseech thee; depart from thy lair,
And body and soul shall be thine, I declare.
Haste, haste, hast, horrid spirit, haste!
Speed, speed, speed, scaring spirit, speed!
Fast, fast, fast, fateful spirit, fast!
I offer to thee, Great Spirit of the Unknown, this night, my body and soul, on the condition that thou grantest me, from this night to the hour of my death, the power of metamorphosing, nocturnally, into a wolf. I beg, I pray, I implore thee - thee, unparalleled Phantom of Darkness, to make me a werewolf - a werewolf!
Make me a werewolf! Make me a man-eater!
Make me a werewolf! Make me a woman-eater!
Make me a werewolf! Make me a child-eater!
I pine for blood! Human blood!
Give it me! Give it me tonight!
Great Wolf Spirit! Give it me, and
Heart, body, and soul, I am yours.
'Tis night! 'Tis night! and the moon shines white
Over pine and snow-capped hill;
The shadows stray through burn and brae
And dance in the sparkling rill.
'Tis night! 'Tis night! And the devil's light
Casts glimmering beams around.
The maras dance, the nisses prance
On the flower-enamelled ground.
'Tis night! 'Tis night! And the werewolf's might
Makes men and nature shiver.
Yet its fierce gray head and stealthy tread
Are nought to thee, oh river!
River, river, river.
Oh water strong, that swirls along,
I prithee a werewolf make me.
Of all things dear, my soul, I swear,
In death shall not forsake thee.
Author unknown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lycaon and Jupiter - A story by Ovid
This was written by Ovid (43 B.C. to 18 A.D.) in his Metamorphosis and is considered to be one of the earliest werewolf stories. It was republished in The Were-wolf and Other Tales from the Dark Side of the Moon, edited by John Miller and Tim Smith.
Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in order to discover if it is Jupiter himself who has come to lodge in his palace, orders the body of an hostage, who had been sent to him, to be dressed and served up at a feast. The God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf.
I had now passed Maenalus, to be dreaded for its dens of beasts of prey, and the pine-groves of cold Lycaeus, togheter with Cyllene. After this, I entered the realms and the inhospitable abode of the Arcadian tyrant, just as the late twilight was bringing on the night. I gave a signal that a God had come, and athe people commenced to pay their adorations. In the first place, Lycaon derided their pious supplications. Afterwards, he said, I will make a trial, by a plain proof, whether this is a God, or whether he is a mortal; nor shall the truth remain a matter of doubt. He then makes preparations to destroy me, when sunk in sleep, by and unexpected death; this mode of testing pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the Molossians, and then softens part of the quivering limbs in boiling water, and part he roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had placed these on the table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house upond the household Gods, worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself takes to flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he howls aloud, and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from himself, and through its usual desire for slaughter, it is directed against the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and still he retains vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same, the same violence appears in his features; his eyes are bright as before; he is still the same image of ferocity.
"Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish; wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys reigns. You would suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily fell that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my determination."
- Translated by Henry T. Riley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Wolf - A story told by Guy De Maupassant
This was written in 1887 by Guy De Maupassant and republished in The Were-wolf and Other Tales from the Dark Side of the Moon, edited by John Miller and Tim Smith.
Here is what the old Marquis d'Arville told us towards the end of St. Hubert's dinner at the house of the Baron des Ravels.
We had killed a stag that day. The marquis was the only one of the guests who had not taken any part in this chase, for he never hunted.
All through that long repast we had talked about hardly anything but the slaughter of animales. The ladies themselves were interested in tales sanguinary and often unlikely, and the orators imitated the attacks and the combats of men against beasts, raised their arms, romanced in an thundering voice.
M. d'Arville talked well, with a certain poetry of style somewhat high-sounding, but full of effect. He must have repeated this story often, for he told it fluently, not hesitating on words, choosing them with skill to produce a picture-
Gentlemen, I have never hunted; neither did my father, nor my grandfather, nor my great-grandfather. The last was the son of a man who hunted more than all of you put together. He died in 1764. I will tell you how.
His name was Jean. He was married, father of that child who became my ancestor, and he lived with his younger brother Francois d'Arville, in our castle in Lorraine, in the middle of the forest.
Francois d'Arville had remained a bachelor for the love of the chase.
They both hunted from one end of the year to the other, without repose, without stopping, without fatigue. They loved only that, understood nothing else, talked only of that, lived only for that.
They had at heart that one passion, which was terrible and inexorable. It consumed them, having entirely invaded them, leaving place for no other.
Thy had given orders that they should not be interrupted in the chase, for any reason whatever. My great-grandfather was born while his father was followng a fox, and Jean d'Arville did not stop his pursuit, but he swore: "Name of a name, that rascal ther might have waited till after the view-halloo!"
His brother Francois showed himself still more infatuated. On rising he went to see the dogs, then the horses; then he shot little birds about the castle until the moment for departing to hunt down some great beast.
In the countryside, they were called M. le Marquis and M. le Cadet, the nobles then not doing at all like the chance nobility of our time, which wishes to establish an hereditary hierarchy in titles; for the son of a marquis is no more of a count, nor the son of a viscount a baron, than the son of a general is a colonel by birth. But the mean vanity of today finds profit in that arrangement.
I return to my ancestors
They were, it seems, immeasurably tall, bony, hairy, violent, and vigorous. The younger, still taller than the older, had a voice so strong that, according to a legend of which he was proud, all the leaves in the forest shook when he shouted.
And when they both mounted to go off to hunt, that must have been a superb spectacle to see those two giants straddling their huge horses.
Now towards the midwinter of that year, 1764, the frosts were excessive, and the wolves became ferocious.
The even attacked belated peasants, roamed at night about the houses, howled from sunrise to sunrise, and depopulated the stables.
And soon a rumor began to circulate. People talked of a colossal wolf, with gray fur, almost white, who had eaten two children, gnawed off a woman's arm, strangled all the dogs of the guarde du pays, and penetrated without fear into the farm-yards to come snuffling under the doors. The people in the houses affirmed they had felt his breath, and that it made the flame of the lights flicker. And soon a panic ran through all the province. No one dared go out any more after night-fall. The shades seemed haunted by the image of the beast.
The brothers d'Arville resolved to find him and kill him, and several times they assembled all the gentlemen of the country to a great hunting.
In vain. They might beat the forest and search the coverts; they never met him. They killed wolves, but not that one. And every night after a battue, the beast, as if to avenge himself, attacked some traveller or devoured someone's cattle, always far from the place where they had looked for him.
Finally one night he penetrated into the pig-pen of the Chateau d'Arville and ate the two finest pigs.
The brothers were inflamed with anger, considering this attack as a bravado of the monster, an insult direct, a defiance. They took their strong blood-hounds used to pursue formidable beasts, and the set off to hunt, their hearts swollen with fury.
From dawn until the hour when the empurpled sun descended behind the great naked trees, the beat the thickets without finding anything.
At last, furious and disconsolate, both were returning, walking their horses along an allee bordered with brambles, and they marvelled that their woodcraft should be crossed so by this wolf, and they were seized suddenly with a sort of mysterious fear.
The elder said:
"That beast there is not an ordinary one. You would say that it though like a man."
The younger answered:
"Perhaps we should have a bullet blessed by our cousin, the bishop, or pray some priest to pronounce the words which are needed."
Then they were silent.
Jean continued:
"Look how red the sun is. The great wolf will do some harm tonight."
He had hardly finished speaking when his horse reared; that of Francois began to kick. A large thicket covered with dead leaves opened before them, and a colossal beast, quite gray, sprang up and ran off across the wood.
Both uttered a kind of groan of joy, and, bending over the necks of their heavy horses, they threw them forward with an impulse from their whole bodies, hurling them on a such a pace, exciting them, hurrying them away, maddening them so with the voice, with gesture, and with spur that the strong riders seemed rather to be carrying the heavy beasts between their thighs and to bear them off as if they were flying.
Thus they went, ventre a terre, bursting the thickets, cleaving the beds of stream, climbing the hillsides, descending the gorges, and blowing on the horn with full lungs to attract their people and their dogs.
And now, suddenly, in that mad race, my ancestor struck his forehead against and enormous branch which split his skull; and he fell stark dead on the ground, while his frightened horse took himself off, disappearing in the shade which enveloped the woods.
The cadet of Arville stopped short, leaped to the earth, and seized his brother in his arms. He saw that the brains ran from the wound with the blood.
Then he sat down beside the body, rested the head, disfigured and red, on his knees, and waited, contemplating that immobile face of the elder brother. Little by little a fear invaded him, a strange fear which he had never felt before, the fear of the dark, the fear of solitude, the fear of the deserted wood, and the fear of the fantastic wolf who had just killed his brother to avenge himself upon them both.
The shadows thickened; the acute cold made the trees crack. Francois got up, shivering, unable to remain there longer, feeling himself almost growing faint. Nothing was to be heard, neither the voice of the dogs nor the sound of the horns-all was silent along the invisible horizon; and this mournful silence of the frozen night had something about it frightening and strange.
He seized in his colossal hands the great body of Jean, straightened it and laid it across the saddle to carry it back to the chateau; then he went on his way softly, his mind troubled as if he were drunken, pursued by horrible and surprising images.
And abruptly, in the path which the night was invading, a great shape passed. It was the beast. A shock of terror shook the hunter; something cold, like a drop of water, glided along his veins, and, like a monk haunted of the devil, he made a great sign of the cross, dismayed ath this abrupt return of the frightful prowler. But his eyes fell back upon the inert body laid before him, and suddenly, passing abruptly from fear to anger, he shook with an inordinate rage.
Then he spurred his horse and rushed after the wolf.
He followed it by the copses, the ravines, and the tall trees, traversing woods which he no longer knew, his eyes fixed on the white speck which fled before him through the night now fallen upon the earth.
His horse also seemed animated by a force and and ardor hitherto unknown. It galloped, with outstretched neck, straight on, hurling against the trees, against the rocks, the head and the feet of the dead man thrown across the saddle. The briers tore out the hair; the brow beating the huge trunks, spattered them with blood; the spurs tore their ragged coats of bark. And suddenly the beast and the horseman issued from for forest and rushed into a valley, just as the moon appeared above the mountains. This valley was stony, closed by enormous rocks, without possible issue; and the wolf was cornered and turned around.
Fancois then uttered a yell of joy which the echoes repeated like a rolling of thunder, and he leaped from his horse, his cutlass in his hand.
The beast, with bristling hair, the back arched, awaited him; its eyes glistened like two stars. But, before offering battle, the strong hunter, seizing his brother, seated him on a rock, and, supporting with stones his head, which was no more than a blot of blood, he shouted in the ears as if he was talking to a deaf man, "Look, Jean; look at this!"
Then he threw himself upon the monster. He felt himself strong enough to overturn a mountain , to bruise the stones in his hands. The beast tried to bite him, seeking to strike at his stomach; but he had seized it by the neck, without even using his weapon, and he strangled it gently, listening to the stoppage of the breathings in its throat and the beatings of its heart. And he laughed, rejoicing madly, pressing closer and closer his formidable embrace, crying in a delirium of joy, "Look, Jean, look!" All resistance ceased; the body of the wolf became lax. He was dead.
The Fancois, taking him up in his arms, carried him off and went and threw him at the feet of the elder brother, repeating in a tender voice, "There, there, my little Jean, see him!"
Then he replaced on the saddle the two bodies, one upon the other, and he went his way.
He returned to the chateau, laughing and crying, lke Gargantua at the birth of Pantagruel, uttering shouts of triumph and stamping with joy in relating the death of the beast, and moaning and tearing his beard in telling that of his brother.
And often, later, when he talked again of that day, he said, with tears in his eyes, "If only that poor Jean could have seen me strangle the other, he would have died of content. I am sure of it!"
The widow of my ancestor inspired her orphan son with that horror of the chase which has transmitted itself from father to son as far down as myself.
The Marquis d'Arville was silent.
Someone asked:
"That story is a legend, isn't it?"
And the storyteller answered:
"I swear to you that it is true from one end to the other."
Then a lady declared, in a little, soft voice:
"All the same, it is fine to have passions like that."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTS
-