#der werwolf

[charnel-grounds]

Otto Linnekogel (1897–1981), “Der Werwolf”

illustration from ‘Der Orchideengarten’ Vol. 2 #10, 1920

source

[almanci]

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf - Beitrag zur Sagengeschichte (1862)

In Erfurt they tell of a strange wolf that roamed a town district in the summer of 1555, embracing and cuddling the people, especially the women; it did no harm to anyone, though those that encountered him were terrified of the size of its maw.

[almanci]

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf - Beitrag zur Sagengeschichte (1862)

Above we saw that calling out the christian name had a disenchanting effect; so too in this Hessian tale: A farmer's wife always presents him with meat for dinner, for a long time not saying where she was getting it from. Finally, she promised to show him under the condition that he wouldn't say her name. Together they went to a field with grazing sheep; there the woman threw a ring over herself and instantly turned into a wolf, attacked the herd and ran off with a sheep. The man stood frozen, but as he saw the shepherd and his dogs run after the werewolf and realise the danger his wife was in, he forgot his promise and called out: "Ach, Margareit!" and the wolf disappeared, in its place was the naked woman in the field.

The werewolf is also often disenchanted by mere recognition without explicit naming: A farmer encountered an old female wolf in a field. She constantly jumped at his horse to bite its neck. Her voice seemed so familiar to the farmer that he called out: "Büst Du dat, myne olle Möem odder bist Du dat nich? [Is that you, my old Ma or is it not?]" such that his own aged mother stood before him in the flesh and could not move a limb. The farmer hoisted her into his wagon and brought her home, where she died soon after. [...]

Furthermore, the werewolf is enchanted by throwing iron or steel over it. In Westphalia they call this "den Wolf, die Hexe blank maken"; during this, the werewolf's pelt explodes away from a cross-shaped mark on his forehead, and the naked human comes out of this opening. A wealthy woman close to Wolfshagen used to leave her house every night and roam the fields as a werewolf. One time the shepherd threw his pocket knife over her head and shoulders and she stood naked before him. Once upon a time, when a farmer was riding in his wagon at night, he bumped into a werewolf; immediately he bound his fire striker to his whip and threw it over the wolf's head. The latter however caught the whip, and now the farmer had to save himself by fleeing. - Whoever saves himself into a field of rye has nothing to fear from werewolves.

A werewolf can be bound, if you stick a rapier into the ground in a way where its tip points towards the werewolf; it has to stand until the hour of his transformation, when he turns back human. It can also be caught by easter wood [...]

[almanci]

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf - Beitrag zur Sagengeschichte (1862)

A farmer caught a werewolf that had broken into his sheep pen, so that the entire night he had to stand in front of the house with a sheep in his mouth. Come next morning, the farmer opened his front window and said: "Neighbour, that sheep is 24 bucks; if you'll send me that much, you can take the sheep with you." The wolf nodded with its head and left. In the following night, he put 24 bucks enveloped in a slip of paper in front of the farmer's door, but as retaliation broke into the sheep pen again and choked every sheep without taking even one.

A hunter shot a wolf's back with his rifle and instantly, a pelt-wearing woman stands before him and pleads with a trembling voice: "O dear hunter Mardä, why are you shooting me today? Didn't I send you cakes for carnival (Fastnacht) just three days ago."

[inthegardensofourminds]

This light novel reads like tween mediocre fanfiction, but people actually spent money publishing this.

[almanci]

Neighbour to Livonia and Estonia, the island Swedish on Oesel, Dagö, Runö and Worms, talk as well of man-wolves, folkwargar, but claim that they can not be found among the Swedish. They have a special word for female werewolves - wargkelng (wolf-hag, old norse kerling, crone). Under Newe lived such a woman, who would roll around on the ground and rise as a wolf; then she would run into a herd, pick a fat sheep or a good lamb and drag it home to devour it. On the floor she had a wealth of sheep and ram hides. Once upon a time, her brother, who lives a couple hundred steps away from her, noticed a wolf carrying away a sheep, ran home to get his rifle, but failed to find the wolf again. Right after, he visited his sister and found the robbed sheep dead in her hands. Finally, she confessed her bad deed and promised to never do it again.

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf (1862)

[almanci]

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf (1862)

Belief in werewolves in the north has persisted into recent times; the magical transformation is especially associated with Finns, Sami and Russians, so that during the last war with Russia, when the heads of state of Calmar were all but overrun by wolves, legend goes this was due to the Russians turning Swedish prisoners of war into wolves and sending them home to become a plague in their own lands.

There is also a legend of a soldier of the Calmar regiment who was turned into a wolf, and traversed the Aland islands from Finland to run back to his native Smaland, driven by his yearning to see his wife and children again. But a hunter shot him down and brought his carcass into the village. When the wolf was skinned, it is said that his wife recognised the shirt she had sewn for her husband before he went off to war.

When once upon a time a groom and his groomsmen entered the forest, he and his companions are said to have been transformed into werewolves by evil spirits. Many years went by until the abandoned bride happened to enter the forest one day, calling out in grief the name of her beloved. It is then that he appeared in human form and fell into her arms: "the power of the christian name" had broken the spell.

Queer is also a Danish superstition after which a bride who uses a special spell to ease delivery of her children will give birth to boys who will become werewolves, or girls who will turn into mares.

[almanci]

Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf (1862)

Ein älteres Zeugnis lesen wir bei Giraldus Cambrensis: Der Priester wurde auf seiner Wanderung von Teilen Ultonias Richtung Mitte von einem Wolfe nächtlicher Weile angesprochen: Wir gehören der Rasse der Ossyrier (Ulster) an, von welchen alle sieben Jahre durch den Fluch eines bestimmten Heiligen (St. Patrick) am Geburtstag des Abtes je zwei, ein Mann und eine Frau, von ihren Formen und Zwecken verbannt werden. Sie legen die Menschengestalt völlig ab und legen die Haut eines Wolfes an. Sollten sie, nach Vollendung der sieben Jahre, noch am Leben sein, so nehmen zwei neue ihren Platz und sie kehren zurück, sowohl zu ihrer Heimat als auch zu ihrer Natur. Der Wolf führte in hierauf den Priester zu seiner Unglücksgenossin, damit er ihr, die am Sterben lag, die heilige Wegzehrung gebe, und um ihn ihres Menschenthums zu versichern, streifte er ihr mit der Pfote die Wolfshaut vom Kopf bis zum Nabel herunter, sodass sofort die Gestalt einer alten Frau erschien. Der Priester gab ihr das Sakrament und der Wolf zog ihr hierauf das Fell wieder über den Kopf. -- Höchst merkwürdig ist hier die Übereinstimmung mit der uralten arkadischen Werwolfssage in Betreff der regelmäßig sieben Jahre währenden Verwandlung; dieser Zug mag in das dunkelste Alterthum hinaufreichen, wo die Kelten mit den übrigen indogermanischen Stämmen noch in innigen Verkehr standen. Der verfluchende Heilige ist an die Stelle eines beleidigten Gottes getreten; bei der Deutung mag auch hier an periodisch wiederkehrende Sühnopferfeste zu denken sein.