Halloween and werewolves

Halloween is here and a time when some people like to dress up as monsters and watch horror films. There are pre-Christian origins that honour the dead, as it's a thinning of the veil when ghosts and spirits are more active. People light pumpkins and turnips to keep evil spirits away, so they carve mean faces to ward off evil. Does this keep werewolves away? So far yes. 

According to folklore, werewolves are cursed as it's believed they're humans that change into wolves on a full moon night. It's then that they go hunting, usually looking for people to eat! This terrified many people so much that both witches and werewolves were considered a real threat to society. In Europe during the Middle Ages, anyone accused of being either werewolves or witches were taken away to be tried and executed. It's still debated if a lot of them were actually innocent or guilty. There's still a number of horrific cases of true werewolves like Peter Stubbe (1525-1589), Jacques Roulet (1598) and Gilles Garnier (1573).  

There's always been fear of werewolves even today. Films have played on these fears and so have books and computer games. Werewolves are just scary, bloodthirsty and evil so they're one of the most favourite monsters during Halloween. Stories about them always frighten children and there are plenty of scary fairytales that create nightmares. 

Enjoy a HOWLING HALLOWEEN!

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The grim habits of werewolves

One of the most gruesome ways some people believe makes them a werewolf is to devour the brains of a wolf. Werewolves themselves in folklore like to eat the flesh of humans, which makes them so terrifying. Animals that are known to be the prey of wolves are also mainly eaten by werewolves too so werewolves can eat other animals such as deer, boar, fish and rabbits. Some people who believe they're werewolves may have gruesome habits and be into cannibalism. 

In Florida, a teenager suffering from Clinical Lycanthropy was arrested after killing a man and a woman. He was found by police eating the flesh of his victims. This was a young man of 19 with delusions that he was an animal. There was also 18 year old Wolfie Blackheart who mutilated a neighbour's dog and boasted that she was a canine. There are many more real werewolves throughout history that are dangerous criminals and serial killers. 

According to legends, werewolves eat the flesh of humans to become werewolves in the beginning. The idea of a person turning into a werewolf by eating human flesh goes back to ancient Greece. A man named Lycaon was the king of Arcadia who made the god Zeus very angry with him, for eating human flesh. So Lycaon was cursed into becoming a wolf for the rest of his days.

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Gallery of werewolf trials

A werewolf relief at Charente, France. 

 

It was brought to my attention of a web page showing a gallery of infamous werewolf trials that happened during the 15th and 17th centuries. While the witch trails are well known and infamous, little is known of the werewolf trials. 

The gallery page is on "The dark history of Europe's werewolf trails" by msn. Click here to view.

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