Werewolf - mark of the beast!

(i) Steelzer/Triumph



                        THE MARK OF THE BEAST.



    Philosophers and other scientists have debated for centuries:
Were werewolves real? Allowing in principle the possibility
mental abnormalities, expressed in the fact that patients felt
ourselves as wild beasts, many authorities are of the opinion
that real lycanthropes cannot exist in principle.

    Speaking of a true werewolf who is able to transform into
wolf with the help of black magic or some other forces, James
Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, two Dominican friars, categorically
They say: “This is impossible.” They further add that with the help
a sorcerer or sorcerer can use various potions and spells
make someone who looks at them imagine that he is
turned into a wolf or other animal, but physically transform
man into beast is impossible.



    But nevertheless, lycanthropy as a disease that forces
man to think that he has turned into a beast and must behave
accordingly, it has been known since ancient times.



    As early as around 125 BC. Roman poet Marcellus Sidet
wrote about lycanthropy, pointing out that the affected person
seizes mania, accompanied by a terrible appetite and ravenous
ferocity.  According toSidetu, people are more susceptible to it in
beginning of the year, especially in February, when the disease is most
common and can be observed in the most acute forms.

    Those exposed to her influence are then removed to abandoned
cemetery and live there like ferocious hungry wolves. It was believed
that a werewolf is a bad person whom the gods turned into
beast as punishment.  In the Middle Ages, especially in Central and
Eastern Europe, the opinion was born that werewolves become
as a result of the evil machinations of witches and sorcerers, and as a consequence
superstitions abounded, intricate procedures were used,
supposedly capable of saving from witchcraft.



    In Greek legends you can find many references to
wolves and about the transformation of people into animals. For example, in one of
legends say that in Arcadia people turned themselves into wolves in
during a special dedication ceremony. Those who want to become wolves
were taken to remote swamps.  There they took off their clothes and
crossed the swamp to a special island. On this island again
those who arrived were accepted by the same human wolves and lived among them
as equals.



    But unlike real werewolves, they could return to
normal life, simply by crossing back through the swamp.
Greek myths also tell of events taking place in the mountains of Arcadia.
dedicated to Zeusancient ritual of eating a sickening mixture of
wolf and human entrails.

    In ancient Greece, lycanthropy was called Lupinam Susaniam,
literally "wolf madness", but even at that time many
Scientists doubted the existence of werewolves. Some
scientists interpreted lycanthropy as a form of melancholy, but
most agreed that it would be more correct to describe it as madness,
or madness.

    In general, it should be noted that almost all the peoples of Europe have
stories about people stricken with wolf madness. Known
for example, an incident that occurred in Padua (Italy) in 1541,
when one man firmly believed that he was a wolf and became
run around in a violent insanity, showing with all your behavior
that he is a wild animal. Bohemia and Hungary were constantly tormented by this scourge,
and legends about werewolves and those who were struck by wolf disease,
were pretty confused.



    Describing the portraits of freaks from the art gallery of the Castle of Ambras in
Tyrol, scientists Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally mentioned
portrait of the “wolf man” Gogonza, a native of the Canary Islands,
contracted a mysterious disease "that covered him with fur
from head to toe."



    Apparently his two children were also covered in hair and
are described as “wolf children”, and his wife was quite normal.
No doubt - whimnature, but the case is interesting in light
possible influence on the beliefs of the time.

    It was said that in Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages there were
people who hid during the day and got out of the house at night,
went to abandoned cemeteries and barked and howled at
graves.  These unfortunate ones, are they real werewolves or are they stricken?
due to illness they were very thin and pale. They had deep sunken
eyes and scabbed feet.  It was also said that they
possessed by an "unquenchable thirst."  Modern medicine like us
We will see further gives an explanation for this.

    When exploring the problem of werewolves, it should be remembered that with
in ancient times, man used the skin of a wolf, a ferocious
from animals, as clothing and decoration, and it would be strange,
if wolf courage and aggressiveness were not associated with
those who wear them. Likewise, many centuries later in
Africa has developed a disgusting cult of leopard people who
wore skins, fangs and claws of leopards, terrifying their
victims before killing them. But with these African cults
It's not that simple. Let's take a closer look at this.



    Most likely, we need to start with the fact that between a person and
animals can establish a certain connection, which
J. Fraser in his famous "Golden Bough" called
sympathetic,and today scientists call it field.  So
a person can be a sorcerer, a shaman - in a word, a person who has
extra capable abilities.  In West African countries
a widespread ritual in which sorcerers take blood from the ear
animal and from their own hand and inoculate their blood into the animal, and
the blood of the beast - for yourself. It was believed that from that moment between them
a connection arises, and it is so close that the death of one of
them leads to the death of another.

 
    Such sister animals can be leopards and
hippos and even crocodiles.  Remember "Mowgli": "You and I
of the same blood, you and I!..”

    Not every person is able to find his forest soul, but he
can turn to the soothsayer and find out which animal she is in
located. As a rule, fathers and sons become forest souls
animals of the same species. The same applies to the female line. Not this one
whether field, invisible, but very close dependence - the roots
totetism (a complex of ancient beliefs and rituals associated with
the idea of kinship between groups of people and the so-called
totems - species of animals and plants)?



  But let's go back to ancient times again.



    In Europe in the Middle Ages, the image of the werewolf expanded,
spreading to other animals; people believed that man
capableturn into a bear, pig and even sheep, although it is difficult
imagine that in the latter case he could act out fear
on your "sacrifice" ;) Over time, this belief in its
essence is preserved, and some stories that have come down to us from
past, caused a lot of controversy between zoologists and historians.

    The belief that a person can become a wolf persists through
to this day in areas such as Normandy and Brittany; in the last
folk legends follow the classical pattern - a person wears
wolf skin, which allows him to take on some of the animal properties,
and then he literally turns into a wolf. However, these legends
left the werewolf a chance to escape: it was believed that if
scratch the lycanthrope near the tip of the nose so that three stand out
drops of blood, then the obsession will dissipate. In Norway they thought
that a person excommunicated from the church turns into a werewolf.



    In the Côte d'Or region (France), legends about werewolves have
strange detail: it is believed that a person can be a werewolf
only for a certain period, usually ten or seven years. Okuda
where did these numbers come from? Apparently we will never know.
 


    Although most stories concerning lycanthropy
of French or German origin, there are many
quite reliable stories about werewolves and lycorexia(a state when a person suddenly begins to imagine himself as a wolf
and has a voracious appetite along with other terrible
symptoms) that occurred in countries such as Austria
or Russia.  However, Slavic peoples also have legends about werewolves
very closely intertwined with legends about vampires.

    So, we see that many peoples have encountered lycanthropy
and at all times.  There are a great many legends about this
topic.  But despite the fact that these legends were born at different times
time and in different places, they are surprisingly similar to each other,
sometimes differing only in the smallest details.



    In the next part we will look at some of the most
typical cases of lycanthropy...