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THE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.1

The belief that a human being is capable of assuming ananimal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almostworldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanicwerewolf, or man-wolf; that is, a wolf which is reallya human being.2 So the werewolf was a man in wolf’s form orwolf’s dress,2 seen mostly at night,3 and believed generally tobe harmful to man.4

The origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorilyexplained. Adolf Erman5 explains the allusion ofHerodotus6 to the transformation of the Neurians (the people[2]of the present Volhynia, in West Russia) into wolves as duemerely to their appearance in winter, dressed in their furs. Thisexplanation, however, would not fit similar superstitions in warmclimes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy to primitiveTotemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the membersof a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.7 Stillanother explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as theoriginal werewolf.8

The explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves mustbe one which will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstitionis found pretty much all over the earth,9 especially to-day10however in Northwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in[3]the lands where the wolf is most common.11 12 According to[4]Mogk13 the superstition prevails to-day especially in the northand east of Germany.14

The werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.15[5]The point in common everywhere is the transformation of a livinghuman being into an animal, into a wolf in regions where thewolf was common...