October is a great month to revise another Werewolf Fact. This one got a great makeover!

I've heard some people claim that werewolves in folklore have no relation to the full moon or to the moon at all. Some even say they have no relation to night as opposed to daylight, and they pin all these concepts squarely on Hollywood and modern media. I say those people need to do more research.

The revised Werewolf Facts will be shared with my patrons first as I prepare to polish them and publish them in book form. However, I want to make sure everyone knows I'm still doing nonfiction work (especially since I hope to keep everyone excited for my upcoming folklore collection), that Werewolf Facts will return in a big way, and that they will be so much better than they were before - so I wanted to share this one publicly very early!

This is very much a ROUGH DRAFT. This is not yet ready for wide publication (such as in my official Werewolf Facts masterlist and in the upcoming book), and it'll undergo further revisions before I do that. Please remember this is rough and DOES NOT REFLECT EXACTLY WHAT WILL BE FOUND IN THE WEREWOLF FACTS BOOK COMING SOMETIME IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS.

But this is my starting point!

Expect many more updates ahead. And before you ask, yes, I am technically supposed to cite myself if I pull anything from my own works - I'm not being egotistical. Weird, right?

Enjoy!

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The full moon and the werewolf are inseparable. Today, some media tragically shies away from it, ashamed of holding to tradition, yet the iconic imagery of a werewolf howling at the baleful visage of the full moon will always persist in the subconscious mind, as it has for so many ages. So, what is the connection, how old is it really, and where did it come from?

Werewolves being associated with the moon, and specifically the full moon, is an old association indeed. Although perhaps best known for an early appearance in film with the movie Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), the idea of a werewolf turning beneath the light of the moon appeared in stories long before.

One could naturally discuss in depth the age-old concept of moon-induced madness - "lunacy" - and studies and arguments on how the moon phases affect human and animal behavior and aggression levels, not too unlike how they affect the tides. However, I'm not here to dive into those matters; I'm here to talk about werewolves specifically.

Examples abound in folklore and are well-documented by the two foremost werewolf scholars, Sabine Baring-Gould and Montague Summers, as well as assorted folklore stories besides. Associations with the full moon and moonlight existed among, and were not limited to, the Gauls, legends from France, and Italy; an association with moonlight is also alluded to in tales from Russia and ancient Rome. The following is by no means an exhaustive list, but the aforementioned examples will be detailed, as follows...

Beginning with several examples found in Summers' work on werewolves, he states point-blank when discussing several werewolf legends, "In the first place, the transformation is effected in the moonlight" (Summers 155). He goes on to discuss, in particular, a set of tales around Palermo, which is located in Italy...

"In Palermo they say that as the moon waxes to her round the werewolf begins to feel the craving; his eyes sink deep and are glazed (si cci'nvitrianu), he falls to the earth wallowing in the dust or mud, and is seized with fearful writhings and pangs, after which his limbs quiver and contract horribly, he howls and rushes off on all fours, shunning the light, especially (they say in Menfi) torches, candles or lanthorns [sic]. The lycanthrope dashes to and fro, and he will bite anyone whom he may meet in his wild courses. His hideous cries may, however, be heard from afar and all hasten to avoid the wolf-man" (Summers 163-164)

Quite the graphic description of a man turning into a "wolf-man" (interesting quote, as well) under the light of the full moon. And yes, I personally love this quote. This represents, perhaps, one of the most directly classical werewolf descriptions that has survived to this day. We really have to thank both Baring-Gould and Summers immensely for protecting tales such as these from being utterly lost to time.

Not yet done discussing the legends from Palermo, Summers also says, "A certain wealthy man, the scion of a noble house, at the full of the moon was seized with lycanthropy [...] [they] wondered who this dread werewolf might be, seeing that my lord's face and features were so convulsed and hideous lupine as to be unrecognized even by those of his intimacy and own household" (164-165).

These are certainly not every single example Summers gives of a relation between werewolves and the full moon, nor is it every example of a relation between werewolves and the moon, or moonlight itself, in general. Indeed, Summers gives quite a few cases in which werewolves are connected to the moon in more ways than one - but most often by a full moon inducing their beastly transformation, after which they utterly lose control.

Further examples connecting the full moon, and moonlight itself, to werewolves can be found in the single best source for werewolf folklore that still exists: Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Werewolves...

Baring-Gould details on page 115, citing the writings of Gervaise of Tilbury in his work Otia Imperalia, “Vidimus frequenter in Anglia, per lunationes, homines in lupos mutari, quod hominum genus gerulfos Galli vocant, Angli vero wer-wlf, dicunt: wer enim Anglice virum sonat, wlf, lupum."

In my own edition of Baring-Gould's work, I translated this passage as, roughly, “We have frequently seen in England, through means of the moons, men are changed into wolves, a race of men the Gauls call gerulfos, but the English specifically say wer-wlf: for in English wer sounds like man, wlf, a wolf" (115n45).

Similarly, Baring-Gould gives a mention of legends in France: "In the south of France, it is still believed that fate has destined certain men to be lycanthropists—that they are transformed into wolves at full moon. The desire to run comes upon them at night" (119-120). Here, we see specificity about the full moon yet again, and this time from an entirely different region than previous examples.

Also coming from France, Baring-Gould mentions "the Périgord," wherein "[c]ertain men, especially bastards, are obliged at each full moon to transforms themselves into these diabolic beasts" (120).

Though less specific regarding the full moon, Baring-Gould also mentions tales from Russia, saying that one who wishes to become a werewolf (here called an "oborot," meaning "one transformed" [132]), will need to recite an incantation that includes the lines, "On the empty pasture gleams the moon, on an ashstock lying," and, prominently, "Moon, moon, gold-horned moon" (133), as though addressing the moon itself when reciting the spell, asking it for protection and transformation.

In terms of popular culture, the previously mentioned Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) helped bring the full moon and werewolf connection to the forefront with the alteration of the curse from the film's predecessor, The Wolf Man (1941), in which the werewolf rhyme specifies...

Even a man who is pure at heart And says his prayers by night May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms And the autumn moon is bright

However, the werewolf transformation's specific timing was altered in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), in which the rhyme instead says...

Even a man who is pure at heart And says his prayers by night May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms And the moon is full and bright

However, much earlier, in 1935, the film Werewolf of London had werewolves that transformed beneath the full moon, but it is much lesser-known.

Thus, it is quite obvious that a connection has long existed between the werewolf and the full moon. This is not some newfangled concept, and there's a reason they are so endlessly iconic. Indeed, even in the mind of those who do not turn their thoughts often to werewolves, the sight of the full moon may inspire them to recall these sundry legends - as it should be.

Works Cited:

Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Book of Were-Wolves. 1865. Justin & Maegan Stebbins, 2023.

Stebbins, Maegan. The Werewolf: Past and Future - Lycanthropy's Lost History and Modern Devolution. Justin & Maegan Stebbins, 2017.

Summers, Montague. Werewolf. 1933. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino, 2012.

And as always...

Happy Howl-o-ween!

Show them your fangs this #WerewolfWednesday with my Werewolf Rage wooden pendant!

Pendant measures 2.5 X 1 inches. Laser cut cherry wood, printed on one side.

I’ve been a fan of @lightningsparklestar ‘s Dandy’s World Werewolf AU which features Rodger the Magnifying glass as a werewolf. And I could imagine Werewolf Rodger meeting Werewolf Harvey from my Bloodmoney werewolf AU: Wolfmoney. Either these two will become unlikely friends.

Also here’s a textless version of them:

I do sometimes wonder when schizophrenia started to affect me, and how that aligns with being a lycanthrope.

As far back as I can remeber my human life, I've always had behaviors that indicated I am a wolf. I spent my childhood in the woods, acting as though I was one. As I got older those behaviors didn't change much, I just learned to hide them in public. I always felt like I was an animal, and I knew something about my body was off. I have had many times as dating back to when I was a child where I could feel my wolf body, and it has always felt right.

My mental health started getting increasingly bad around 10-11, with what I think we're the beginning of my psycotic episodes. But that was only the extreme parts of it. I can't tell how far back the mental problems themselves started.

When I was 15 I had my first full transformation. I can't remember much of it now, but it was scary. It felt both terrifying and exhilarating. It's hard for me to peice together what is real and what isn't.

If I am truly a wolf, or was one before becoming whatever I am now, then what about my past is real and what isn't? What things did I really experience? Is my life fabricated?

I don't think I will ever know. Every day that passes I become more confused. My medication is supposed to make this stop, but it isn't. Is that a sign that I was never really a person? That my "delusions" aren't delusions at all? That I really am a wolf. And if I am, and always was, how do I cope with losing who I was? Or am I losing who I am now instead? I don't really know.

A look into some of the facts and fiction surrounding lycanthropy.

(Full text below the cut.)