Metamorphosis and Metaphysics

Metamorphosis and Metaphysics: An Exploration of Man and Beast, Good and Evil, Christian and Pagan through Dichotomous Werewolves of the Middle Ages By Kaitlin Rae Leathers, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English California State University, Bakersfield In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Masters of English Spring 2016 Copyright By Kaitlin Rae Leathers 2016 Metamorphosis and Metaphysics: An Exploration of Man and Beast, Good and Evil, Christian and Pagan through Dichotomous Werewolves of the Middle Ages By Kaitlin Rae Leathers This thesis or project has been accepted on behalf of the Department of English by their supervisory committee: Committee Chair v Table of Contents Introduction 1 I. Wolves, Werewolves, and the Devil: The Wolf-Haunted Middle Ages 5 A Word to the Wary: Werewolf in Language 5 Scriptural Depictions of Wolves and Werewolves 8 The Devil Incarnate 10 Limitations of the Devil’s Power: The Illusory Werewolf 11 II. Of Men and Beasts: Evolving Perceptions of Humanity and Animality 18 Man against Beast: Philosophies of Anthropocentrism 19 III. Of Men and Wolves: A Merging of Beasts 31 Wolves and Outlawry 34 Wolves and Pagans 36 The Mesopotamian Shepherd’s Tale 38 Werewolves of Classical Antiquity 40 Werewolves of the North: Úlfhednar and the Völsunga Saga 50 Werewolves of the Celts 54 IV. Christianized Werewolves of the Twelfth Century 58 Gerald of Wales and the Werewolves of Ossory 60 The Christian Werewolf in Marie de France’s “Bisclavret” 64 Concluding Thoughts and Further Study 68 Bibliography 71 1 Metamorphosis and Metaphysics: An Exploration of Man and Beast, Good and Evil, Christian and Pagan through Dichotomous Werewolves of the Middle Ages Introduction My interest in portrayals of werewolves in the Middle Ages first began as an interest in medieval monstrosities and, particularly, tales of human-animal metamorphosis. Stories such as these strain the boundaries between man and beast, and in doing so, prompt important existential and theological questions and expose a variety of fears and anxieties harbored by mankind.1 The longest-lived and most familiar representative of human-animal metamorphosis in Western thought is, of course, the werewolf. Such a bold claim is defended by both Brian J. Frost and Montague Summers. “[O]f all the half-human monsters in myth, fiction, and reality,” Frost argues, “the werewolf dominates, both in its dreadful lore and in the depths of loathing its diabolical practices can inspire” (3). In his substantial study of the werewolf in the folklore and legends of various regions of the world, Summers attests to the murky history of the werewolf when he acknowledges that belief in the protean creature is “as old as time and as wide as the world,” and “[his] ultimate origins … are indeed obscure and lost in the mists of primeval mythology” (1). The history of the werewolf certainly is enigmatic. Tales of men who become wolves under various circumstances have existed in numerous cultures across the globe for an 1 Throughout this thesis, I refer to all of mankind collectively, as opposed to signifying man or woman. In addition, I often utilize the word man in reference to all human beings. This is not to say that men alone were werewolves; both men and women have been known to become wolves, although male werewolves were more pervasive and popular in the eras covered. 2 indeterminate length of time, perhaps as long as men and wolves have lived side-by-side, competing for food and territory. According to Kirby F. Smith, “[i]f we ask why [the] story of the Werwolf … extend[s] so much farther than others of the same nature, at least one practical answer is suggested: The wolf himself is one of the most widely diffused animals … Wherever man, in his wanderings, has penetrated there he has found, and fought, his ancient enemy”—the wolf (2). The wolf alone is tremendously symbolic, associated with death and ferocity, criminals as well as kings, and both ignorance and intelligence. When the imagery of the wolf is combined with man to create a man-wolf—a werewolf—things become rather complicated, and possible interpretations of his identity and function in the human imagination are endless. In their introduction to The Monstrous Middle Ages, Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills stress that monsters of the Middle Ages—the werewolf included—“are not meaningless but meaning-laden; the monstrous is constitutive, producing the contours of both bodies that matter (humans, Christians, saints, historical figures, gendered subjects and Christ) and, ostensibly, bodies that do not (animals, non-Christians, demons, fantastical creatures and portentous freaks)” (2). Bildhauer and Mills contend furthermore that monsters of the medieval world are “polysemous entities” that appear in a variety of circumstances and serve many purposes, making it impossible to reach any singular, definitive conclusions about them (6). As a literary figure, the werewolf is omnipresent and primeval, his first appearance extending backward in time over four millennia; as such, enigmatic and varied images of werewolves are firmly embedded into man’s deepest memory, and legends about them reveal ancient customs, prejudices, and anxieties harbored by mankind. The multiplicity of the werewolf and his dual states of being—his existence between the worlds of the human and the animal, the civilized and the savage, the Christian and the pagan—make him an entity filled with meaning during the 3 Middle Ages, a time between the ignorance of the Dark Ages and the illumination of the Renaissance, and he reveals the very real Christian fear of losing humanity and divinity by devolving into bestiality, by succumbing to the same animalistic anarchy that governs wild beasts and godless heathens. To achieve fullest understanding of medieval werewolves and the fear and loathing they inspired, it is necessary to consider the implications of various dichotomies that exist within them; as such, this thesis explores to some degree the philosophical and historical underpinnings of each component of the dichotomous werewolf—man, beast, wolf, outlaw, pagan, Christian—in order to deconstruct his images in medieval thought. In this thesis, I explore philosophical influences underlying various portrayals of werewolves in language, religious texts, law, and myth, discussing depictions from the earliest in antiquity—the first in The Epic of Gilgamesh in ancient Mesopotamia—through the end of the Middle Ages, paying particular attention to uniquely Christian werewolves who emerges in what Caroline Walker Bynum coined as the “werewolf renaissance of the twelfth century” (94). It is necessary to first establish an understanding of the werewolf as he appears in orthodox Christian thought of the Middle Ages. To accomplish this, in the first chapter, “Wolves, Werewolves, and the Devil,” I divulge the earliest appearances and usages of the word werewolf in the English language, provide etymological context, and offer definitions of the medieval werewolf and his practices. This initial chapter is primarily devoted to discussion of early medieval portrayals of wolves and werewolves in Scripture and other religious writings, which establish the predominant medieval Christian view of the werewolf as an agent of evil, a bondslave of the Devil. In the second chapter, “Of Men and Beasts,” I explore the origins of medieval perceptions of humanity and animality in the philosophies of Classical antiquity, focusing particularly on Stoic principles which seem to have been most influential to philosophers and theologians of the 4 Middle Ages. In the third chapter, “Of Men and Wolves,” I discuss man’s relationship with wolves in nature and the various ways in which the two were merged together to create images of werewolves. This chapter provides insight to the Germanic custom of labeling outlaws as wolves or werewolves, and it also fosters understanding of the ancient Teutonic traditions in which men ritualistically transformed themselves into wolves—a custom that very likely contributed to Christian prejudices against pagans and to medieval representations of werewolves as evil entities. In the final chapter, “Christianized Werewolves of the Twelfth Century,” I offer analysis of sympathetic werewolves and juxtapose these to pagan werewolves discussed in the previous chapter. By the end of this thesis, it is my hope that the reader departs with a fuller knowledge of the origins of werewolves in Western thought, the multitude of meanings they have acquired throughout their development, and the ontological fears they embody: the fear that man is not unique to the animals around him—that the beast is not what he becomes, but what he has always been. 5 I Wolves, Werewolves, and the Devil: The Wolf-Haunted Middle Ages As explored briefly in the introduction, the werewolf is a dualistic entity in many respects, and fittingly enough, the werewolves of the Middle Ages are primarily divided into two kinds. The first and most prominent kind of werewolf in the Christian Middle Ages is depicted by the medieval Church as a malicious, blood-thirsty killer whose most close affiliation is with the Devil himself. The second kind is the werewolf found in romances of the twelfth century which paint the metamorphic creature as a man, first and foremost, who retains his mental faculties although his physical body is transformed by nature, curse, or betrayal into a wolf’s shape. Both of these, however, find their roots in ancient portrayals of werewolves in Classical antiquity and Germanic pagan traditions. Prior to delving into an investigation of the history of werewolves in primeval myths and mores, it is important to first be acquainted with the most predominant Christian view of werewolves during the Middle Ages and to extend backward from there, with this foundational knowledge in mind. This chapter, then, explores the demonic, monstrous werewolf of the Christian Middle Ages through his initial and influential representations in language, Scripture, and ecclesiastical works.

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