Myths and legends about werewolves. Legends about werewolves: myth or reality

The very first legends about werewolves

The werewolf is one of the main characters of the most ancient superstitions of all peoples of the world. Werewolves, like vampires, witches, mermaids, ghosts and magicians, have existed in fairy tales and legends for thousands of years.

The werewolf has been mentioned in legends since the founding of Rome. He was also feared in Ancient Greece. The ancient Greek legend about the appearance of werewolves says that the supreme deity Zeus first turned a man into a wolf, angry at the Arcadian tyrant King Lycaon. This atheist, in order to laugh at Zeus, fed him a dish of human flesh, preparing a roast from the body of his seven-year-old son who had been killed by him. And then Zeus said in a thunderous voice: “From now on you will forever turn into a wolf.

A wolf among wolves. This will be your punishment. Death would be too little a punishment for you!”

As Diodorus Siculus writes, one of the first to take the form of an animal was the god Osiris. He turned into a wolf to rid Egypt of evil forces that were going to enslave the country shortly after the creation of the world.

They say that while Isis, together with her son Horus, was preparing to fight Typhon, Osiris returned from the underworld and in the guise of a wolf helped his wife and son, and after the defeat of Typhon, the victors ordered people to worship the beast that brought them victory.

Members of the Antaeus clan in Arcadia turned into wolves in certain time of the year. Those who wanted to become wolves were taken to remote swamps, where they took off their clothes and crossed the swamp to a special island. New arrivals to this island were accepted into the community of the same wolf-people and then lived among them as equals.

Demenet Parrhasius became a wolf after eating children's offal. Boyan, the son of Simeon, the leader of the Bulgarians, could turn into a wolf at will, like Mer, about whom the poet Virgil said: “I have often seen Mer sneaking through the forest in wolf form.”

It seems Ovid says about Lycaon: “Struck, he howled like a wolf alone and could no longer speak, no matter how much he wanted to.”

An ancient Norse saga tells how a sorcerer cast a spell on two wolf skins. Anyone who put them on turned into a wolf for ten days. The skins were discovered by the warriors Sigmund and his son Siniot, who, fleeing from enemies, found shelter in an unknown house located in the middle of the forest. Suspecting nothing about the spell, Sigmund and Siniot touched the skins and turned into wild animals. Having become wolves, Sigmund and Siniot began to howl, attack people and squabble with each other. Human reason and kindness tried to overcome the wolf nature, but to no avail. After ten days, when Sigmund had already bitten his own son to death, the skin’s spell lost its power, and the warrior threw it off and burned it.

An ancient story about werewolves is given in Petronius' Satyricon. One person told the following story.

A man named Nitseros, a servant, loved a woman named Melissa, the recently widowed wife of the innkeeper. One evening Nitseros decided to visit the widow and asked his soldier friend to go with him. He agreed, and they set off along the moonlit road. An hour later, the friends decided to relax near the cemetery. Suddenly, Nitseros’s companion, without saying a word, tore off all his clothes and threw them on the side of the road. Then, to Nitseros's great surprise, he urinated around his clothes, as if marking territory. After that, he fell to his knees and instantly turned into a wolf, which, growling, ran into the forest. Nitseros was horrified to see this, as well as the fact that his fellow soldier's clothes had suddenly turned to stone. Nitseros ran the rest of the way to Melissa's house, clutching the sword in his hand. When he reached Melissa, he was pale and scared. She told him:

“If you had come a little earlier, you could have helped us. A wolf climbed into the yard and hunted for livestock. There was a real massacre here.” The widow said that the wolf managed to get out, but one of the slaves hit him right in the neck with a spear.

Nitseros did not sleep a wink all night, and the next morning he went home. On the way back, having reached the place where his friend became a wolf, he did not find his clothes there - only a blood stain. When Nitseros reached his friend’s house, he found him lying in bed. The doctor was cleaning a deep wound on his neck. “I realized that he was a werewolf,” said Nitseros, “and I could no longer bring myself to sit at the same table with him, even on pain of death.”

Indian legends tell about werewolves who could become tigers, monkeys, and snakes. Japanese myths tell mainly about werewolf foxes.

A Japanese chronicle from 929 describes a case where traces of an unknown creature were found in the imperial palace. There are similar mentions in European chronicles. Such traces, also in the form of hooves, which could not be attributed to any known animal, were found on volcanic lava, including on the slope of Etna. Of course, these prints could only remain on a hot, not frozen lava. We even saw such animals several times. In one case, witnesses described it as resembling a cougar or mountain lion, about five feet long, not counting the tail, with a cat-like face. In other cases, creatures resembling large black dogs are mentioned.

Herodotus says that for the inhabitants of one of the regions of Scythia, turning into wolves was commonplace and that this was also widespread among the northern peoples. When the Romans tried to prevent Hannibal from crossing the Alps, a wolf appeared in their ranks, passed through the entire army, gnawing everyone in its path, and left unharmed. In 1042, the residents of Constantinople were extremely alarmed by the simultaneous appearance of 15 wolves on the streets. And in 1148, a wolf of incredible size appeared within the boundaries of Geneva and killed 30 people.

Werewolves roam Europe

Most werewolves, according to the stories told about them, were found in the Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe. They believed that they became werewolves as a result of the evil machinations of witches and sorcerers, and many intricate procedures were used that could supposedly save them from witchcraft.

Unlike a vampire - a dead man who comes out of the grave to drink the blood of living people - a werewolf is not a native of the other world. A werewolf is an earthly creature. People believed that the transformation of a person into a werewolf was caused by a special disease that could affect anyone. Anyone bitten by a werewolf was sure to become infected, but symptoms of this disease could appear in a person even when he was sitting safely at home and did nothing that could determine such a fate for him. It was with this that wild fear and mass executions were associated in the Middle Ages, when those suspected of being werewolves were burned or had their heads cut off. The rage with which the people reacted to the manifestations of signs believed to be inherent in werewolves was terrible, and people's courts and mass executions exterminated hundreds of innocent people. During outbreaks of frantic mass fear, a person slightly touched by madness or “resembling” a wolf - having sharp teeth or a thin, elongated face - could easily find himself under suspicion and end up in court, and then on the gallows or the scaffold.

If a person was suspected of being a werewolf, then the situation for him became truly terrible. In the Middle Ages, the Church played a major role in everything, even everyday human affairs. Therefore, if the authorities believed that a person could be a werewolf, then a quick and easy death was the best thing that could await him. Most often, werewolves were tried in a public court, tortured into confessing, and then executed by being burned alive.

The wounded werewolf was tracked down a trail of blood that led to his home. And if the wounded werewolf did not leave traces, then they looked for a person who had strange wounds or injuries. But the most cruel way to identify a werewolf existed in Germany and France. There it was believed that a werewolf could change his skin by simply removing it and turning it inside out. In other words, in order to take on the appearance of a man, he simply turns his animal skin inside out. And in order to become a beast again, the werewolf again takes off his skin and turns it “fur out.” Hundreds of people were cut into pieces by truth-seekers who tried to skin them.

The exact or even approximate number of victims who were recognized as werewolves and, by the verdict of the Inquisition court, were burned at the stake or lost their heads is unknown. But judging by ancient records, they number in the tens, and perhaps hundreds of thousands. According to some evidence, in France alone, from 1520 to 1630, over 30 thousand people were executed on such charges. Most likely, most of them were, in fact, innocent of anything. And therefore it is not surprising that the victims of such “justice” tried with all their might, with all their cunning and ingenuity, to escape.

The wildest stories about werewolves date back to the Middle Ages. Under torture, people slandered themselves and their loved ones in the manner desired by the Church. The first trial of werewolves took place in 1521 - three sorcerers were executed: Michel Udoi from Plan, a small village near Poligny; Philibert Monto and another, nicknamed Big Pierre. They confessed that they turned themselves into wolves and in this guise killed and ate several people. Michel Udoi, being in the form of a wolf, was wounded by one gentleman, who went after him and found him in the hut, having already managed to turn into a man, just at the moment when his wife was washing his wound. In the Dominican Church in Poligny for a long time images of these sorcerers were kept.

And in 1541, a peasant accused of murders claimed that he was a werewolf and that a wolf's skin was hidden inside his body. The judges, in order to verify the claim, ordered his arms and legs to be cut off, but found nothing. When the acquittal was pronounced, the peasant had already died from loss of blood.

In France, there are many ancient legends about the Lugarou - the wolf man. Most of all, the lugar was found in the mountainous regions of France - Auvergne and Jura, where wolves already caused a lot of trouble for shepherds. Here is one of the French legends.

At the end of the 16th century, there lived a rich man named Sanrosh in Auvergne. He lived in grand style, denied himself nothing, kept servants and horses, and was happily married. Sanrosh's estate stood on a high hill. One afternoon in the early autumn of 1580, Monsieur Sanroche was admiring the magnificent view from the window when a servant entered and announced that Monsieur Ferol had arrived.

Ferol was a well-known hunter and fisherman in the area, and Auvergny was great place for these classes: in the purest rivers full of fish, and in the forests there are many birds, deer, and bears. Ferol came in to invite a friend to track a deer together. Sanrosh regretfully declined the invitation - he was waiting for his lawyer, who was about to come in on business. Ferol went alone. The lawyer came as agreed, and for more than an hour he and Sanrosh dealt with matters related to the estate; Sanrosh even forgot about his friend’s visit. After seeing the lawyer off and having dinner, he suddenly remembered the day’s invitation. Sanrosh had no more urgent matters to attend to, his wife was not at home either, and in order not to be bored alone, he decided to meet his friend halfway. He quickly descended along the path leading into the valley, and after a few minutes he noticed on the opposite slope the figure of his friend, all scarlet in the last rays of the sun. The closer he got to his friend, the more clearly Sanrosh saw that his friend was excited about something.

When they met in a narrow ravine between two slopes, the landowner saw that Ferol’s dress was torn and covered with dirt and stains that looked like blood. Ferol was very depressed and could barely breathe, so his friend postponed questions and limited himself to taking a musket and a game bag from the hunter. The friends walked in silence for some time. Then, having caught his breath a little, but still worried, Ferol told Sanrosh about the amazing incident that happened to him in the forest. Here's what he said. Ferol had to walk around the forest for quite a long time before he saw a group of deer not far away. He was unable to get closer to them to fire a shot. In the end, while pursuing them, he entered the thicket and felt that the return journey would take a lot of time... Turning home, the hunter suddenly heard an eerie growl coming from a damp ravine overgrown with ferns. Slowly backing away and keeping his eyes on that place, the hunter covered about fifty meters step by step, when a huge wolf jumped out of the ravine and rushed straight at him.

Ferol prepared to shoot, but stumbled - his boot hit under a root - and the shot missed the target. The wolf jumped at the hunter with a furious roar, trying to grab his throat. Fortunately, Ferol had a good reaction - he hit the beast with the butt, and it fell to the ground. Almost immediately the wolf jumped up again. Ferol managed to grab a hunting knife and bravely stepped towards the beast preparing to jump. They engaged in mortal combat. But a second's respite and experience helped the hunter; he managed to wrap his cloak around left hand and put it into the beast's mouth. While he tried in vain to reach his hand with his sharp fangs, Ferol struck with a dagger, trying to cut the animal’s throat. Ferol's hunting dagger, with a wide, razor-sharp blade and a huge handle, was almost as heavy as a small hatchet. Man and beast fell to the ground and rolled over the leaves in a furious duel. At some point, they found themselves at a fallen tree; the paw of the animal, which was fiercely looking at the hunter with bloodshot eyes, got caught on a gnarled trunk. At the same moment, Ferol struck her with a knife and cut flesh, tendons and bone with a sharp blade. The wolf howled terribly and sadly and, breaking away from the hunter’s embrace, limped and ran away. Ferol, splashed with the blood of the beast, sat exhausted on the ground. The cloak was torn into strips, but he was relieved to find that the makeshift protection left only superficial scratches on his arm. The hunter loaded his musket, intending to find and finish off the wounded animal, but then decided that it was too late and if he delayed any longer, he would have to get to his friend’s house in the dark.

One can imagine with what excitement Sanrosh listened to this detailed story, every now and then interrupting it with exclamations of surprise and fear. The friends walked slowly and finally entered Sanrosh's garden. Ferol pointed to his bag: “I took the beast’s paw with me,” he said, “so you can be convinced of the veracity of my story.” He bent over the bag, with his back to his friend, so that Sanrosh could not immediately see what he was pulling out. With a strangled cry, the hunter dropped something on the grass. He turned, and Sanrosh was struck by his deathly pallor. “I don’t understand anything,” whispered Ferol, “after all, it was a wolf’s paw!” Sanrosh bent down, and he, too, was gripped by horror: on the grass lay a freshly severed hand of a human hand. His horror intensified when he noticed several rings on the dead, graceful fingers. He recognized one of them, skillfully made in the shape of a spiral and decorated with blue topaz. It was his wife's ring.

Having somehow gotten rid of the completely bewildered Ferol, Sanrosh wrapped his brush in a scarf and, stumbling, trudged home. His wife has already returned. The servant reported that she was resting and asked not to disturb her. Entering his wife’s bedroom, Sanrosh found her lying in bed in a semi-conscious state. She was deathly pale. There was blood on the sheets.

A doctor was called, and he was able to save Mrs. Sanrosh’s life by skilfully treating the wound: her hand was severed. Sanrosh spent several agonizing weeks before he decided to talk to his wife about this story. In the end, the unfortunate woman admitted that she was a werewolf. Apparently Sanrosh was not a very good husband, because he went to the authorities and reported her. The trial began, and after torture the woman confessed to her evil deeds. Soon Madame Sanrosh was burned at the stake, and the Auvergne werewolves were no longer bothered.

This story is preserved in one version or another in many medieval books and oral histories. This is definitely one of the most vivid tales of both werewolves and the cruelty of medieval morals.

In the 16th century in France, in Lavdy, near the village of Saint-Sever, a huge wolf began to attack people. He killed and took people with him. Later, their remains were found - with their hearts torn out and often literally torn to shreds. This happened so often that people became afraid to leave their homes even during the day. But the wolf pulled his victims even from their own yards.

Finally he was caught. However, it turned out to be not a wolf, but a wolf-man. And even for those times when werewolves were a dime a dozen in Europe, the case was unique. The wolf-man was a certain Jean Grenier, a shepherd who was not even fifteen years old.

During interrogation, he said that once in the forest he met a demon who introduced himself as the owner of the forest and took an oath from the shepherd to serve him, giving in return the ability to turn into a wolf and instantly heal all his wounds. But, having entered into an agreement with the devil, the young man turned not just into a wolf, but into a cannibal wolf who killed everyone in a row, sparing neither children nor women. Jean Grenier was convicted and publicly executed. After this, attacks on people in that area stopped. This story has survived to this day thanks to the surviving protocols of interrogations that took place in 1574 in Bordeaux, France.

In 1598, in the district of Condé, again in France, several terrible murders occurred in a row. They were so cruel that no one could even admit the thought that they were committed by a person and not a hunting animal. Passions ran high when a little girl disappeared from the village. The girl's body, torn into pieces, was found in the forest. Near the body, the hunters saw three large wolves. The alarm was immediately raised, and a crowd of peasants went into the forest to bring the girl’s remains to the village. Not far from the body they saw not three, but only one wolf, which immediately ran away. On the way back, the peasants came across a ragged man with a tangled beard, long tousled hair and crazy eyes in the bushes. He was captured and taken to the village, where the detainee confessed that he was a werewolf. He also said that together with his brother and sister they stole, killed and ate a girl. He also said that he could turn into a wolf by rubbing himself with a special ointment. It is not known why the old man was not tried by the Inquisition, but was considered crazy and “only” sent to life imprisonment, where he soon died.

When another man accused of being a werewolf, Jean Perel, told his trial in 1518 what ointments he made and how he made them, several people in the courtroom fainted in disgust. Despite his sincere confessions, Jean Perel, accused of murdering three people, was sentenced to be burned. His ashes were then scattered to the wind.

Another similar case was described (records have survived to this day) also in France relatively recently, in the middle of the 19th century.

Two judges, members of the magistrate of the city of Gironde, were hunting in the forest and got lost. They decided to spend the night in a clearing, which they accidentally found, and in the morning determine the cardinal directions by the sun and go home. However, as soon as they began to build themselves a shelter for the night, they suddenly heard someone sneaking through the forest. They hid, and after a while an old peasant whom they recognized appeared from behind the trees. This was a man with a very bad reputation, and he was heading in their direction.

Stopping in the middle of the clearing, the old man began making strange signs in the air with his hands. It looked like he was practicing black magic and performing some kind of ritual. Having finished his passes, the old man suddenly raised his head and let out a long, sad howl, very similar to a wolf. The howl terrified the hidden men. However, this was only the beginning of a terrible ritual. The old man howled continuously for some time, and then an answering howl was heard from somewhere. The nerves of both judges, sitting in the bushes and afraid to move, were tense to the limit, and when a clear rustling of leaves was heard nearby, one of them almost rushed headlong outside. The other managed to grab him and thereby save both of them from death.

The silhouette of a huge shaggy wolf emerged from the darkness. The moon brightly illuminated the clearing, so the judges saw not only him, but also other wolves emerging from all sides from the thicket of the forest. Soon the entire clearing was filled with them. It stank of dog, saliva dripped from its mouth, red eyes glowed in the moonlight. The wolves rumbled and howled. The old man stood in the center of the clearing and waited for the animals heading towards him. Suddenly the largest wolf, apparently the leader, rushed towards him and began to rub against his hand.

The old man caressed the wolf, stroking his ears and head. The other wolves surrounded their leader and man and howled loudly. It was so terrible that the two hiding men covered their ears with their hands and buried their faces in the rotten leaves on the ground. When they raised their heads after a while, they saw in the middle of the clearing not one wolf, but two, and the second one, which had just appeared, was much lighter and larger than the leader of the pack. The old man was nowhere to be found. Some more time passed, and the wolves began to disperse.

When the hunters were convinced that the danger had passed, they got out of their hiding place, lit a large fire and sat near it all night long with their guns at the ready, unable to believe in their miraculous salvation. When morning came, they managed to find a path and follow it to the people.

There are a great many similar stories. But perhaps the most mysterious legend about werewolves, comparable in its popularity in Europe, especially in France, to the story of the Iron Mask, is the medieval story of the Beast of Gevaudan. The destruction of the beast has been reported many times, but debate about who it was and whether it was actually killed continues to this day.

Beast of Gevaudan

Eyewitnesses described the Beast of Gevaudan as a predator similar to a wolf, but the size of a cow. He had a very wide chest, a long flexible tail with a tassel at the end, like a lion, an elongated muzzle, like a greyhound dog, small pointed ears and large fangs sticking out of his mouth. The color of the animal was yellowish-red, but along the ridge on its back it had a wide strip of dark fur.

The animal attacked in a rather atypical way for such a predator: it aimed at the head, tore at the face, without trying, like most wild animals, to rip out the throat. The beast knocked the victim down with one instant throw, sometimes tearing off his head. If the animal was forced to run, it ran very quickly, but not by jumping, but at a steady trot.

The Zhevaudan beast attacked people so often that many thought that they were dealing not with one beast, but with a whole flock. Some witnesses who saw the beast claim that sometimes it was not alone, but with a companion - an adult or young animal similar to it. Sometimes they even said that they saw a man next to the beast, and therefore they thought that the Zhevaudan beast was specially trained by some scoundrel.

The Gevaudan beast preferred to hunt people much more than livestock. If a person found himself close to a herd of goats, cows or sheep, the beast would attack him, not paying any attention to the animals. The main victims of the beast were children and women who worked in the fields near the forest and far from housing. The beast did not attack men working in groups. Even if they met him on the way in the forest, the beast preferred to hide.

The animal never fell into traps or traps, and did not eat poisoned baits, which were scattered throughout the forests in huge quantities. For more than three years, the animal successfully evaded chases and raids. All this says only one thing: the Gevaudan beast was not at all a predator mad with thirst for blood, but was distinguished by exceptional intelligence, so many considered it not just a wolf or some other strange animal, but a real werewolf.

In October 1764, they managed to shoot the beast, but it turned out that it had enormous vitality: wounded, it escaped the chase and was never caught. According to the main version, he was shot to death only in 1767 with a silver bullet.

The very first mention of the beast is dated June 1, 1764. A large creature resembling a wolf jumped out of the forest near the city of Langonne in France and tried to attack a peasant woman grazing cows, but several large bulls who were with the herd frightened him and drove him away. The first victim of the beast was Jeanne Boulet, a fourteen-year-old girl, whom the Beast of Gevaudan killed on June 30, 1764 in the vicinity of the same city of Langon. He killed seven more children in August and September.

When the attacks of the beast assumed frightening proportions, the military governor of Languedoc sent a detachment of 56 dragoons to destroy it. The dragoons conducted several raids in the surrounding forests and killed about a hundred wolves, but were unable to catch the beast.

In October 1764, two hunters, who accidentally stumbled upon the animal at the edge of the forest, shot at it twice at close range. The beast immediately fell to the ground, but then managed to get up and ran into the forest. The hunters began to pursue him, but only found bloody trails and the torn body of one of the victims of the Gevaudan predator. After that, the animal disappeared somewhere for more than a month. He then reappeared and killed seventy-year-old Katherine Valli. In total, the beast killed 27 people in 1764.

At the beginning of 1765, the beast began to attack people several times a day, killing twenty people in just one month. Not every attack resulted in the death of the victim. One day, several thirteen-year-old boys managed to fight off the beast by throwing sticks and stones at it from behind the fence they hid behind.

In early 1765, King Louis XV of France ordered two of the best professional hunters from Normandy, Jean-Charles-Marc-Antoine-Vomesl Duneval and his son Jean-François, to destroy the beast. Father Duneval was the most famous hunter in France, who killed more than a thousand wolves in his life. The Dunevals arrived in Clermont-Ferrand, where the beast was rampant at that time, in mid-February 1765. They brought with them a pack of hounds and devoted several months to hunting the beast. In 1765, they staged several raids on the beast, in which up to a thousand people took part - soldiers and local residents. Nevertheless, the beast was never caught, and it seemed to laugh at its pursuers: two days after the largest raid, the Gevaudan beast tore a girl to pieces almost in the very center of one of the villages. All the efforts of the Dunevals were in vain.

In the spring of 1765, the beast killed 55 people. By the end of September of that year, the number of his victims reached hundreds. And so on September 20, near Langoni, Lieutenant de Botern killed a large man-eating wolf. Whether the killed wolf was the Beast of Gevaudan or not is unknown, but the attacks and killings of people stopped. De Botern sent a report to the king in which he stated:

In this report, certified by our signatures, we declare that we have never seen a wolf that could be compared with this one. That is why we believe that this is the terrible beast that caused such damage to the kingdom.

In the wolf's stomach they found several strips of material from which clothes were made at that time. This indicated that the wolf shot by de Botern at Chaz was a man-eater. The wolf was stuffed and taken to the royal palace of Versailles.

However, at the end of December 1765, the resurrected beast returned, attacking two children near the town of Besser Sainte-Marie and wounding two women near the town of Lachamp the next day. At the beginning of 1766, new victims appeared on the beast's account. By the summer of 1766, the beast’s appetites had increased sharply, and until mid-autumn of that year he killed several people a week with complete impunity. Then, in November 1766, the animal disappeared again, although no one was hunting it at that time and no one was killing large wolves.

The peasants of Gevaudan sighed calmly. The beast did not appear for 122 days. However, on the second day of spring 1767, the beast appeared again and killed a child near the village of Pontaju. The beast's energy and appetite seemed to double as it killed 36 people during April alone.

The Beast of Gevaudan was killed by Jean Chastel during one of the raids on June 19, 1767. Hunter Jean Chastel was a very religious man, and so he loaded his gun with silver bullets and also took a Bible with him. During the halt, Chastel opened his Bible and began to read prayers aloud. At the sound, a huge wolf jumped out of the thicket. He stopped in front of Chastel and looked at him, and he shot the wolf at point-blank range twice. The wolf was killed outright by two silver bullets. However, it is likely that all these details were added later to embellish the legend, and Chastel shot with the most ordinary bullets.

This wolf, like the one that de Botern killed, was enormous in size and looked very unusual for a wolf. The royal notary Etienne Marin, together with the royal doctors Antoine Boulanger and Cour-Damien Boulanger, as well as the famous doctor Jean-Baptiste Aigullon, measured the body of the beast and compiled its description. Although this wolf was smaller than the one killed by de Botern, it had a disproportionately large head and very long front legs. In addition, the structure of his eye turned out to be very unusual: the wolf had a third eyelid - a thin membrane that could cover the eyeball. The wolf's fur was dense and reddish-gray with several wide black stripes. Apparently, this beast was not a wolf at all.

During the autopsy of the animal, in its stomach they found the remains of the forearm of a little girl who had died the day before. That is, the killed wolf was a cannibal. Many eyewitnesses who had seen the Beast of Gevaudan earlier and managed to escape from it identified it in the wolf killed by Chastel. In addition, many scars from wounds of various ages were found on the animal’s body, and in the back thigh, doctors who examined the animal found traces of a bullet with which it was wounded back in 1765.

Thus, they came to the conclusion that the wolf killed by Jean Chastel was the Beast of Gevaudan. The killed wolf was transported throughout Gevaudan from one town to another to convince people of the death of the beast. He was then stuffed and delivered to the king. But the stuffed animal was made very poorly and soon began to deteriorate and smell terribly. Louis XV ordered it to be thrown into the trash. Given the previous "resurrection" of the beast, France had to wait for its next appearance, but the beast has not returned since then.

The Zhevaudan beast has 125 murders and more than a hundred severe injuries.

Until the animal was killed and examined, a variety of assumptions were made about its nature. It was said that these were greatly exaggerated rumors of attacks by various wolves; they said that this was a werewolf, a demon summoned by some sorcerer, or the Lord's punishment sent for sins. Modern cryptozoological scientists give the Zhivodan beast the most different interpretations, up to versions that the beast was a relict saber-toothed tiger or an ancient predator Andrewsarchus that became extinct during the late Eocene (more than 40 million years ago). All these explanations look extremely far-fetched, as well as those that the beast was an ordinary, only a very large wolf or hyena.

In fact, if we assume that the Zhivodansky beast was a wolf, this does not diminish the mysteries. The fact is that wolves very rarely attack people, and generally avoid meeting people, while livestock, on the contrary, are killed and eaten much more often. Perhaps the Beast of Gevaudan was a wolf, but in this case not one, but several. Superstitions and fears attributed the actions of several man-eating wolves to one wolf-devil. There could be three such wolves: the first, the most bloodthirsty, was killed by de Boterre, the second died in the fall of 1766 for an unknown reason (maybe he fell into one of the traps set in the forest), and the third was shot by Chastel in 1767.

Some believe that the Beast of Gevaudan was a hyena. Indeed, two species of hyenas attack people, although extremely rarely. One of these species - the striped hyena - is found in Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan, and the second - the spotted hyena - lives only in Africa, in fact measuring up to 1.3 meters in length and up to 80 cm in height at the withers. When attacking people, hyenas actually bite them in the face, but they jump very poorly and do not know how to run smoothly and quickly, as, according to eyewitnesses, the Gevaudan beast could do.

Some other scientists believe that the beast was a hybrid of a wolf and a feral dog. In this case, he could indeed be very large and not be afraid of people, like his dog parent. And, having inherited the hunting instinct from its wolf parent, this creature could well attack a person. This version is supported by the French naturalist Michel Louis in his book “The Beast of Gevaudan: The Innocence of Wolves.” The authors of the American series about the Beast of Gevaudan, “Animal-X,” are also inclined towards it.

Among the myths associated with the Beast of Gevaudan, there is one very interesting one. The attention of researchers of the history of the beast was attracted by Antoine Chastel, younger son Jean Chastel. Antoine Chastel was a very unusual person for the French wilderness: he traveled a lot, was captured by Algerian pirates and spent many years in Africa among the Berber natives, adopting their habits and knowledge. Antoine lived separately from his parents, in a house built in a deserted place, and kept many dogs. Everyone said that he had a great talent for training a wide variety of animals and even birds.

When Lieutenant de Boterne was looking for the Beast of Gevaudan in the forests in the early autumn of 1765, he met Jean Chastel and his two sons, Pierre and Antoine, who were also hunting the beast, hoping to receive a reward for its capture. Suddenly between

A strong quarrel arose between Chastel the Younger, and de Botern, angered by it, ordered the entire trio to be arrested and sent to prison, where they spent several months. Just shortly after this, the beast’s attacks on people stopped. De Botern himself associated this with the fact that he shot that same wolf. But as soon as the Shastels were released from prison and returned to their native places, the wolf’s attacks on people resumed. And immediately after Jean Chastel killed the beast in 1767, his son Antoine disappeared and never appeared in the vicinity of Gevaudan again.

In this regard, some historians and writers draw Special attention on Antoine Chastel. Some of them claim that Chastel tamed and brought out of Africa some wild predatory animal like a hyena or a leopard, and then taught it to hunt people. Others say that Antoine Chastel is the Beast of Gevaudan, since he was a werewolf.

Werewolves in the British Isles

There are many legends about werewolves in Germany. As for the northern countries, although England, apparently, was not too susceptible to this, the surviving records still indicate that werewolves lived in Ireland.

According to one Irish saga, a certain priest, lost in the forest, came across a wolf sitting under a spruce tree. This wolf spoke in a human voice. He asked the priest to perform the funeral service for his dying wife. The wolf explained that their family had a spell under which one man and one woman from their family had to live as wolves for seven years. If they managed to survive these seven years, they could become human again. The priest did not believe the wolf's words until the she-wolf lying nearby threw off her wolf skin, revealing that she was actually a woman.

One Irishman in the 18th century proudly declared that he had caught and eaten many young girls. For his excessive thirst for blood, he was imprisoned in a monastery. In 1502, another Irishman said that he made a pact with the devil, after which he broke the neck of a nine-year-old girl and devoured her. He was executed for this crime. In the 16th century, another Irishman, who also conspired with evil spirits, said that the devil, as a reward for his devotion, gave him a belt made of wolf skin, by wearing which he could change his appearance. An English pamphlet published in 1590 described him as “a hungry wolf, huge and strong, with huge eyes that sparkle at night like coals, with terrible sharp teeth in his huge mouth, with a huge body and powerful paws.” Having turned into such a terrible beast, the man roamed the outskirts of his hometown howling. The English book says it this way.

He wandered around the city, and if he tracked down some girl, woman or girl, putting his lustful gaze on them, waited until they left the city or village, and if he managed to catch the victim alone, he raped her in the fields and then killed with all the fury of a wolf.

When he was finally caught by a group of hunters with huge dogs, he was asked to show a magic belt, supposedly given by the devil. The werewolf replied that he threw it away during the hunt. A thorough search yielded no results, and the townspeople decided that the devil had taken his gift back. The werewolf, who, after much torture, confessed that he had been committing atrocious crimes for twenty-five years, was beheaded and then burned. His head was impaled and displayed outside the city wall.

In February 1855, many English newspapers, in several issues, described a strange incident that occurred in the vicinity of Esther, south of Devon. That's what the Times wrote.

The next morning, after a heavy overnight snowfall, the residents of these cities were amazed to discover traces of a strange and mysterious animal, endowed with omnipresence, since its traces could be seen in the most inaccessible places: on the roofs of houses, on walls, in gardens and courtyards, surrounded by high walls and fences, as well as in fields. There was virtually not a single garden in Lympston that did not have these traces. These prints look more like those of a biped than a four-legged creature. Each is located at a distance of about eight inches (20 cm. - Author's note) from one another, in shape most resembling the imprint of a donkey's hoof.

Further investigation revealed that the area in which these tracks appeared over one night is very extensive and extends over 200 km. Interrupting on one side of the river, the tracks resumed on its other bank. These traces were also found along a wall five meters high; and the left trace went along one side, and the right along the other side of the wall.

In the collection " Amazing stories» Simon Goulard, demonologists drew up a not very flattering portrait of the werewolf, saying that all his qualities were given to him by the devil.

He runs as fast as a wolf, and this should not be considered incredible, because through the efforts of evil actions, werewolves become like wolves. They leave wolf tracks behind them on the ground. They have terrible burning eyes, like wolves, they commit the same raids and atrocities as wolves, strangle dogs, gnaw out the throats of small children, feast on human flesh, like wolves, deftly and decisively do all this in front of people. And when they run together, they usually split up to hunt. Having eaten to their fill, they howl, calling others.

Gular's story confirms the pack nature of werewolves. In 1542, when the book about werewolves written by Jacques d’Autin dates back to the date, werewolves became so numerous, they became so rampant that “The Great Master from the big city, accompanied by his guards, himself set out with weapons in his hands to exterminate them; he gathered one hundred and fifty of them at the city walls, but they jumped over them and instantly disappeared before the eyes of all the people.”

Werewolves in Japanese legends

Legends of the Land of the Rising Sun tell of wise but eccentric elders, the saru (monkeys); about the handsome tsuru (cranes) - attentive listeners and good advisers; about the vile rats nezumi - born spies and hired killers; about soulless beauties kumo (spiders) luring men into their webs and devouring them. But the most important characters in Japanese legends about werewolves are the tanuki raccoon dog, the kitsune fox and the neko cat. In Japanese myths, they occupy diametrically opposed positions in the world of demons.

Benevolent, merry tanuki are small in stature and cowardly, which is why they often become victims of practical jokes and curious accidents. In addition, possessing enormous magical power, they try not to use it to harm people: you can provoke a tanuki to take revenge only by angering him very much.

The main plot of tanuki stories is to pay good for good, although not in the most honest way. Most often, through negligence, a tanuki falls into a trap, from which he is freed by a poor but honest man - a poor, weak old man. In gratitude for saving the tanuki, he turns into some valuable thing that his savior sells at the market. The tanuki then becomes himself again and runs away from his new owner. So he is sold many times until the savior becomes rich. To justify the tanuki, it must be said that the tanuki pot agrees to be sold only to the greedy rich and officials, whom it is not a sin to deceive.

If a tanuki tries to commit meanness or deception, he is overtaken by quick and cruel retribution. One of the ancient manuscripts kept in the People's Museum in Kyoto tells such a legend.

One day the animals staged a poetry competition, where animals - symbols of the eastern calendar - were also present. The judge of the competition was a deer who chose the winner. To mark the end of the competition, a feast was held at which the deer was given all sorts of honors. Tanuki began to get jealous and declared that he himself would be a judge at the next competition.

The competition participants laughed at the furry animal and kicked him out. The offended tanuki gathered an army of his werewolf friends - a fox, a crow, an owl, a cat and a weasel - and went to war against the calendar animals, but lost. Then, on the advice of the falcon, the werewolf friends launched a night attack. The dragon noticed them - and the tanuki was defeated again. On the third attempt, he turned into the Oni demon, but the dog sensed the dark power and barked. Tanuki, terrified of dogs, chickened out and lost again. He became a laughing stock: his enemies ridiculed him, and his friends abandoned him right on the battlefield. They say that since then the tanuki has been nocturnal, afraid of being seen by anyone.

Tanuki is very popular among the Japanese. Figurines depicting tanuki sometimes reach two meters in height and decorate the entrances to large Tokyo stores. The huge genitals of tanuki figurines (or rather statues) are a symbol of good luck and prosperity.

Kitsune foxes are the exact opposite of tanuki. They actively use their magical abilities to harm humans. Kitsune are clever, vindictive and cunning. They can confuse, dizzy and drive a person to madness. The Japanese call this mental illness kitsune-tsuki. In the 19th century, a special government commission was created in Tokyo to investigate such cases. This mental illness is found in the practice of Japanese psychiatrists even today.

The most famous legends about kitsune talk about were-foxes becoming beautiful girls and seducing inexperienced boys. These werewolves are so beautiful that when they see them, men forget about everything in the world and don’t even notice their fiery red tail.

In Japanese folklore, a kitsune is a type of demon, and thus the word "kitsune" is often translated as "fox spirit". This does not mean that the fox does not actually exist, that it is a ghost. Rather, the word "spirit" here means that the fox is strong and wise. Any fox that lives long enough can become a "fox spirit." There are two main types of kitsune: the mebu fox, or divine fox, often associated with the goddess Inari, and the nogitsune, or wild fox (literally “field fox”), often evil and malicious.

Kitsune may have nine tails. It is believed that the older and more experienced the fox, the more tails it has. Some legends say that she grows another tail every hundred or thousand years of her life. However, foxes found in fairy tales almost always have one, five or nine tails. Kitsune that grow nine tails turn silver, white or gold. These kitsune - kyubi - receive the power of infinite insight.

Unlike tanuki, kitsune are associated with people who live in “their” territory. Such people are called kitsune-mochi. Foxes protect and look after them. Anyone who so much as raises their voice in kitsune mochi will face misfortune and illness.

Werecats - neko - in terms of their character properties are approximately between kitsune and tanuki. Japanese attitudes towards neko vary from adoration to hatred, depending on their color. Red cats are considered the embodiment of demons, and tricolor cats are generally accomplices of the forces of darkness. On the contrary, black and white cats contain good spirits that help those who care about them.

The traditional image of a neko is a figurine of a cat with its paw raised to its ear. There are several legends why neko is depicted this way. According to one of them, a cat that lived in an old, abandoned temple came out onto the road every day, sat down and began waving its paw, inviting people passing by to come to the old sanctuary. Seeing this, people were amazed and fulfilled the animal’s wishes. Later a short time the temple was again filled with flocks and became rich in offerings.

According to another version, this cat belonged to the beautiful Yusugumo. One day, when the girl had guests, the cat persistently tried to take the hostess to another room. One of the guests - a samurai - in sudden anger struck the stubborn animal with his sword. The severed head of the cat jumped up to the ceiling and sank its teeth into a poisonous snake, which at that time, unnoticed by anyone, was trying to crawl towards Yusugumo. The girl was very upset about the death of her pet. Her friends, wanting to somehow console the beauty, gave her a figurine depicting a cat, warily listening to something and putting its paw to its ear.

The Japanese believe that cats, like foxes, can turn into beautiful girls. They can be either magical assistants to heroes or temptresses.

Here is one of the old famous Japanese legends about werewolves.

In ancient times, there was an old temple in one village. And everything would have been fine if a werewolf had not settled in that temple. People began to be afraid to approach the temple: it would seem to them that the steps were creaking, or it would seem that someone was laughing. Horror, and that’s all!

One day, villagers gathered in the elder’s house and began to think about how to pacify the werewolf. They thought about it this way and that, but couldn’t decide anything. Who will go to church at night of their own free will?

And at this very time a drug dealer came to the village. His name was Tasuke, he was young, and therefore was not afraid of anything.

Is it really possible that no one can cope with a werewolf? - Tasuke shrugged. - Okay, I’ll help you, I’ll go to the temple myself.

He waited until night and went to the temple. And in the fall the nights are quiet: not a sound around. Tasuke sat in the temple, sat, he became bored, and he yawned. It's so loud!

The echo began to sing throughout the entire area, it kept echoing, echoing, and couldn’t stop.

Finally, everything became quiet. Tasuke sees a werewolf standing in front of him, smiling.

Who are you? - asks. - Daredevil, or what? Did one come to me?

Of course, one. And then with whom? - Tasuke didn’t understand and yawned again.

The werewolf was dumbfounded:

So are you not afraid of me?

What does “afraid” mean? - Tasuke didn’t understand.

You're an eccentric, and that's all! - the werewolf chuckled. - All people in the world are afraid of something. So what are you afraid of?

“Leave me alone,” Tasuke got angry. - I don’t understand what you’re talking about.

The werewolf sat down next to Tasuke and began to explain:

You see,” he says, “you definitely have to be afraid of something.” For example, I am a werewolf. Everyone is afraid of me, that’s why they don’t go to church.

Who are you? Werewolf? - asked Tasuke. - I would never have believed it!

Yes, I’m a werewolf,” he answered proudly. - You should be afraid of me too!

Well, here's another! - answered Tasuke. - Am I a fool to be afraid of you? If I'm afraid of anything, it's gold coins. As soon as I see it, I get goosebumps.

Well, I told you, I told you! - the werewolf was happy. - Everyone in the world is afraid of something.

All? - Tasuke didn’t believe it. - And you too?

I? - the werewolf thought. - To tell the truth, I’m afraid of boiled eggplants. Their smell is disgusting, it drives me crazy.

The werewolf looked out the window and hurried.

It’s already getting light, it’s time for me to leave,” he says. - Come tomorrow, I will scare you!

The next night Tasuke went to the temple again. He took with him a large vat with a lid and brought many, many eggplants. I cooked them, closed the lid and waited for the werewolf to come.

At midnight the werewolf appeared. He walks and then gets wet. Tasuke took a closer look and saw that the werewolf was carrying a large bag. He caught his breath and said:

Well, get ready, now I'm going to scare you!

He took a handful of gold coins from the bag and threw them at Tasuke.

Well, are you scared? - asks. - Now it will be even worse!

Tasuke rushed away from the werewolf, ran around the temple and shouted:

Oh, I'm afraid! Oh, I'm afraid!

The werewolf was happy.

Everyone is afraid of something! - shouts.

Tasuke ran around the temple until the werewolf covered the entire floor with gold. And then he ran to the vat and opened the lid. Steam burst out and the temple was filled with the smell of boiled eggplants.

The werewolf winced, twitched all over, and then rushed headlong out of the temple. He ran out into the garden, grabbed a tree, and lo and behold, it turned into a big, big mushroom.

The villagers were glad that they got rid of the werewolf. We bought many, many herbs and potions from Tasuke in gratitude. And then we went to the temple to collect gold coins. They look - and these are not coins at all, but small mushrooms. The Taknis then left.

Slavic werewolves

The ancient Slavs called the werewolf a wolf-crawler, a werewolf or a volkulak - a wolf-man who himself is capable of turning into a wolf, and then into a human, and also turning other people into wolves. The legends about werewolves among all Slavic tribes are very similar. At first the werewolf was a pagan image, and then turned into a Christian evil demon.

The chronicle of 1282 speaks of a werewolf that “drives the clouds and eats away the moon.” Unlike European myths, among the Slavs the werewolf was not an evil, bloodthirsty killer. The Slavs did not consider werewolves a terrible disease. This was unusual and no doubt associated with witchcraft, but often the werewolf is one of the main and positive heroes of Slavic fairy tales. So, in the ancient Slavic protective plot the following is said.

On the sea, on the ocean, on the island of Buyan, in a hollow clearing, the moon shines on an aspen stump, in a green forest, in a wide valley. A shaggy wolf walks near the stump, all the cattle are on his teeth, but the wolf does not enter the forest, and the wolf does not wander into the valley. Month, month - golden horns! Melt the bullets, dull the knives, wear out the clubs, bring fear to the beast, man and reptile, so that they do not take the gray wolf, do not tear the warm skin from it. My word is strong, stronger than sleep and heroic strength.

Transformation into a wolf was considered to be like one of the most revered, powerful, wise and endowed with supernatural powers of animals. The name of the wolf was so sacred among the pagan Slavs that it was forbidden to pronounce it out loud in vain, and instead the wolf was called “fierce.”

Since ancient times, the ability to transform into a wolf was attributed to especially powerful sorcerers and, apparently, formed a necessary part of certain rituals. “Turn around” - turn - often literally meant “turn over”, that is, to somersault, “throw over oneself” or over a conventional border. “Turning around,” a person seemed to turn over with that side of his being that was attached to higher powers peace, to revered animals, birds, fish. For the pagans, they were all ancestors, relatives and patrons. In legends about werewolves, the line between man and beast is a narrow strip of a knife, a rope, a branch, over which one must “spread” in order to become a beast. That is, this border passes through the werewolf himself: he is both human and animal at the same time. The practice of werewolfism was so widespread among the Slavic tribes that Herodotus describes as a matter of course the annual transformation of one of the Slavic tribes completely into wolves for a few days.

One of the Slavic heroic epics generally characterizes the werewolf protagonist - Volta Vseslavyevich - as a being of divine origin:

And the moon brightened in the sky,

And in Kyiv a mighty hero was born,

How young Volkh Vseslavyevich is.

The damp earth trembled,

The glorious kingdom of the Indians collapsed,

And the blue sea swayed

For the sake of the birth of Bogatyrskov,

Volkha Vseslavyevich is young.

Many researchers say that Volkh is the Kiev prince Oleg, “the prophetic Oleg.” By the way, one of the designations for a wolf was “prophetic.” And the word “sorcerer” meant “werewolf.” The Tale of Igor’s Campaign says that the glorious Prince Vseslav of Polotsk, who lived in the second half of the 11th century, was also a werewolf. Vseslav of Polotsk “dressed the princes of the city, and he himself prowled the night like a wolf... He crossed the path of the great Kherson like a wolf.”

Another Slavic hero in Belarusian and Serbian epics is the Fiery Wolf Serpent, who was a real werewolf. According to the myth about him, the Fire Wolf was born from the Fire Serpent, and was born in human form, but in a shirt and with wolf hair - signs of a wonderful origin. The Fire Wolf can turn into a wolf, as well as other animals and birds. He accomplished many glorious feats using his ability to transform himself and his squad into animals.

When Christianity came to Rus', all pagan deities were overthrown and declared demons. The werewolves could not avoid this fate. From deities and heroic heroes they turned into evil demons. In the 20th century, werewolves almost disappeared from folk tales and myths, although they are still popular in some areas of Russia.

In addition, in pagan Slavic mythology, the god Volos (Veles), whose image was often a bear, was responsible for the dark souls (bird souls), the restless, the outcasts (thieves, apostates, hermits, poets, holy fools, sorcerers, magicians, etc.) and a wolf, less often a raven and a boar. After death, souls went to Veles's pastures. The shadow soul went to the Bone Kingdom (Chernobog lands). Sometimes stories about werewolf sorcerers are accompanied by a characteristic detail. In moments of danger, such a werewolf in the form of an animal or a bird can disappear. Allegedly, it is by this sign that Komi hunters recognize a werewolf. Such a werewolf-bear, for example, when a hunter shoots at him, disappears. Or a werewolf bird that was shot fell into the grass and “fell through the ground.” Purely everyday observations of this kind are also known. An unknown animal appears suddenly and just as suddenly and inexplicably disappears.

White and black wolves were considered werewolves - against the background of a common gray color. It was believed that the white wolf was endowed with special, higher abilities, that he was the forest owner, the prince, the “elder wolf.” If someone managed to kill such a wolf, he did not tell anyone about it, and tried to save the skin, since, according to legend, it brought happiness, endowing the one who kept it with magical luck.

They say that werewolves were also magicians - defenders of the tribes living along the banks of the Dnieper, petitioners for people before the gods. There is an old legend about Avenum.

The clan of Nicodia Avenum lived on a tributary of the Dnieper - the Berezina - and worshiped the werewolf Urgor. As a little boy, Nicodius heard many stories about a terrible creature, the black werewolf ghost Urgor. Despite the fact that Urgor was black and a ghost, he helped the Nicodia tribe a lot, appearing either in the form of a hare, or a bear, or someone else. Nicodeius was very fond of one painting, which depicted Urgor: a wolf with blood-red eyes winked good-naturedly at the boy.

One winter, when Nicodia was twelve and a half years old, he went into the forest.

In the depths of the forest, near a pine tree, he saw a huge dark wolf sitting motionless. Nicodeius was not afraid of him, but stopped. Suddenly, instead of a wolf, a large hare suddenly appeared. Avenum fell on his face. When he got up, there was neither a wolf nor a hare near the pine tree, but on the ground in the snow lay a medallion on a leather cord. On one side there was an image of a wolf, and on the other there were two Christmas trees.

At night Nicodia saw a strange dream. In it, a large black wolf was telling him something, but in the morning he could not remember what exactly. So seven days passed, and every night Nicodia dreamed of a wolf.

Seven days later he went into the forest again. There he found two large spruce trees, like those on the medallion. Avenum sat there and waited.

After a while, a half-man, half-beast, wrapped in a long black cloak, appeared from behind the trees. His body was almost human, but his head was that of a wolf.

“Urgor,” thought Nicodia and fell prostrate again. Urgor walked up to him and picked him up from the ground. And then he said:

I will give you something that will help you - art strong body and spirit.

For seven years, Nicodeius studied martial arts, healing, survival in any conditions, and the ability to crush stones and wood with his bare hands from Urgor.

There is also an old Belarusian legend, somewhat similar to the previous story.

In one forest there lived a boy. He lived there alone, without family. One day, local princes organized a wolf hunt in that forest.

And when evening twilight came, it seemed to the lad that someone was scratching at the door and whining pitifully. He opened the door and saw a wounded wolf on the threshold. He took him in his arms and hid him in the house. He washed the blood from the porch, and when the hunters showed up to him, he said that he had not seen any wolves here for many days.

The boy looked after the wolf for a long time, cured him, went out and released him into the forest.

A few days after this, late in the evening, a tall man in a wolf skin cape knocked on the boy’s door. He approached the boy and said:

You are the one to whom we must pass on our knowledge. In the morning you will come with me.

In the morning, the stranger and the boy went into the thicket of the forest, where he raised the boy to be a great warrior, taught him to fight with a sword, shoot a bow, catch up and deftly run away.

A few years later, the man in wolf's clothing said that he was now leaving forever. And since then, for many years, first the wolf howled, and then, as if from underground, a brave warrior appeared. For many years he protected justice, helping those who needed protection. This is what happens now, many years later, when that lad has long since died. They said that the warrior had three students, but no one knows who they are.

According to the research of A. Afanasyev, in Siberia there has long been a belief that some women turn into she-wolves for seven years for their unworthy actions:

At night, an evil spirit appears to the wicked woman, brings a wolf skin and orders her to put it on; As soon as the woman puts on this outfit, at that very moment the transformation takes place, and after that she receives wolf habits and desires. Since then, every night she prowls like a voracious wolf and causes terrible harm to people and animals, and with the morning dawn she takes off her wolf skin, carefully hides it and takes on her former human form. Once someone wandered into a house in which a wolf skin was hidden; he immediately lit a fire and threw the skin into it. Suddenly a woman comes running with a pitiful cry and rushes to save her animal clothes; Her attempt fails, the wolf's skin burns and the werewolf woman disappears along with the billowing smoke.

By the way, in Russian folk tales Beginning with fairy tales about the frog princess, female werewolves are often found who temporarily take off their animal skin - if you burn it, the werewolf instantly disappears.

According to the notes of the ethnographer N. Invanitsky, in the Vologda region in the 18th century there was such a story.

One day the wives of two brothers went to fetch water. One of these women was a witch. Seeing that a flock of sheep had fallen into their winter, the sorceress laid her tree (yoke) on the ground, threw herself over it and turned into a wolf. Her daughter-in-law decided to do the same, and she succeeded. The sorceress, having driven away the sheep, returned and again turned into a woman, but her daughter-in-law could no longer do so. Still remained a wolf.

There is a lot of interesting stuff in this short story. Firstly, we see that the most common object is used for transformation - a rocker. Secondly, the purpose of werewolfism is purely everyday, everyday, economic, that is, werewolfism at that time was almost an everyday thing. After all, you could shout at the sheep, take a twig and drive them out. Or you could turn into a wolf and solve the problem much faster, while having fun at the same time.

Unlike the beliefs of other peoples of the world, the Russian werewolf could become not only an animal or bird, but also an ordinary branch, a ball, a haystack or a stone. Before taking on human form again, such a werewolf certainly hits the ground and only then “throws over.”

In lower Slavic mythology, a special image of a werewolf has developed, often acting as a false marriage partner, sometimes replacing a deceased or absent groom, bride, husband, or wife. So, in Komi mythology, a werewolf

Kalyan appears to a woman in the guise of her absent husband and is identified by horse teeth and cow hooves. Usually the sexual and erotic aspirations of a werewolf are inseparable from cannibalistic ones (the victim of the werewolf loses weight and turns pale, which makes it possible to suspect the real machinations of the demon).

Werewolves voodoo

As you know, voodoo is a religion that originated in the Caribbean islands (in particular, on the island of Haiti), the roots of which go back to West Africa, from where slaves were once brought to Haiti.

A mixture of traditional beliefs of the Dahomey people of West Africa and Catholic ceremonies led to the formation of this religion. Therefore, it can be classified as a product of the slave trade. This was a kind of response of slaves to the humiliations that they had to endure during the heyday of the slave trade. The voodoo religion was banned under pain of torture and execution. local authorities, slaves were forcibly baptized as Catholics, which was expressed in the customs and rituals of the religion, which the local population kept in great secret. Specifically, the deities are similar in form to Catholic saints; Voodoo practitioners brought their rituals very close to Catholic ones; they began to use statues, candles, relics, relics, and the like.

Voodoo is a more than flexible religion; it has continuously transformed during the transition from one generation to another. Voodoo is characterized primarily by the belief that the world is inhabited by good and evil loa, who form the entire essence of the religion, and the health and well-being of all people depend on them. Voodoo practitioners believe that objects that serve the loa extend and express it. The Loa are very active in the world and often take possession of believers throughout the ritual. Only special people - white Ungan sorcerers and Mambo sorceresses - can communicate directly with the Loa.

Many books, including non-fiction, as well as some films, create a misconception about this religion, diverting attention to false directions, such as cannibalism, the creation of zombies controlled by a sorcerer from the dead, and so on.

The French traveler Geso, who once spent the night in the hut of the Guinean sorcerer Vouane, tells the following story. At night he woke up from the creaking of the door opening. He described what happened next:

Vuane stands on the threshold in short pants, with his head uncovered. But he is here, at my feet, on his mat. He lies on his side, with his back turned to me. I see his shaved head. Between us on the ground there is a lamp, burning dimly, like a nightlight. I don’t dare move and, holding my breath, look at Vuane. He hesitates for a moment, bends down, passing under the hammocks, and slowly settles into himself! This entire scene plays out in a few seconds.

In the morning I ask Vuane:

Didn't you go out tonight?

“I went out,” he answers calmly. And a barely noticeable smile appears on his lips.

How did you get out? - I ask. - You were sleeping all this time.

“I was asleep,” he answers, also smiling calmly. “I needed to know something, and while my body was gaining strength in sleep, I ran around the village like a rat. I found out everything I wanted and came back here.

In addition to evidence of transformations carried out deliberately, there are also stories of when this happens by itself, regardless of the will of a person and unexpectedly for him. A small Tibetan people, the Taman, live in Burma. According to ethnographers, the Tamans claim that such random transformations of people into animals are not uncommon among them.

They tell it half jokingly, half seriously: Taman asks if anyone has seen his wife and son? When they answer him that they only noticed a tigress and a tiger cub, he exclaims: “But that’s what they are!” - and hurries in the direction where they were seen. According to the testimony of the tamans themselves, such transformations occur involuntarily and suddenly, although before the transformation a person experiences tension and anxiety, a desire to behave like an animal: for example, to run, hunt or roll in the reeds.

So, most often the most common animals in this area acted as werewolves. If the beast becomes extinct, the myth gradually disappears. So, in the 18th century, at a time when werewolves were considered enemies of people on the continent, in England, with rare exceptions, they were treated as victims of insanity. This was not believed for any special reason, it was just that wolves in the British Isles had already become extinct by that time.

Legends about werewolves are known in all countries where wolves posed a real danger to the inhabitants. There were very few wolves in the British Isles already in the Middle Ages, and the last wild wolf was killed there back in the 18th century. The discovery of a real, but very rare and strange disease, lycanthropy, contributed to the spread of rumors about werewolves. Anyone suffering from lycanthropy was declared a werewolf. With this disease, people sometimes behave as if they really were wolves. Especially many cases of lycanthropy have been noted in France. These fierce and fearless Norwegian warriors - berserkers - largely contributed to the emergence of legends about werewolves. They dressed in animal skins and wore long hair and a beard and generally had a terrifying appearance. Residents of villages isolated from each other, having been attacked by berserkers, really mistook them for half-humans, half-beasts. According to some legends, berserkers could turn into terrible bears and wolves during battle. According to one Irish saga, a certain priest, lost in the forest, came across a wolf sitting under a spruce tree. This wolf spoke in a human voice; he asked the priest to perform the funeral service for his dying wife. The wolf explained that their family had a spell under which one man and one woman from their family had to live as wolves for seven years. If they managed to survive these seven years, they could become human again. The priest did not believe the wolf's words until the she-wolf lying nearby threw off her wolf skin, showing that she was actually a man.

In France, there are many legends about werewolves. One story from the Middle Ages tells of a hunter who was attacked by a huge wolf in the forest. He managed to cut off one of the beast's paws, but it managed to break free and run away, and the hunter put his prey in his bag. Returning home, he was very surprised to see that the paw had turned into woman's hand. But on one of the fingers he recognized a ring that he had once given to his wife. Running up the stairs, he saw his wife lying in bed, bleeding from many wounds; The hand on one of her hands was severed. One Norwegian saga tells how a sorcerer cast a spell on two wolf skins. Anyone who put them on turned into a wolf for ten days. The skins were discovered by the warriors Sigmund and Siniot, who found shelter in a forest hut. Unaware of the spell, Sigmund and Siniot stole the skins from the owners of the hut. Whoever put on this skin could no longer take it off. Sigmund and Siniot, turning into wolves, began to howl, attack people and even began to squabble with each other. After ten days, the enchantment of the skins lost its power, and the warriors threw them off and burned them.

The phenomenon of lycanthropes can be found not only in ancient manuscripts or in medical records of psychological assistance centers (the concept of “lycanthropes” in psychology is a mental disorder in which a person feels like an animal or a bird).

Back in Vietnam, the United States used lycanthrope soldiers in the fight against the Viet Gong. After undergoing special training, the soldiers (sometimes themselves, sometimes after a special command suggested during hypnosis) entered a special state of bersek. They could either shoot their enemy or gnaw his throat. They could sit in swamps for weeks without food. We could run for 2-3 days...

It is quite difficult to get into such a state, but it is possible. First, a person’s psyche breaks down - he is exposed to stress when he finds himself in certain conditions. Inherent factors of “withdrawal” are fear, hatred, despair, loneliness and sexual arousal. The strongest feelings. They influence a person the most. And then you need to give the person a “push” in a certain direction - towards the beast.

I'll retreat. Why is it so easy for a person to cross that line between beast and man? The instinct of self-preservation is at work here. Our brain keeps a person alive in any possible way. And so, when a person is driven into a corner, then the main thing is to give him the opportunity to “save himself” in the guise of a beast, ending his suffering (carrot and stick). And he will accept it with joy.

In general, it's not difficult. I conducted experiments on myself about a year ago. I barely got rid of the beast’s mask later. It would be possible to leave it like that (it helped sometimes - physical exercise easier to bear, the ability to not sleep for 3-4 days, to go without food for a long time), but sometimes I just “broke down”. Once I almost killed a man just because I didn’t like the way he looked at me. Everything has passed, but several times a week, I dream about a green lizard dragon - my other self.

Conclusion: 1) It is better to remain human, no matter how tempting it is to become a beast. 2) Study yourself - a lot of interesting things are hidden in us.

World history contains many stories and legends about werewolves who have the unique ability to transform into animals. What is true in folk art and what is a figment of imagination? Do such individuals exist, or is this someone’s fantasy running wild? Let's try to figure it out.

The first reports of people in animal form date back to ancient times. As a rule, the transformation of people into “our little brothers” occurred when full moon. Sometimes a cream or ointment with unique properties was used for this. They had to be rubbed into the skin. Often the transformation process was accomplished without any use of witchcraft, as soon as it appeared in the sky.

Those who take on animal form

Rare people had the unique innate ability to take on an animal form on their own. More often, people became werewolves and wolfhounds after being bitten by such creatures. The newly converted possessed incredible power and were extremely evil and treacherous. They were a combination of human intelligence with animal agility, claws and fangs.

In medieval treatises there are descriptions of werewolves as the Inquisition saw them. Almost any person could be accused of turning into a wild animal if he had bushy eyebrows that grew together on the bridge of his nose, increased body hair, non-standard teeth, and sharp ears at the tips.

Even if a person did not have the above-mentioned shortcomings, he could always be charged with quenching his thirst from a spring favored by wolves. In those days, it was believed that this was quite enough to turn into a beast.

The vast majority of the inhabitants of the European continent believed in the existence of the man-beast. Raids were carried out on suspicious people. Once captured, they were tortured, tried and usually burned at the stake. If any animal happened to kill a domestic animal or a person, the peasants immediately found a “wolfclaw” or “werewolf” from among their fellow citizens. Usually the victim was a person who stood out for his unconventional way of thinking or appearance.

Over the course of a hundred years, about 30 thousand people were found, convicted and executed in France. How many of them were “werewolves”, only God knows. And other countries tried to keep up with France. In 17th-century Germany, several dozen people were accused of a similar sin. They were beheaded by court order and their remains were burned.

There was a legend that in order to transform into a werewolf, a werewolf had to turn his skin inside out. , distinguished by their rare “humanism,” often tried to find wolf hair under the skin of their victims. Which is natural, after such “experiments” no one survived.

Evidence of the past

The transformation of a human into a werewolf is described in medieval treatises as follows:

“At first, such a creature feels some chills and thirst. Then an unusual headache appears, the arms lengthen and swell, the skin becomes rough, and the whole body is covered in perspiration. The creature begins to growl or roar, its clothes crack and tear, its skin darkens and becomes overgrown with hair. The monster experiences hatred and a fierce thirst for blood.”

There is evidence that in some cases a werewolf could be killed with a simple gun. True, there is one caveat - the bullets used were consecrated in the church or silver. To identify a werewolf, it was enough to injure him in the limb area at the moment when he existed in animal form. Subsequently, it was only necessary to find a person with a wounded arm or leg.

Is the wolf's paw the wife's hand?

This story happened in French province Auvergne, late 16th century. Ferol, a well-known hunter throughout the area, came to visit a noble gentleman named Sanrosh. He invited his friend to hunt, but Sanrosh was busy and was forced to refuse the kind offer.

Sanrosh received the lawyer who was waiting for him, had lunch and went to meet his comrade from the hunt. He found Ferol in a deplorable state. The hunter's entire body was covered in blood, and his clothes were torn to shreds. The wounded man said that in the depths of the forest a huge ferocious wolf attacked him - it was impossible to hit him with a musket, as if the animal had been charmed. I had to defend myself from this impressively sized monster with a knife. At some point, Ferol contrived to cut off the beast’s forelimb with one blow. He howled and seemed to disappear into thin air.

At the end of the story, the hunter wanted to show his friend the battle trophy; he opened his bag and was amazed. Where the animal limb should have lay, there was a severed human hand. A personal ring was visible on one of the fingers.

Now Sanrosh had to be surprised - he easily recognized the ring that he had given to his wife in the past. Sanrosh rushed home, where he found his wife on the bed in the bedroom, covered in blood. Her arm was cut off almost to the elbow. A little time passed and the woman admitted that she was a werewolf. Her husband struggled with himself for a long time, but then finally handed the unfortunate woman over to the authorities. After a short investigation and trial, the wolf woman was burned.

How did the belief in werewolves come about?

I wonder why belief in werewolves was especially strong in bygone times? As anthropologists found out, this belief was inherent in almost all the peoples of our planet. Only the predator into which the werewolf turned was unique to each nation. For example, in India it was the king of the jungle - the tiger, and in the European part of the land - the wolf.

For what reason did such legends arise? Once upon a time in Europe, the wolf was a totem animal; many people wore the skins of these animals. Herodotus wrote about the tribes that inhabited the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania that the inhabitants of those regions were sorcerers. According to the historian, every year they turn into wolves for a short time, and then become human again.

There are scientists who believe that a disease such as hypertrichosis contributed to the emergence of myths about werewolves. People suffering from this disease experience increased hair growth. Some patients were recruited to various circuses, and for most of them the only way was death through burning. Many parents, if they had a child with hypertrichosis, took the unfortunate child to the forest and abandoned him there. This is how the European Mowgli appeared.

But there is another unique mental disorder - lycanthropy. People suffering from this serious illness are sure that they are animals. They can imagine themselves as anything: foxes, dogs, wolves. Patients with lycanthropy move on all fours, can growl and bark, and show aggression.

This incident occurred in the late 1980s in a missile unit near Irkutsk. In the middle of the night, the senior lieutenant was called to the scene. A soldier from his platoon, Private Metrov, was on guard. Walking around the territory entrusted to him, he noticed a huge figure in the light of a lantern behind a wire fence.

Outwardly, the intruder resembled a strange hybrid of a man and a wolf, only about two meters tall. His body was covered with long gray hair, his eyes burned with an evil fire, and his long muzzle was twisted into a fanged grin.

When the monster attempted to climb over the fence, the frightened but not confused guard began shooting from a machine gun. To his horror, the soldier realized that the bullets did not cause any harm to the animal, as if bouncing off the gray skin. However, after the noise made, the monster turned and disappeared into the forest.

Colleagues found Petrov in a state close to hysterics. The senior lieutenant who arrived at the scene had difficulty understanding his incoherent speech, but the picture of the incident was supplemented by strange findings at the place where, according to the private, the beast appeared.

They really didn’t find any blood there, but there were traces of large animal paws, and it looked like the animal was moving on two legs. In addition, to the great embarrassment of the guard commander, there was a tuft of gray-black wool hanging on the barricade wire.

At that time, the matter, of course, was hushed up, but this does not cancel the fact that a creature appeared in the taiga garrison, which, according to the description, fully corresponded to a ghoul. Moreover, meetings with similar or other creatures that can be classified in the same category continue.

Animal Shepherdess

Many years after the incident, a resident of Ivanovo spoke about a similar meeting in the Kostroma region. At that time, Irina Govorkova was still a schoolgirl and spent her holidays with her grandmother in the village.

In the same village lived an old woman named Taisiya. Strong for her advanced years, the exact number of which no one knew, she cheerfully drove her goats to the pasture and back, and managed the house in a way that “not everyone in the village can do.”

It was she who Irina met in the meadow. The girl was riding a bicycle, but on the wet grass she was unable to brake in time and almost crashed into Taisiya. Then the old woman began to behave rather strangely: after making a circle around the girl, she bared her teeth strangely. Her face seemed to be covered with gray fur, stretched out, and fangs appeared between her lips.

This lasted for a very short time, but Irina managed to get scared. A moment later the face was the same. The old woman looked at Irina and told her to forget everything quickly, no one would believe her anyway. Indeed, Irina’s grandmother attributed the whole story to the rich children’s imagination.

Although evil tongues claimed that they saw Taisiya go to the river in the evening, return in the guise of a black boar, and live for more than a hundred years. In a word, they considered her a witch, capable of changing her appearance. Of course, where can a hundred-year-old grandmother keep up with her goats? It’s a different matter if you transform into a wolf or a dog...

These images are most typical of both werewolves and witches. However, the latter can take other forms, such as horses.

Aunt Horse

This strange horse was first seen by residents of Ilyinka near Moscow. In the warm season, the younger generation spends a long time on the street, and it was these belated passers-by who began to encounter a gigantic horse with glowing eyes after sunset.

Quickly realizing that this was the work of evil spirits, a group of activists began to figure out which of their fellow villagers was jumping onto a horse and scaring people at night. They suspected Grandma Marfa, and after the incident with Nikolai Blinkov, these suspicions grew into confidence.

Nikolai was driving home late from work in his truck. At dusk, he noticed a horse standing on the road and tried to drive around it along the side of the road, since the animal did not respond to signals. But the horse turned and, flashing its devilish eyes at the driver, galloped alongside.

The race continued for quite a long time with varying success: on the asphalt the car had an advantage, on the country road - vice versa. And before entering the village, the horse ran into the back at full speed, so that the car shuddered, and turning back, Nikolai saw through the rear window the naked grandmother Marfa laughing wildly.

Fear gave him strength, but when he got out of the car, there was no one in the back. The villagers decided not to leave such a thing unpunished and sent a delegation to the witch, persistently asking her to stop the nightly outrages... It was quiet in the village for a week, and then someone trampled Blinkov’s entire garden and smashed the front door.

Then a teenager was hospitalized after being frightened by a three-meter horse. From severe shock, the guy began to mumble and stutter. Now the local men decided to take serious measures. In the evening, they hid near the house of a werewolf woman and saw how she came out onto the porch and turned into a monstrous mare.

Several lassoes were thrown at the werewolf at once, but it was not immediately possible to cope with the wildly resisting animals. The werewolf horse was brought to the stable yard, shod as required in such cases, and released. The next morning, all the men who participated in the capture of the witch were taken to the police at the request of Grandma Marfa, but then the whole village was indignant.

They threatened the old woman that they would burn down her house, and if she was caught in the guise of a horse, she would be sent to a meat processing plant. Grandma Marfa had to withdraw her application and look for other entertainment.

Swinely act

In addition to the fact that witches can turn into animals, they also love to cause damage. A resident of the Stavropol Territory had to face this in practice. Sister Svetlana Titova developed a tumor on her leg. Medicine was powerless in this case, so the sisters decided that this was the work of one of the local witches, most likely a neighbor who had long been notorious.

On the advice of the old people, who still remembered the rituals, Svetlana prepared to settle scores with the witch. On the night of St. George's Day, she set the milk to boil. When the milk boiled at midnight, she threw 12 new unused needles into it, one for each stroke of the clock.

After that, she went outside the gate, read a prayer and prepared, according to the ritual, to throw the liquid towards the house of the one whom she suspected of witchcraft. After this, it was necessary, backing away, to return to the house and wait for the suspect to come the next day and ask to give her something or, conversely, offer to take some item.

You can neither take nor give anything, otherwise removing the damage will not work. And at the stage of milk splashing, Svetlana noticed a large light-colored animal not far from her and at first mistook it for a dog. But in the sudden silence, hooves clattered on the asphalt - a pig stood in front of the woman and glared at her angrily.

Svetlana began to back away towards the house, and the moment she touched her gate, the ominous pig disappeared into thin air. And the next day the same neighbor whom Svetlana suspected came to her and offered to try her pies, which in itself was strange. The woman, of course, refused, and a few days later the tumor on her sister’s leg disappeared.

18.09.11 Legends about werewolves in one form or another are found all over the globe. And not only legends: archaeologists often find prehistoric cave paintings depicting people with animal paws, with bird wings and beaks, or with the heads of cats, dogs, wolves, lions... It is unlikely that the cave paintings depicted victims of some strange mutation.

Most likely, these are mythical creatures, gods of various calibers, not necessarily evil. They symbolized the power of merging with nature. But as man began to move away from nature more and more, a fear arose of being completely captured by wild forces and losing control. Perhaps this is how werewolves became scary. In India there are legends about were-tigers, in Africa - about Anioto, leopard people. In Celtic mythology, there are stories about silkies - seal people, who are quite gentle and sometimes choose a mate among ordinary residents of coastal villages. They live widely in Japan, there are three types of werewolves: tanuki (badgers) - they bring happiness, kitsune - foxes, they can bring both joy (especially if they turn into beauties and seduce men) and grief (if they begin to carry out intrigues - and so on It happens). The third type of Japanese werewolf is bakeneko, a cat with magical powers.

In Europe, a werewolf is, first of all, a creature that turns into a wolf, or into a creature similar to a wolf. Sometimes such creatures are called lycanthropes. This name comes from the name of the ancient Greek king Lykaon. He allegedly invited Zeus, the supreme god of Olympus, to taste a dish of human flesh, without saying a word about the origin of the meat. But Zeus was a god because he didn’t need words - he instantly revealed the deception and turned the king into a wolf.

In Germany, a werewolf is called a werewolf, in Spain – hombre lobo, that is, “wolf-man”, and in Armenia – mardagail (more often than not, it could be a woman punished by heaven, forcibly turned into a she-wolf and forced to live in this guise for seven years) . In Russia, werewolves were called werewolves, and after Pushkin - ghouls. In his poem describing a werewolf, he made a mistake and called him a ghoul - and so it went. Here it is, the power of a genius - it seems like a mistake, but how it stuck! The word “ghoul” has become more commonly used than “wolfolak”.

Werewolves are common in Slavic legends. Needless to say, when, according to myth, the werewolf even managed to sit on the Kiev throne. We are talking about the Polotsk prince Vseslav. He lived in the 11th century and then, during internecine wars, ascended the throne of the ruler of Kievan Rus. His name is mentioned in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” There we also find a legend that at night the prince turned into a wolf.

These are legends. And the chronicles say something curious about Vseslav: as if he sat on his ancestral throne in the city of Polotsk for 57 years - this is anomalous long period reign, especially considering the period of internecine wars between Russian princes. It is believed that Vseslav could become the prototype of an epic hero named Volkhv Vseslavovich - a hero and part-time sorcerer who could turn not only into a wolf, but also into a fish or bird.

True, there is also a version that the legend about Volkhv Vseslavovich is much older than the 11th century. Then there is a problem with the prototype. But there is no doubt that the hero is also described as a werewolf. The epic says: “Volkh began to grow and mature, Volkh learned many wisdoms: Volkh could walk like a pike fish through the blue seas, like a gray wolf he could scour the dark forests, like a bay aurochs – golden horns he could scour the field, like a clear falcon he could fly under a cloud...”

It is interesting that there are no myths that the epic Magus Vseslavovich, and even more so the historically existing Prince Vseslav, were dangerous for people, turning into animals. They did not hunt their two-legged brothers and generally retained the human mind in animal form. This ability of self-control is usually attributed to sorcerers. Both Prince Vseslav and the hero Volkhv Vseslavovich had a strong sorcerer's reputation, and the ability to turn into animals was just one of their magical abilities.

In Slavic myths you can often find information that werewolf is not a curse, but, on the contrary, a secret gift that was possessed by the Magi, that is, people who know how to cast magic. Werewolves could turn into animals at will - throwing themselves over a knife stuck in the ground, somersaulting over themselves, over a forest stump, or over an iron rim from a barrel. There are many options. But at the same time, the sorcerers maintained their common sense, did not look for human flesh, but went about their business. For example, they shortened the time it took to travel through the forest, or found out the plans of enemies, or hunted, or simply used an animal body to be unrecognized.

One way or another, there is a whole group of legends in which werewolves are mentioned, but these werewolves are not negative characters. The same hero Volkhv Vseslavovich is one of the epic defenders of Kievan Rus from enemies. True, he fought, let’s say, not very honestly. He could turn into an ermine, sneak into someone else's camp and create sabotage there, gnawing the strings of bows. Or he could turn his army into ants so that they would penetrate the besieged city, and return them to their true appearance behind the walls and start a battle. But one way or another, this hero is a hero, and not an enemy.

True, the image of this hero is obviously pagan, pre-Christian. After baptism in Rus', the magi were no longer favored, and this was immediately reflected in myth-making. An evil sorcerer appears on the scene who can turn another person into a wolf just for cruel fun or out of revenge.

There are popular beliefs that sorcerers or witches, wanting to turn someone into a wolf, throw a wolf skin over him and whisper magic words. Or the sorcerer can slip a belt twisted from bast under the threshold of the hut. Whoever steps over this belt turns into a wolf and can only receive his former human form when the magic belt wears out and bursts, or when someone puts on him a belt he has taken off, on which he had previously tied knots and when tying each time said: “Lord have mercy.”

There were legends that a sorcerer could turn several dozen people into wolves at once, for example, those gathered to celebrate a wedding. As if the very sight of human happiness is so hateful to the magician that he is ready for the most evil witchcraft. This belief, presumably, had very specific roots. A wedding is a custom surrounded by a lot of signs, just so as not to jinx it. Knowing this, people who imagined themselves to be sorcerers could come to the wedding and demand a ransom, otherwise threatening to cast an evil eye on the young people or even turn them into wild animals.

It was believed that werewolves who fell victims to witchcraft were unfortunate creatures, but not dangerous - their sanity was still with them. But there were also aggressive wolves - those who died without communion and after death are forced to serve the devil in the skin of a wolf. These could attack people. The version that lycanthropy is transmitted through a bite (it is often found in modern fantasy novels and films) was somehow not popular in the Slavic world. Apparently, this is a product of Western folklore. It says that a person who has received a bite from a lycanthrope will turn into a werewolf himself on the next full moon, will run around in the guise of a monster without remembering himself, and may even kill his own relatives.

Folklore researchers say that fairy tales about werewolves arose for a reason, and it is not without reason that the wolf was chosen as their central character. In the Christian tradition, the wolf was often compared to the devil, a creature that hunts the lambs of God. The metaphor about the insidious forces of evil seeking to destroy the soul began to be read literally, and horror stories about werewolves appeared. Also, the wolf could personify the dark, uncontrollable forces of nature and the forces of the animal nature in man, which can take over and cause a lot of trouble.

On the other hand, the legends about werewolves also had real premises. For example, there is a psychiatric illness when a person begins to consider himself some kind of animal, like a wolf. And there is a congenital genetic disease called “hypertrichosis.” It is characterized by abundant hair growth on the face and upper body. In the Middle Ages, people with such deviations could get into trouble due to accusations of a devilish entity.

However, for this it was not at all necessary to have such a clear defect. It is known that in France alone, between 1520 and 1630, more than 30 thousand werewolves were “identified” by the Inquisition, and most of them were executed. A case of congenital hypertrichosis could have been in one or two of the accused out of all - after all, this is a very rare disease And if people who did not at all resemble werewolves died at the stake, then it’s scary to imagine what danger those whose appearance became so noticeable due to illness were exposed to.

Subsequently, this noticeable appearance turned into a profession. For example, the story of Fyodor Evtikheev, the so-called boy with a dog’s head, is known. In the second half of the 19th century, he performed in the show of the famous American entrepreneur Barnum. Evtikheev’s disease was hereditary - his father also suffered from it. This is a historical case. And a complete documented description of hypertrichosis was made not so long ago - about 30 years ago.

In Guadalajara, Mexico, there is a biomedical research center dedicated to this problem. Doctors are trying to help the Asievo clan (there are more than 30 people in it). The surfaces of their bodies, including their faces, palms and feet, are covered with thick fur (even on women). Some family members have thicker fur than others. Their posture, voice and facial expressions also showed noticeable deviations from the norm.

Local residents view Asievo with suspicion and hostility, so clan members were forced to enter into intra-kin marriages, and this aggravated the situation. During the research, it was found that this mutation arose among members of this family back in the Middle Ages, was transmitted from generation to generation through the X chromosomes, but did not manifest itself.

Doctors admit that they are unable to help Asievo’s family – the disease is incurable. But they hope that over time they will be able to isolate the gene that led to the mutation, and future representatives of the Asievo clan will get rid of their lycanthropic appearance.