The following concludes Lane Batot’s Halloween season guest post on lupine shapeshifting.
Okay, now on to that one exception of lupine characteristics not exhibited by true werewolves, which leads us to Myth Number 2.
You see, the transformation to a WOLF, with a competent shape-shifter, is complete EXCEPT for the EYES. Again and again various human legends all over the world tell of wolves having human eyes — this is just the recognition of actual werewolves, of course. But that does cause one major problem. Werewolves, as opposed to regular run-of-the-mill wolves, because of their human eyes (betraying their human consciousness), just can’t see that well at night!
Which leads us to the myth that werewolves can only transform during the full moon. Not really, it’s just that it is sooooo much easier to ravage the countryside when you can actually see what you are doing!
Which is accomplished far better with some bright moonlight! I mean, we can (and do) go out on darker nights, but there is a lot of bumping around then. And it is very difficult, and just impractical, for a true werewolf to carry a flashlight in it’s jaws —not to mention just embarrassing! Imbeciles can carry one better with their partial hands, but they usually just won’t, since they are already so image-compromised to begin with.
So yeah, that Full Moon thing — not exactly accurate. But understandable how the ordinary humans came to perceive it that way.
The morning after…
Another myth — also often perpetrated by the Imbeciles, is that after a werewolf transformation (half-arse though it may be) werewolves have no memory of their activities during their shape-shifting. Let me tell you, the only werewolves that have no memory of what they did after a night of carousing, are werewolves with a drinking problem! Which, not surprisingly, a lot of the Imbeciles indulge in to give themselves false courage and confidence. Leading to some monstrous behavior!
Next time you watch a werewolf movie depicting one of those “Imbeciles,” take note on how a lot of their behavior resembles that of a crazed, drunken lout.
Then there’s that old wive’s tale about GARLIC repelling werewolves! A TOTAL misunderstanding of the REAL origin of this myth! You better not pin your hopes on garlic repelling werewolves, especially in Italy! What REALLY started this Old Wives’ Tale occurred long, long ago, somewhere in Europe (maybe in Italy?). It seems this old wife (ahem!) was going out after dark (no doubt during a full moon or thereabouts) to her root cellar to fetch some strings of garlic to use in preparing supper. She had draped herself with several such strings, and exited the root cellar, only to be pounced upon by a savage werewolf!
The old wife was so terrified she shat all over herself — ugh! What a stinking MESS!
The werewolf involved was understandably repelled, and fled howling into the night! But the old wife, foolish ignorant (and not very sanitary) peasant that she was, misinterpreted the incident believing it was the GARLIC that had saved her life! Thus the tale was passed down, old wife to old wife. But we werewolves also passed down the TRUE origin of THAT superstition!
I reckon that’s enough to ponder this upcoming splendid and historical Halloween — don’t want to give away all our secrets! I encourage everyone to indulge your feral instincts during this next Blue Full Moon on Halloween (and a Saturday to boot!) — get out and roam — one of the best social distancing activities imaginable!
Preferably with a canine companion or two, who might inspire you to realize further truths about werewolves!
Quixotic Mainer says
Great advice on the wolfish side of things, and a good laugh to boot. During the latter part of my meandering through what was supposed to be higher education, I spent a whole semester looking into the Gevaudun Beast. The primary sources are in French, and mine is only passable so that was a grind. I came to theorize that those misdeeds were the work of a nasty individual that had a furry accomplice or two along.
.lane batot says
Yes indeed, the Beast of the Gevaudan is a fascinating subject–read a good many accounts of that myself, though I did not put myself through the torture of trying to translate the original French! Despite my paternal French last name(a corruption of the original French word “Bateau”), and despite several torturous years taking French language courses in High School and College(in which I performed HORRIBLY–yet did quite well in my Cherokee language courses!), none of it ever took. But my favorite, and most thorough book on the subject is Jay Smith’s “Monsters of the Gevaudan; The Making of a Beast”. HIGHLY recommended!(if usually rather steep even on Amazon….) The author covers virtually ALL the theories on the subject very thoroughly.
Quixotic Mainer says
Thanks for the tip, I will definitely try to round up a copy! Every once in a while I still find myself thinking about whole case, especially around All Hallows. Languages are funny things certainly, French and Spanish come along fairly naturally. But my semester of Russian was tantamount to serving time in a gulag! Bateau are pretty familiar to my folks, my paternal grandfather was one of the last lumbermen old enough to have used them for shipping supplies.
Matthew says
When my dad went to West Point he had a choice of which foreign language he would study. Despite studying Spanish in High School, he chose Russian. To this day he talks about what a mistake that was.
He was later stationed in Germany back when it was still divided and he learned German. After he got out of the service, he got a job in Texas. At a lunch counter, the server was Mexican. He decided to try his High School Spanish except it came out half German and half Russian.
Quixotic Mainer says
Hah, I’ll bet that was a unique linguistic mix to that time and place! Good on him for trying though, in a career of arms in that era that would have been a hot ticket to have. Russian is no joke, that 30+ letter alphabet, where letters look like ours, but have entirely different sounds is no joke. Plus there are snarling, almost throat clearing noises that are part of correct pronunciation that are pretty difficult for an English speaker to pick up.