† Mystic Wolf †

MyGen Profile GeneratorRight now, Im going to school. Im studing engineering. I have a part-time job.I.. width="425" height="350" .. The word werewolf is most likely to derive from two old-Saxon words, wer (meaning man) and wolf. Frequently used Greek terms Lycanthropy refers to the transformation process while Lycanthrope, which is in fact synonymous to werewolf, is the afflicted person. The popular definition of werewolf or lycanthrope is a man who transforms himself or being transformed into a wolf under the influence of full moon.During middle ages, especially from 15th to 17th century, Europe was under the dark shadow of ignorance and superstitions. Towns were underdeveloped and people lived near woods. The fear of wolves was like a nightmare. Their attacks were so frequent and atrocious in nature that people even feared to travel from one place to another. Every morning, countryside people would find half-eaten human limbs scattered on their fields.The first recorded Werewolf sighting took place around the countryside of German town Colongne and Bedburg in 1591. An age-old pamphlet describes those shivering moments vividly. Few people cornered a large wolf and set their dogs upon it. They started to pierce it with sharp sticks and spears. Surprisingly the ferocious wolf did not run away or tried to protect itself, rather it stood up and turned out to be a middle-aged man he was Peter Stubbe from the same village.Stubbe was put on a torture wheel where he confessed sixteen murders including two pregnant women and thirteen children. The history behind his downfall was rather bizarre. He had started to practice sorcery when he was only 12 and was so obsessed with it that even tried to make a pact with the Devil. Wearing a magic girdle he started to attack his enemies, real or imaginary. After several months, he would take the guise of a wolf and continued with his evil acts with more brutality. In the wolf form he used to tear up victims’ throats and suck warm blood from veins. Gradually his thirst for blood grew and he roamed around fields in search of prey.The savagery of his crimes was beyond imagination. The trial record motioned few of them. Once two men and a woman were walking along a road that went through the forest Stubbe used to hide in. He called one of them into the forest. When the man did not return for a long time the second one followed his trail and also disappeared into the forest. When both the man didn't return for a long time the woman ran for her life. Later, two mangled male corpses were recovered from the forest, but the woman’s body never reappeared. It was believed that Stubbe had devoured it all. Young girls playing together or milking the cows in the fields were his frequent victims. He used to chase them like a hound, catch the slowest one, rape and kill her. Then he would drink hot blood and eat tender flesh from her body. However; the most gruesome sin he committed was upon his own son. He took him to a nearby forest, cracked the poor child’s skull open and ate brain from it.No punishment could match the magnitude of Stubbe’s crime. His flesh was pulled off with red-hot pincer, his arms and legs were broken and he was finally decapitated. His carcass was burned to ashes.The Magistrate of Bedburg built a grim monument remembering the ghastly incident. Workmen put the torture wheel atop a tall pole with Stubbe’s head above it structured with the likeliness of a wolf. Sixteen pieces of yard long wood cuts were hung from the rim of the wheel commemorating poor souls of the victims. The words of Stubbe’s trial and execution spread across the lands in no time. His brutality, atrocity and savagery were beyond human comprehension and was readily related with the behavior of a wolf. People started to believe that such individuals with the shadow of wolves were living among them. They named them Werewolves.Greek Mythology and WerewolfGreek mythology also testifies the existence of werewolves. God Zeus once disguised himself as a traveler and sought forhospitality to the court of vicious Arcadian King Lycaon. The King recognized the God and tried to kill Him by serving him human flesh. God Zeus caught the terrible trick and did not eat. Outraged, He destroyed the palace and condemned Lycaon to spend rest of his life as a wolf. Most probably this mythology originated the Greek word “Lycanthrope” which is actually synonymous to werewolf. (Greek lykos - wolf, and anthropos - man.)Portrait of a Werewolf and the Transformation ProcessCurse: An ill fated man could become victim of witchcraft or fall under curse of evil spirits. The person then would involuntary turn into werewolf.Bitten by Werewolf: Another common believe was that any one could become one if saliva of an werewolf could find a way to blood stream; might be from bite or scratch.Putting on Wolf Skin: Most easiest way of becoming werewolf; however, there have been debates concerning effectiveness of the method. An evil minded person could put on hide of a dead wolf and become a werewolf. In case the complete skin was unavailable, a belt or girdle of wolf hide would supplement it.Occult or Devil Worshiping: An wicked person can start worshiping the Devil and surrender his soul to it. The Devil then would grant him the power to become an werewolf. In some cases it could be any evil spirit answering to devotion.Magic Salve or Ointment: A good number of recorded cases mentions a potent salve or ointment with which werewolf would rub their bodies for transformations. The compositions of those ointments were different, but generally contained plant ingredients like nightshade, belladonna and henbane. Pig fat, turpentine and olive oil were used as solvent for them. Later when the distillation of spirits was perfected, alcohol served the purpose.Rituals: Evidence of ceremonial rituals are often mentioned in the werewolf cases. The rituals were mainly any combination of the voluntary methods of becoming a werewolf. First the afflicted man would locate an isolate place and trace a big circle on the soil. On the center of that circle he made a fire and prepared his magic ointment. ( After rubbing his body with the ointment, he would wear the wolf hide and concentrate on prayer to the Devil. At the end of the process the man turned into a wolf and ran in quest of prey.A Ritual“Hail, hail, hail, great Wolf Spirit, hail A boon I ask thee, mighty shade, Within this circle I have made. Make me a werewolf strong and bold, The terror alike of young and old.”“Hail, hail, hail, great Wolf Spirit, hail A boon I ask thee, mighty shade, Within this circle I have made. Make me a werewolf strong and bold, The terror alike of young and old.”Thus begins an ancient incantation. The lycanthropic literature of the past is filled with such eerie chants, delivered in desolate locations within the perimeters of mysterious circles scratched onto the ground, and generally beneath the ghostly light of a full moon. As invocation of evil, the chants called upon the spirits of the trees and air, heat and fire, cold and ice. Repeating the chants over and over again, the votary prepared himself psychically for the transformation. Yet however intently he might feel the words, they were not enough to bring him to the altered state of mind that would enable him to kill and eat his victims. Essential was a girdle or belt cut from the skin of a wolf to be worn around the waist. But more important by far were the vapors that he might inhale or the slaves or ointment with which he might rub his naked body. Made from ingredients as foul as potent, the potions contained psychoactive substances that released the beast within the lycanthrope and set him on his bloody course.With evil intent, a man traces two concentric circles on flat ground. Then he will build a fire of pine or larch and black poplar and suspend an iron cauldron on it from branches above. Into it he will drop these ingredients; opium, poppy seeds, aloe, henbane, hemlock, parsley, solanine (an extract of night shade), and asafetida (a gum resin). After stirring all the components together , he will allow the contents to simmer. When flames leap up, he will begin his incantation: “Elect of all devilish host, I pray you send hither, the great gray shape that makes men shiver. Come! Come! Come!"Having removed his clothing and put on a wolf-skin girdle, the devotee now rubs his entire body with a salve. Such ointments, which were absorbed through the skin, were made from ingredients as varied as camphor, aconite, aniseed, opium, poplar leaves, bat’s blood and root, mixed with the rendered fat of a cat. Before the ointment begins to take effect, the man breathes in the intoxicating fumes floating from the bubbling cauldron, which prepare him mentally for the next stage of his strange ritual.Under double influence of the fumes and salve, the man falls to his knees, imploring the spirit of the unknown to bestow on him the power of metamorphosis. With his hands raised, he intones these words; “I beg, I pray, I implore thee-thee unparalleled Phantom of Darkness-to make me a werewolf.” He starts to feel as if his own body is changing structure, growing hairier, his nails lengthening into claws.Fully transformed the werewolf bounds off into the darkness. But however strong and mean he thinks himself, he knows that even as a werewolf he will be vulnerable, hence the must chant as a charm the final words of the transformation ceremony: “Melt the bullet, blunt the knife, rot the cudgel, strike fear into man, beast and reptile so they may not seize the gray wolf, nor tear his from his warm hide. My word is firm, firmer than sleep or the strength of heroes.”Werewolves Cases from Medieval French ChroniclesAs centuries passed there arrived a point when fanciful stories told to amuse people were replaced by real incidents and real suffering. Suddenly tales such as Stubbe’s started to emerge. It was as if people believed that werewolves were every where.The trial recordsof lycanthrope increased at an epidemic rate. In France alone between 1520 and 1630 some 30,000 individuals were labeled as werewolves, many of them underwent traumatic interrogation and torture. Confessed or not, most of them suffered vile death at the stake. Here few recorded sensational werewolf trials have been mentioned.The case of Pierre Burgot and Michel VerdunThe trial of Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdum, two French peasants in 1521 got wide spread notoriety. Nineteen years ago when Burgot was desperately trying to gather his storm frightened sheeps, he came across three mysterious black dressed horsemen. One of them assured him the future protection of his sheep and gave him some money. In return the stranger asked Burgot to obey him as the Lord. Burgot accepted the offer and agreed to meet them again. In the second meeting the so-called Lord announced the full conditions of the deal; Burgot must denounce the God, the Holy Virgin, the Company of Heaven and baptism.As year passed Burgot became reluctant to maintain the pact. Then he was called by Michel Verdum. Verdum ordered him to strip naked and rub a magic ointment on his body. When Burgot had followed as instructed he found his arms and legs had become hairy and his hands reshaped into paws. Verdum transformed himself into werewolf too and together they ran through the surrounding countryside. They committed various awful crimes. They tore to pieces a seven-year-old boy, killed a woman and abducted a four-year-old girl. The unfortunate girl was fully eaten up by two of them. When they were caught they were duly put to death. Their picture was hung in the local church as a reminder of all the evil deeds that men could commit under the influence of Satan.Gilles Garnier, “the hermit of Dole,"After finding several half-eaten children the authorities of the town Dôle in Frenche-Comté province put a price on werewolves’ head in 1573. Two months after the injunction, an alleged werewolf named Gillas Garner was arrested. Most of his victims were nine to twelve-year-old children. He slew them with his paws and teeth. To satisfy his appetite, he ate flesh from their thigh, legs and belly. The story of his crimes and execution still survives through folk songs.Werewolf of CaudeAgain in 1598 Jacques Rollet was tried for killing and eating a boy of fifteen. He was known as the werewolf of Caude. When he was found in the woods, he was half-naked with long matted hair and blood covered hands. He was still holding a lump of flesh. At his trial he described how he had slaughtered various people, including a number of attorneys, lawyers and bailiffs. Though he was sentenced to death he was later sent to a madhouse. Strangely enough he stayed there for only two year. The TailorAmong other werewolf cases, the story of a tailor stands out for its peculiarity. The alleged werewolf would hide in the forests and for a passerby. Whenever he could get a chance, he jumped out and killed the unsuspecting person. He had a shop and used it as a bait for children. He would tempt them into his shop and kill them. In his cellars he store body parts and bones in barrels. The records accumulated during his trial were so repulsive that the court decided to destroy them.The Boy LycanthropeThere is a record of a child werewolf as well. He was Jean Grenier of Aquitaire. His story was more or less like that of Burgot. When his father had beat him, he ran away from home and wandered around the countryside. One evening another boy named Pierre La Tihaire took him to the depths of the woods. According to them, the Lord of the Jungle was there. He was a tall black dressed dark man upon a dark horse. The Lord got off his horse and kissed Grenier with icy lips. In the second meeting both of the boys submitted themselves to the acclaimed Lord who scratched tattoos on their thighs as brands. He brought out a wine bag and gave them a drink. He also presented them wolf skins and an ointment. The Lord taught them how to rub their bodies with the ointment before putting on the fur.During their reign of terror fifteen children including one from Grenier’s cradle disappeared. When finally Grenier was caught in 1603, he confessed of eating them all. At that time he was fourteen, physically and mentally retarded.Taking into account of his age and limited mental capacity, the Judge ordered Grenier to be confined in a cloister for life. There he refused to eat any regular food and devoured offal instead. Seven years later when a man called Pierre de Lancre visited him, he had grown gaunt and lean. His deep-set black eyes were like fire balls, hands were like claws with bent nails and teeth were like canines. Apparently he enjoyed hearing about wolves and readily imitated them. After one more year he died, to be remembered forever in the anal of werewolves as the “boy lycanthrope”.Greiner’s case is amongst those that contributed to the shift in attitude towards the werewolf phenomenon. The head of the inquest committee who looked into this case found him incapable of rational thought mentioning “The change of shape existed only in the disorganized brain of the insane. Consequently it was not a crime that could be punished”. Judges began to regard werewolf cases with more tolerance.