The Werewolf: Past and Future
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The Werewolf: Past and Future Maegan A. Stebbins Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In English Shoshana Milgram Knapp Peter W. Graham Karen Swenson April 28, 2017 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: werewolf, werewolves, lycanthrope, lycanthropes, lycanthropy, wolf man, wolf-man, wolf-men, wolfman, history, humanities, culture, cultural studies, myth, mythology, folklore, legend, legends, fantasy, medieval, popular culture, wolf, wolves, conservation, fairytale Copyright © 2017 Maegan A. Stebbins The Werewolf: Past and Future Maegan A. Stebbins ABSTRACT Since before recorded history, werewolves have captivated human imagination. Simultaneously, they represent our deepest fears as well as our desire to connect with our primal ancestry. Today, werewolves are portrayed negatively, associated with violence, cruelty, cannibalism, and general malevolence. However, in ages past, legends depicted them not as monsters, but as a range of neutral to benevolent individuals, such as traveling companions, guardians, and knights. The robust legacy of the werewolf spans from prehistory, through ancient Greece and Rome, to the Middle Ages, into the Early Modern period, and finally into present-day popular culture. Over the ages, the view of the werewolf has become distorted. Media treatment of werewolves is associated with inferior writing, lacking in thought, depth, and meaning. Werewolves as characters or creatures are now generally seen as single-minded and one-dimensional, and they want nothing more than to kill, devour, and possibly violate humans. Hollywood depictions have resulted in the destruction of the true meanings behind werewolf legends that fascinated and terrified humans for so many ages. If these negative trends were reversed, perhaps entertainment might not only discover again some of the true meanings behind the werewolf myth, but also take the first steps toward reversing negative portrayals of wolves themselves, which humans have, for eons, wrongfully stigmatized and portrayed as evil, resulting in wolves receiving crueler treatment than virtually any other animal. To revive the many questions posed by lycanthropy, entertainment must show respect to the rich history of the legend – and rediscover the benevolent werewolf. The Werewolf: Past and Future Maegan A. Stebbins GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT Since before recorded history, werewolves have captivated human imagination. Simultaneously, they represent our deepest fears as well as our desire to connect with our primal ancestry. Today, werewolves are portrayed negatively, associated with violence, cruelty, cannibalism, and general malevolence. However, in ages past, legends depicted them not as monsters, but as a range of neutral to benevolent individuals, such as traveling companions, guardians, and knights. The robust legacy of the werewolf spans from prehistory, through ancient Greece and Rome, to the Middle Ages, into the Early Modern period, and finally into present-day popular culture. Over the ages, the view of the werewolf has become distorted. Media treatment of werewolves is associated with inferior writing, lacking in thought, depth, and meaning. Werewolves as characters or creatures are now generally seen as single-minded and one-dimensional, and they want nothing more than to kill, devour, and possibly violate humans. Hollywood depictions have resulted in the destruction of the true meanings behind werewolf legends that fascinated and terrified humans for so many ages. If these negative trends were reversed, perhaps entertainment might not only discover again some of the true meanings behind the werewolf myth, but also take the first steps toward reversing negative portrayals of wolves themselves, which humans have, for eons, wrongfully stigmatized and portrayed as evil, resulting in wolves receiving crueler treatment than virtually any other animal. To revive the many questions posed by lycanthropy, entertainment must show respect to the rich history of the legend – and rediscover the benevolent werewolf. Maegan A. Stebbins, The Werewolf: Past and Future iv Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I – The Ancients and Werewolves .................................................................................... 6 Chapter II – Werewolves of the Middle Ages .............................................................................. 18 Chapter III – Werewolves Go Feral: The Transition into Modernity ........................................... 33 Chapter IV – The Moon Waxes: The Werewolf Popularity Surge ............................................... 56 Chapter V – The Benefits of Reintroducing the Benevolent Werewolf ....................................... 74 Conclusion – Turning the Tables .................................................................................................. 90 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 93 Maegan A. Stebbins, The Werewolf: Past and Future 1 Introduction For tens of thousands of years, even before recorded history, humanity believed in the werewolf: a being that could transform between human and wolf. The concept of lycanthropy is deeply ingrained in the human mind: the duality of man1 and beast and of civilization and savagery. While the dual nature of lycanthropy and its relation to mankind – whether one believes in monsters or not – presents an entire subject in itself, as do the many other facets of the werewolf that could be explored in fiction today (although, as this study will show, they are not explored at all), contemplating the werewolf also prompts an important question: is the legendary werewolf good or evil? Such a question has been asked and answered many times throughout both historical legends and fiction, with the responders ranging from historians and theologians to modern fiction writers and occultists, and while the answers have varied over time, the generally accepted answer today is simple: werewolves are malevolent. Although there are many other questions that could be asked regarding werewolves, one pressing question is: what does one mean by “malevolent?” Are all werewolves this way, according to both those who believed they exist and those who write about them in fiction? Is a person who is cursed to become a werewolf doomed to become evil also, even if he or she was once good? Does this change affect both the human and the animal form? These questions have been debated as well, and depending upon the source, a werewolf may not necessarily have been a bad person, but he or she will carry out inhuman acts of savagery, violence, and – more often than not – cannibalism while in his or her wolfish form. The idea of a werewolf as an insane 1 In this study, all instances of “man,” “men,” and “mankind” refer, unless specified literally or contextually, to humans and humanity, including both men and women. Similarly, this study uses male pronouns when speaking of werewolves generally; this is not meant to imply that there are no female werewolves. Maegan A. Stebbins, The Werewolf: Past and Future 2 being is one deeply ingrained in cultural history, and this idea has been welcomed into popular culture to the point that, today, finding a werewolf committing an act of benevolence is almost as preposterous as believing in werewolves themselves. In fact, the fairly modern term, clinical lycanthropy, refers to a specific mental disease, in which one imagines that he or she is transforming into a wolf.2 Thus, long have werewolves been associated with madmen. In addition to associations with insanity, werewolves are frequently equated to evil itself: malevolence, rather than just animalistic behavior. Generally speaking, the average consumer of popular culture thinks of werewolves as being not only violent beasts, but also evil monsters, often associated with demons. Such connections spring from many different roots, including how the wolf animal itself has always been cast as a villain – a fate that the werewolf has also shared for quite some time, and it is a fate most undeserved. Unfortunately, society refuses to release both werewolves and wolves from such stigmas: they remain malevolent beings, or at least troublemakers and undesirables, with their better qualities cast into the background in favor of the images of ferocity, gluttony, violence, thievery, and evil that have been imposed upon them across cultural history. How did this idea of werewolves become so deeply ingrained into popular culture? What gave rise to the concept of werewolves at all, and why are they portrayed so negatively today? Which depictions are the ones that fiction writers today usually reference – and are these depictions based on any kind of legend at all? Were werewolves, in fact, ever seen in a positive light, or at least a more sympathetic one than the maddened, terrifying beast depicted now? A thorough study of history reveals many of the answers. Thus, this study will begin by examining the original werewolf legends and the natures of 2 Garlipp 19 Maegan A. Stebbins, The Werewolf: Past and Future 3 the werewolves therein – in particular, their morality – throughout history, leading up to present day distortions of these old myths, and then ultimately it will present how