‘Dame, jeo devienc bisclavret.’

[wwidsith]

I wonder how old the idea of werewolves is. I guess I could check this sort of thing online, but really, does every train of thought have to end in Wikipedia now?

I ask because I'm reading Marie de France at the moment. She is very interesting and very readable, and one of her lais, ‘Bisclavret’, is about what we would call a werewolf, and was

Comments

[dearsisterirma]

...does every train of thought have to end in Wikipedia now?

This gave me a nice laugh to start my Valentine's Day, and it will probably be downhill from here!

[weofodthignen]

Don't forget the Norse stuff! The úlfhéðnar and the whole thing about riding wolves and being a kveldúlfr. With the berserks too, I've always rather assumed the Germanic hamramr traditions were the source of the werewolf topos. Here are the relevant 2 entries from Cleasby-Vigfusson: http://web.ff.cuni.cz/cgi-bin/uaa_slovnik/gmc_search_v3?cmd=viewthis&id=cv:b0668:20 and http://web.ff.cuni.cz/cgi-bin/uaa_slovnik/gmc_search_v3?cmd=viewthis&id=cv:b0668:26

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[anonymous]

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