Some therianthropic european folklore

[malymin]

Werewolves

"Werewolf Legends from Germany, translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman"

This? this is the kind of thing i miss stumbling across more often on the old web. Incredibly invaluable resource for anyone interested in werewolves. There's a lot to take note of here. Werewolves in this folk tales transform via a "wolf strap," a sort of magic item often given to them by the Devil, but in one story the person who owns the strap is magically compelled to put on the strap even if they don't want to, or a person can be transformed accidentally by the trap. Werewolf aggression is most frequently ascribed to intense hunger in these stories. The werewolf is noted in some stories as being usually or always male, but "the wife who fetches meat to cook by hunting sheep as a werewolf" is a recurring narrative beat with a lot of variations. One variation of the former story has a fox strap instead of a wolf strap, and thus a were-fox instead of a werewolf.

Bisclavret English Translation PDF

What can I say? It's the sympathetic midieval werewolf story.

"Werewolves in Scandinavian folklore" Tumblr Post

Includes frank discussion of the fact that racist/xenophobic attitudes often play a role in folklore, where some "othered" ethnicity such as Roma, Sami, and Finns are blamed for laying werewolf curses on characters, or of being (willing) werewolves themselves. Notes that the "werewolf" concept can also include bears, or less commonly other dangerous carnivores like wolverines. "Inherited silver" as a component for silver bullets mentioned here. Like in the German stories, willing transformation is ascribed to a pelt or skin, and in some cases an unwilling individual feels compelled to put on the skin as their curse overtakes them. Former werewolves are able to still understand wolf-language after their curse is broken. Many cures are mentioned, but one that's given its own section for that of a werewolf trapped in wolf form is cannibalism - either drinking the blood of a family member or devouring a fetus, which may be undertaken by even sympathetic figures in such a situation:

"Then I with resentment / ripped the fetus out of her body.

When I had drunk my brother's blood / I turned into a good and noble knight."

Valravns

Wikipedia Article

I desperately want to find a translation of a primary source, or at the very least a translation of an actual danish secondary source, for this creature. The duality of it being (either* an ordinary raven that underwent an unholy transformation into something supernatural and wickedly intelligent (in a fashion that almost reminds me of Japanese animal yokai more than anything else) via eating a human heart, or a human cursed into a raven's form who can only be cured by eating a human heart/drinking human blood/some other cannibalism, fascinates me. The latter is very reminiscent of the Scandinavian Werewolves tumblr post, suggesting shared conceptual DNA between "cursed" valravns and "cursed" werewolves.

Blogspot post

Description of the Valravn ballad and some of its variations. Note the similarity to the "enchanted knight" ballad from the scandenavian werewolves post:

As soon as the lover (a bird, remember) sees Ermeline, he strikes her with both his legs, and tears her into two pieces. He then drinks her heart-blood, and is at once transformed into a big strong knight.

Comments

More Werewolves

[malymin]

This is an extremely interesting paper I found while hunting for information on how the werewolf as a figure has been historically conceptualized in European cultures.

It's possible to read the werewolf's insistence on sleeping near the king as simple self- preservation, though in both cases the king has already extended the werewolf his protection and forbid anyone from harming him. But the fact that the wolf lays at the king’s feet suggests that Melion self-identifies as a loyal pet dog, and in the king’s bedchamber is the proper place for a faithful pet to lie. Precisely where the werewolves sleep—whether on the bed or at the foot of the bed—is somewhat vague in each of these stories. The emphasis is that Melion sleeps at the king’s feet, symbolizing both his loyalty and favored status.

It's a paper that discusses the "werewolf knight" stories of Bisclavret, Melion, and Gorlagon as not simply displaying a "Civilized Christian Man"/"Bestial Wolf" binary like the typical werewolf folklore, but as intertwining the behavior, associations, and symbolism of domestic dogs into both the human and wolf elements of the werewolf.

[lb_lee]

God I love Bisclavret so much, Shoaf's translation has been my favorite so far!

[malymin]

Glad that's the version I linked, then! XD

I already linked it in a self-comment, but have you seen this pdf analyzing the motif of benevolent werewolf-knights in medieval literature? It's really cool.