April 14, 2025 • 29 mins
Today we are talking about werewolves. Are they real? Were they a big problem in France? Does the full moon matter? Did that one guys wife really deserve to have her nose bit off? Was it all a tiger? Or was it just an explanation for serial killers? Listen here to learn the history of werewovles and how they have literally been a thing forever.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, and welcome to Mini number ninety five.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I was saying ninety seven, ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's in the high nineties. Friends, Yeah, what's do for
one hundred? I know, we got to plan that shit out. Well. Today,
I think we should talk about werewolfs literature because I
realized I talked about vampire literature a while back, so
why not even it out. But then it kind of
(00:37):
turned into just like a history of werewolves with like
some myths and stories thrown in, because like people have
been talking about were wolves forever, like all over the world,
and like all the details are different, but they usually
involve someone turning into a wolf. But also there's like
different like shifter types based on like where you are globally,
(00:58):
because there's hyena shifters stories in Africa, wear tigers in India,
and even wear jaguars in South America, so.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Like, okay, well those are cooler, so fuck us in
Europe and North America.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah. I also don't talk about those at all, because
I forgot when I was doing my research. But we're
just focusing on lame were wolves today, so as we
kind of all know, lots of war wolves only turn
on the full moon. But there's also stories of some
that can turn whenever.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
From twilights.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
True. I think those ones are more fun, Like if
you're like locked up by the full moon, that's lame,
not ideal, honestly whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I Jacob from technically a shape shifter, as we
learned at the end of Breaking Down, but forget about Yes,
it's true, they don't mind sure that there's other animals
that people are turning into them. They don't even tell us.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Nope, and we'll never get stories about that, So just
don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Jatie Meyers, I swear to fucking God I would to
kidnap you one day.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yep. I also learned that there were people accused of
being werewolves during the witch trials, which I didn't realize,
but like fun, I think I have one of those
stories in here, But like that seems a bit much.
It's thought that, like sicknesses, kind of spread the idea
of werewolves. One example is hyper tricocious. I'm gonna mispronounce
(02:19):
so many things in this episode, but that's basically when
you get in abnormal hair growth and it can either
be localized on one spot on your body or all
over your body. And like We've all seen pictures of
people that have that, like especially like in circuses and stuff.
That's when they had like the wolfmen and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's a pretty common little seriously as possibly where Bigfoot
came from.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yes, and it's actually it's not that common, which is
why some people don't think that it's likely. Whatever. Another
one clinical likecanthropy, is also like a legit thing where
people actually think they've turned into a wolf or they
can turn into one, but it's like pretty rare. In
nineteen sixty three, doctor Lee Illis wrote a paper on
(03:03):
for furia I don't know and that right and the
Atology of were Wolves That's what his paper was called,
and he basically said that like historical accounts of were
wolves could have been referring to victims of porphyria, because
some symptoms can include like photosensitivity, reddish teeth, and like psychosis,
(03:24):
which like you know, depending on what's happening, that could
be enough to accuse someone of being a were wolf. Obviously,
a lot of people didn't agree with him because they're
like were wolves can actually change into wolves, so like
why would they have like these kinds of things on whatever,
And like it's unlikely that basically it's unlikely that like
(03:46):
were wolves, their human informs would be as obvious as
porphyria victims. Rabi's was also kind of thought to be
a werewolf thing. It seems a little more accurate to me,
especially since it's uh a disease that's like transmitted through
bites a lot of the time. So like, you know,
you could see where the legend comes from.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Also, the legend, like the idea of werewolves biting people
is like recent, I guess, so like the original legends
did not include the biting theory, so e whatever. But
we're gonna talk about like a couple of different types
of folklore and go through some different time periods and stuff.
So first, here's some stuff about European folklore. So, in
(04:29):
European folklore, it's said that were wolves have telltale physical
traits even in their human form, like a una, brow,
curved fingernails, low set ears, or a swinging, swinging stride.
I don't really know what that means.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It is walk cool, Okay, they got a cool they
got a good woolf. I mean you to brow rude,
curve fingernails, just cut them, low set ears, what does
that mean?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
That just seems a little Judgyiers are kind of in
the Samaria for the most part, we're a wolf when
they be more high set.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Actually, I'm gonna make more sense.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But here's something even freakier. They also said that you
could identify a were wolf by like cutting off a
piece of their flesh, because they'd have fur like in
the booth.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Nope, nope, nope, non like that. Don't like that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I hate that really gross.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I hate that so much.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You're gonna hate this one too. It's a little less bad. Maybe.
There's also a Russian superstition that said they can recognize
werewolves by bristles under the tongue, which I don't get
why there would be bristles there. It seems weird.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
But okay, well, at least you don't have to cut
them to find out these people are going around cutting people.
At least you just lift up their tongue and go, hmm,
not a wolf.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Please don't take my flesh. It's fine, Okay, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Stick your hand in my mouth. You don't wash hands yet.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Right, it's gross back then? Yeah, but yeah, So basically,
the appearance of the werewolf in animal form varies from
culture to culture. Often like kind of in Twilight, it's
indistinguishable from other wolves, maybe a little bigger whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You see the ones who Twilight, we're huge.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well here's something freaky. Apparently sometimes warbolves don't have tails,
and that's like a known thing that I've never heard
of in my life. Whatever. And in some in some tales,
the wolf is larger and they could even keep their
human eyes or the human.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Voice for the human voice one, I feel like the
voice whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
If a wolf starts talking to me, I'm gonna be like, Okay,
there's some masses that's like, that's not weird to me.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, if you know he could talk, he pritty him
to be the grandma, so he has a human voice.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, And I feel like I don't know if if
they can do mine link mind Lincoln stuff, why can't
they just talk, like come on, it's fine whatever. Here's
one of the tail theory tail stories. So in some
Swedish accounts, war wolves run on three legs and they
stretch the fourth leg leg back to look like a tail.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Why don't just have a tail. I don't know why
all the legs needed versus tale They're like you're already.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Changing into a wolf. Where's the tale coming from? I guess.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I mean, I guess. But also.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
What we're also going to get into some other weird legends,
because like obviously most often where wolves turn in like
just on a full moon, like that's the deal, right,
But in some stories they can change just by like
putting on a wolf skin or a wolf belt, which
I was like, okay, fashion, or by drinking beer and
repeating a chant.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, that just seems way too easy. I honestly think
that it's just people getting drunk.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Right, Let's just you're just dancing in the woods and
you're like, and became a wolf last night. And your
friend's like, yeah, man, you were a total wolf.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, they're like, you got so crazy row. Yeah, you
started biting people, got really fucking weird.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Actually Greg hates you now, but it's whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You have his leg and said, you're a wolf, so.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah whatever. So now ancient Greek literature, so you know
it's gonna get hot, fun and crazy. So here's a
story I've never heard before, but one of the more
famous warwelf stories. This is the only one I found.
Apparently there's a couple. Well I didn't really look them up,
but whatever, the it's the story of king like Kyon,
(08:17):
like Caon, whatever of Arcadia. Bro had fifty sons. First
of all, that's like a whole other story. Nice okay,
But he had like one daughter and fifty sons. I
think I bet.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He hated her or maybe he liked it. I don't know,
could go either way. But too many kids.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
A lot of his sons like ended up founding cities.
I don't really know how that happened. I didn't look
too far into it because it was like a lot
more than I expected. Anyways, there's a lot of drama.
He has fifty children, obviously, but he was also like
a drama king himself. Because this is there's like a
million different ways this story is told, but essentially like
(08:55):
he was visited by Zeus in a disguise, so like
a beggar came to his town and was like hmm,
flips up food, and like people were like, oh, that's Zeus,
And so he wanted to test if it actually was
Zeus or not. So he did what any of us
would do. He killed someone. Maybe it's a hostage, maybe
it's a child, maybe it's his youngest son. It differs
(09:16):
by the story done.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I mean, you might as well get killed one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
You have too many, right, And he feeds that to
Zeus or attempts to, and Zeus is like no, I'm like,
he recognized it obviously, So in his fury he turns
like Kean into a wolf. So that's like the ancient
Greek Greek version. In some other less fun versions or
maybe more fun, I don't know, Zeus blasts him and
(09:42):
his sons with thunderbolts. I don't know. Seems like classic
Zeus boring to me. He could do more fun stuff,
like turn him into a wolf. That's cool. Yeah, And
this actually there was multiple stories like this, because there's
similar stories of men that were turned into wolves after
eating the entrails of a human that was sacrificed to Zoos.
I don't know why this was such a popular thing
(10:03):
back then. There's more to it too, because if these
men that did this, if they were if they refrained
from eating human flesh while they're wolves, they can become
human again after nine years.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's a long time.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Just like be a wolf for nine years, don't eat
any humans, and you'll be a human again. And then
it like said that like it was something that like
they turned back to human like with the years added on,
and I was like that seems rude, Like.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, actually a decade older.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Sorry, sorry, whatever. So one of those stories about the
dude eating flesh, becoming a wolf whatever, it's a story
about an Olympian named DeMarcus Demarchius. We have evidence that
this guy actually existed, but there's like no wolf story stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well we don't have evidence, No, it's.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Not on his record. It's like, oh, this guy, he
was like a boxer, but there's nothing in the actual
records of him being a wolf. Well that's like his backstory,
and they're like, we're gonna keep that out. It's fine.
So yeah, there's another similar story in Arcadia, which I
think is where Lai Kean was from. I looked it up.
(11:16):
It's like a place in southern Greece. But also it's
like a utopic ideal, so it's like real but not.
I don't know. So once a year in this town,
a man was chosen and he was taken to a
marsh where he would hang his clothes in a tree
and then swim across the marsh and he'd turn into
a wolf once again. If he could make it nine
years without eating human flesh, he'd become a human again,
(11:38):
with those nine years added to his appearance. For whatever reason,
I don't know why that has to be added in,
like just so you know you're not like well.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Maybe since then people would be like, well, fuck, I
got to live an extra nine years, Like well, I
mean I guess, well, don't eat people. Were Wolves like
eating people a big problem in Greece because it's not common.
Wolves actually don't behave like that. Really, they're more they
don't go near your time.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, there's listen we have I think I have a
weird animal story later on that maybe you've heard, maybe
you haven't. I don't know people were scared of wolves, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Oh yeah, but like they are, they don't they're not
like human.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
There's a lot more back then too, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, but like that's just not how wolves behave. So
I don't know why they're like, good luck not eating
human guys. It's gonna be really fucking nine years when
most wolves probably have not eaten the human, right.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I would say a lot of wolves haven't eaten people,
but I don't know. Maybe it's different.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Back then maybe, but yeah, I just I know wolf
behavior is just not like that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
No, and then I got like two more freaky little
wolf turning stories. Virgil we've all heard of him. He
was a the Hilosopher. I don't fucking know anything you're
gonna sae a loss of raptor. It's a loss of
raptor my favor, not what he did. But okay, listen,
I'm saying now, if we bring back velociraptors, it's an
(13:05):
idea for a name.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Okay, I don't know his name for one, I guess you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Anyways, he wrote about a guy that took herbs and
poisons to become a wolf. Not very exciting. Some other
guy named Gaeis Petronius Arbiter wrote about a guy who
stripped down pete in a circle around his clothes and
then turned into a wolf. And that's badass, Like if
(13:31):
that's all it takes, Like, that's really funny. He did
it like his friend too, and his friend yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Think that's the drunk guy from earlier.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And his friend's just like yeah, because he's drunker.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah. Weird weird night out.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Weird night out. Okay, So now some stuff from the
middle Ages. So turns out lots of people believed in
were wolves in the Middle Ages as well, so we
have tons of story stories from all over in Scandinavia
and stories berserkers if y'all haven't heard of them. They
were known to channel the spirits of animals to like
(14:07):
enhance their effective effectiveness in battle, and they were known
as being like kind of like undefeatable because they'd be
like so high on adrenaline. I thought they took drugs.
Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but they'd just be
like off killing bitches.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Were probably on PCP without knowing it. I mean, I
think ACP might be a man made drug.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I don't know what the fuck what is I definitely
think they were on drugs though, so usually like well
not usually, but sometimes they would like channel bears. But
there were also here's a word I'm going to fuck up,
the wolf Hidnar or the wolf coded men. So these
tales spread through Eastern Europe into Slavic States, which was
(14:44):
just like a part of Europe. Forget where we know
where Slavic States maybe is eastern Europe. Yeah, so in
the eleventh century. Here's the thing. This was really funny
because I was a lot of this is Wikipedia, and
I was just like going off on links, and in
the werewolf Wikipedia whatever, they mentioned this guy, this eleventh
century Belarusian prince lev Slav of Polotsk, totally mispronounced that
(15:10):
one too. Whatever. So like you go on that guy's
page though, and it's like the werewolf thing is like
just like a two sentence blip on his page. But
on the werewolf thing, it's like this guy he was
a fucking werewolf and he was considered a werewolf because
he was included in a twelfth century epic called the
Tale of Igor's Campaign, and he was depicted as a
(15:31):
werewolf in this. For some reason, didn't really get why
he was. Also, like when he was born, he was
said to be a sorcerer because he had like a
call on his face, you know, which happens with some births.
It's not like uncommon, but like back then they said,
like they told some sorcerers. I don't know if they
(15:51):
were at the birth or what, but they told his
mom they were like.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You know, they were pretty much midwives back then. You
bring your.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Sorcerer, yeah, he throws some herbs on you, says a chance,
have a baby, it's fine, so whatever. He was known
as a werewolf after the epic was written, though, and
I could not really find a lot of reason why.
I don't think he did it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I said he was a werewolf, but he's like, damn,
he's a werewolf.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Guy, he's a werewolf. I mean it's a good you'd
be like, oh, that's Prince Vlassoslav. He's a werewolf, and
he's gonna be like, bitch, Yeah, I am, what up
are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Deny it?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right? I would? I would not deny that. Well, maybe
depends on if I'm gonna be like hey or not. Well, okay.
So Also in the twelfth century, Marie de France. I
think she was French. Maybe Marie from France is what
that means, I don't know. She wrote a series of
poems called bis biscleverret or the Werewolf is what it
(16:44):
translates to, and it basically tells the story of a
baron who was like the king loved him, and he
had a wife and like she was cool, but he
disappeared every week for three days and like no one
knew why. They just felt like accepted it because he
was so cool, but like no one knows why he's
disappearing all the time. Eventually, his wife is tired of
this shit, and she's like, why why are you disappearing
(17:05):
all the time, And he's like, well, I turn into
a were wolf and like while I'm a wolf, like
I have to like hide my clothes in like a
safe space or I won't be able to turn back
into a human. Weird detail, but okay. His wife is
disgusted by this. She's like, can't believe that, don't even
know my husband. Like, I gotta get out of here,
I gotta get away from him. And so she eventually
(17:28):
convinces this night that happens to be in love with her.
She's like, hey, like help me out with this. So
Bro steals her husband's clothing while he's wolfing out, and
then so her husband never returns, so she ends up
marrying the night. His people are really sad about this
because they really liked him, but they do like give
up the search for him. They're like, he's probably dead.
Who knows, maybe a wolf ad him. Apparently that's common
(17:50):
in these tides.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, wolves be eating people a lot more than they
do now.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, I don't know, Maybe we should bring that back
I don't know. A year later, the king goes hunting
and he corners the baron, who's like stuck as this
wolf still. So the baron runs up to the king
as a wolf and starts like kissing his foot in
his leg and stuff, and the king is like what
and he's like begging for forgiveness. But the King is like,
this is a weird wolf. I like it. So he
(18:17):
takes the wolf to the castle to like live with him,
and the wolf is like really chill with everyone, and
he's like hangs out and stuff. So he's like living
happily with the king until one day the night that
married his wife shows up and bro attacks this knight
on site. He like goes for the face, right. Everyone
is like, what the fuck is happening. He has never
attacked anyone. He is so chill, and so the court
(18:40):
is like, oh the night wrong to the wolf. Somehow
everyone on the wolf's side and so he's fine whatever.
Later on, the king goes to visit like where the
baron used to live, like at like the town or whatever,
and he brings the wolf along and they end up
going to his old house because like his wife had
heard the king was coming so she was like, I
gotta get I get a bunch of gifts for him.
(19:03):
And when the wolf sees her though, attacks on site,
rips her nose right off her face. Jesus right, and
once again people are like, okay, this wolf, so we
attack two people. Now there has to be a connection here,
Like someone is like, oh my god, like that's the
wife of the baron that died, and like she's married
to this night. Now holy shit. So the king questions
(19:26):
her under torture as you do, until she reveals the truth.
And so the wolf gets his clothes back because apparently
they kept the clothes. I don't know why you wouldn't
like burn the clothes, but whatever, he turns back into
the baron, or maybe he just can wear any clothes.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I don't does it have to be this certain pair
of clothes, because like just give him a shirt and
he's good to go, or like.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Clothes or like, I don't know. Anyways, he turns back
into a man, runs to the king and kisses him.
I don't know if that's like in a gay way,
but I kind of hope.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So they seem in my mind it is they're making
out and they're in love.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, and his wife, I guess gets to live after
being tortured because all of I don't know how many
kids this bitch has, but all of her female kids
are born without a nose. And then it says like
all of her kids like it's obvious, like like where
they came from or something. And I was like, does
that just mean they're ugs like.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Her night husband killed or just muled?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Don't know. Well, I didn't read this poem, actually, I
just read like a summary.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Of the I feel like I've read this. This poem
sounds familiar. Maybe I was supposed to reading class, but
I got questions about So she had kids after this
attack then, because her off they were born without nose.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
It'd be pretty freaky if they're all the noses falling off.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, Baron, get with her? Was her?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I also have questions. Sorry, I didn't do all of
that research. Now let's get into actual wolf attacks. So
in the sixteenth century, there was a lot of reports
of wolf attacks in France, and there was like a
lot of trials for these attacks because like people be
like that guy did it, he's a fucking werewolf. And
in some of these trials they could prove murder and
(21:05):
even cannibalism, but no one could prove that anyone was
a werewolf.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Okay, so why I wonder why they couldn't prove that.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Right, or that a wolf was even involved, Like there's
no wolf, right, yeah he was, but like not as
a wolf.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I listened to a couple of podcasts about this, and
if this is like that one town in France that
like went all wild on that werewolf.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Thing, yes, or I do talk about it at some point,
but like yeah, it's crazy, but it's like someone was
just being crazy, I don't know whatever. So in fifteen
seventy three, there was a guy who killed at least
four children and he was convicted of being a werewolf
because he was like I don't know, they were violent.
(21:48):
It was a violent deaths and so like that didn't
help the whole werewolf craze thing. They're like, we got
this guy, he's totally a werewolf, convicted of it. And
he was like literally known as the werewolf of Dole
because that's the city. There were more werewolves that were
convicted even in the Swiss VOD region up until sixteen
fifty three, when a VOD pastor literally was like no
(22:10):
loo can't the prettiest fake We're done with that shit.
And everyone was like, okay, I guess I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Love that he's like, no more of this and they listened. Like.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
There was like one more claim in sixteen seventy where
a kid was like, hey, me and my mom can
turn into wolves, but like no one believed him.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So yeah, he's a kid red wolf.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I don't know. There was also so James, the first
of England, prosecuted witchcraft and he said that werewolves were
victims of delusion induced by a natural superabundance of melancholic
So you're just like a little depressing.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I do like when werewolves were connected with depression.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He's like, you're not a werewolf, You're just a depressed bitch.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Okay, like that, you're too email you're a werewolf.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Like, so, I guess whatever. By six fifty, most of
French speaking Europe didn't believe in lacanthropy anymore because it
was seen at this point as a disorder of the brain.
So like, not cool anymore, You're just you got the sads.
I guess. They still saw werewolf like beasts, well not
werewolf like, just wolf like beasts. They just didn't consider
(23:17):
them were wolves. I guess they were just like, that's
a wolf. Because there was a beast called the Beast
of Javaden. That's wrong, which it's in France, obviously. This
beast terrorized a region in France from seventeen sixty four
to seventeen sixty seven and it killed like at least
(23:37):
eighty people. It was kind of like a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
But yeah, I think this is the one where the
king had like a whole hunting group and then they
killed something that the king had stuffed and they're like
what was this? It eight more people died, so then
they're like, dim we ketch it? Did we not?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah? There was yeah, no one.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It might have been like a tiger. Actually it could
a there was serious that it. Maybe it was actually
just a whack ass tiger that got out.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well, and if you're not used to seeing tigers, you're
not gonna know what the fuck that is.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, because they're like this page is crazy, what the
fuck is is? So? Yeah, yeah tiger.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, here's another crazy one. In fifteen eighty nine, a
man in Bedburg, Germany, was accused of being a were
wolf and he had like the most insane trial and
execution to follow. He was tortured into giving a confession,
and in that confession he said he did black magic
when he was twelve and the devil gave him a
(24:31):
magic girdle that allowed him to change into a wolf.
And they're like, where's that girdle at and he's like, oh,
it's in this valley. It was never found. Big surprise.
Testimony said from you know, I don't know who who
in town was like, yeah, I hate that guy. They
said he was an insatiable bloodsucker who feasted on animals
and women and children. He did not discriminate, so under
(24:55):
the threat of more torture, he confessed to killing and
eating fourteen children and two two pregnant women. Yeah, the
pregnant women part is actually worse than what I'm gonna
say because I didn't like it, So hopefully he didn't
actually do that. So one of the fourteen children was
that he killed was his own son, and he said
that he ate his brain, and I'm like, why so
(25:17):
specific in all of these things. Hate that. He was
also accused of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter,
so then she was sentenced to die with him because
it was also said that she maybe slipped with like
her uncle or something, and they were like, that's the law.
You gotta die.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
She's the victim of that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, she know how women be.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
He said he had sex with a suckubis, so that
a is fucking low. They killed him on Halloween in
fifteen eighty nine, alongside his daughter and his mistress.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Okay, what the fucking mistress even do?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Right again, here's where it gets a little brutal. So like, sorry, guys,
for his execution. He was put on a wheel and
like flesh was torn from his body in ten places
with hot pincers, and then they broke all of his
limbs with an axe head, which I was like specific,
And then they cut his head off and burned his
(26:18):
body on a pyre. And then while that was happening,
his daughter and mistress were flayed and strangled, and then
they were burned with his body.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I don't like that they flayed and strangled them because
I don't like the idea of strangling someone who's skin
you just cut off.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It's pretty nasty.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I strangled first, right.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Then the local authorities put a pole with a torture
wheel and a figure of a wolf on it, and
they put that up and then they put his head
on top of it. That's cute, so not great. I
think that's my last story because I guess I wanted
to end it on the worst thing I could find.
So it's now thought that whereboth legends could have been
(26:58):
used to explain serial killer, which I think makes a
lot of sense, especially these more brutal ones that I
think people would probably be like, no man could do this,
no like human could do this, So it always easier
for them to blame a beast. And like I said,
these kinds of stories have been have existed forever, so
(27:18):
like it's easier to blame that than be like, oh,
it's fucking Craig down the road freaking out and killing everyone.
But yeah, that's my werewolf literature. That has nothing to
do with werewolf literature. It's more werewolf folklore. I guess.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
The serial coiling thing makes a lot of sense because
we didn't even like there isn't like records of serial
killers from back then, even though obviously there had to
be because people beat people. Yeah, and teriokillchalk like a
new thing, but there's very few that you could like
trace back to then so yeah, it's probably just people killing.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, people are gross. There's a lot of werewolf books
out there are now Obviously there's a lot of horny
ones now too. Originally I was gonna go more into
how they've changed over the years, but like, werewolf formance
was pretty popular. Whatever, everyone's a werewolf now you still
only be dude werewolves. Ladies be war wolves now too,
(28:18):
proud of them, girl power progress.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That's really cool that feminists got that far. I can't
think of any werewolf book besides Twilight, and that's more
vampire than werewolf.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, honestly I should be able to since I read
a lot of articles. Actually I got like I really
was deep diving for a second. This is pretty fun
to look into. Actually, I don't know, man, everyone knows
where to find werewolf books. It's pretty fucking easy in
this day and age. But there you go. If you
(28:49):
want to listen to more minis on other things that
are vaguely book related, you can find us wherever you
listen to podcasts, and while you're there and give us
a little five star review, tell us how we're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, and if you want to look at pictures of
real life werewolves, you can find us on Instagram at
book Hold Podcasts where both were wolves That's what I'm saying.
And you can find us on TikTok, at book cult Pod,
and online at book gold, poddowardbreast dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, so that's it. Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You gotta be a shape shifter so I could choose.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
You know, I think tonight might be a full moon.
I think the full moon is happening pretty soon ish. Actually,
I'm gonna look it up right now.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Lock up them people.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Oh my god, it is tonight at eight. Oh my god.
Eleven minutes ago was like the cusp of the full moon.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, well, all the werewolves are currently out and about.
Oh wow, terrible
Hello, and welcome to Mini number ninety five.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I was saying ninety seven, ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's in the high nineties. Friends, Yeah, what's do for
one hundred? I know, we got to plan that shit out. Well. Today,
I think we should talk about werewolfs literature because I
realized I talked about vampire literature a while back, so
why not even it out. But then it kind of
(00:37):
turned into just like a history of werewolves with like
some myths and stories thrown in, because like people have
been talking about were wolves forever, like all over the world,
and like all the details are different, but they usually
involve someone turning into a wolf. But also there's like
different like shifter types based on like where you are globally,
(00:58):
because there's hyena shifters stories in Africa, wear tigers in India,
and even wear jaguars in South America, so.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Like, okay, well those are cooler, so fuck us in
Europe and North America.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah. I also don't talk about those at all, because
I forgot when I was doing my research. But we're
just focusing on lame were wolves today, so as we
kind of all know, lots of war wolves only turn
on the full moon. But there's also stories of some
that can turn whenever.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
From twilights.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
True. I think those ones are more fun, Like if
you're like locked up by the full moon, that's lame,
not ideal, honestly whatever.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I Jacob from technically a shape shifter, as we
learned at the end of Breaking Down, but forget about Yes,
it's true, they don't mind sure that there's other animals
that people are turning into them. They don't even tell us.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Nope, and we'll never get stories about that, So just
don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Jatie Meyers, I swear to fucking God I would to
kidnap you one day.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yep. I also learned that there were people accused of
being werewolves during the witch trials, which I didn't realize,
but like fun, I think I have one of those
stories in here, But like that seems a bit much.
It's thought that, like sicknesses, kind of spread the idea
of werewolves. One example is hyper tricocious. I'm gonna mispronounce
(02:19):
so many things in this episode, but that's basically when
you get in abnormal hair growth and it can either
be localized on one spot on your body or all
over your body. And like We've all seen pictures of
people that have that, like especially like in circuses and stuff.
That's when they had like the wolfmen and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's a pretty common little seriously as possibly where Bigfoot
came from.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yes, and it's actually it's not that common, which is
why some people don't think that it's likely. Whatever. Another
one clinical likecanthropy, is also like a legit thing where
people actually think they've turned into a wolf or they
can turn into one, but it's like pretty rare. In
nineteen sixty three, doctor Lee Illis wrote a paper on
(03:03):
for furia I don't know and that right and the
Atology of were Wolves That's what his paper was called,
and he basically said that like historical accounts of were
wolves could have been referring to victims of porphyria, because
some symptoms can include like photosensitivity, reddish teeth, and like psychosis,
(03:24):
which like you know, depending on what's happening, that could
be enough to accuse someone of being a were wolf. Obviously,
a lot of people didn't agree with him because they're
like were wolves can actually change into wolves, so like
why would they have like these kinds of things on whatever,
And like it's unlikely that basically it's unlikely that like
(03:46):
were wolves, their human informs would be as obvious as
porphyria victims. Rabi's was also kind of thought to be
a werewolf thing. It seems a little more accurate to me,
especially since it's uh a disease that's like transmitted through
bites a lot of the time. So like, you know,
you could see where the legend comes from.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Also, the legend, like the idea of werewolves biting people
is like recent, I guess, so like the original legends
did not include the biting theory, so e whatever. But
we're gonna talk about like a couple of different types
of folklore and go through some different time periods and stuff.
So first, here's some stuff about European folklore. So, in
(04:29):
European folklore, it's said that were wolves have telltale physical
traits even in their human form, like a una, brow,
curved fingernails, low set ears, or a swinging, swinging stride.
I don't really know what that means.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It is walk cool, Okay, they got a cool they
got a good woolf. I mean you to brow rude,
curve fingernails, just cut them, low set ears, what does
that mean?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
That just seems a little Judgyiers are kind of in
the Samaria for the most part, we're a wolf when
they be more high set.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Actually, I'm gonna make more sense.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
But here's something even freakier. They also said that you
could identify a were wolf by like cutting off a
piece of their flesh, because they'd have fur like in
the booth.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Nope, nope, nope, non like that. Don't like that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I hate that really gross.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I hate that so much.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You're gonna hate this one too. It's a little less bad. Maybe.
There's also a Russian superstition that said they can recognize
werewolves by bristles under the tongue, which I don't get
why there would be bristles there. It seems weird.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
But okay, well, at least you don't have to cut
them to find out these people are going around cutting people.
At least you just lift up their tongue and go, hmm,
not a wolf.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Please don't take my flesh. It's fine, Okay, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Stick your hand in my mouth. You don't wash hands yet.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Right, it's gross back then? Yeah, but yeah, So basically,
the appearance of the werewolf in animal form varies from
culture to culture. Often like kind of in Twilight, it's
indistinguishable from other wolves, maybe a little bigger whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You see the ones who Twilight, we're huge.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well here's something freaky. Apparently sometimes warbolves don't have tails,
and that's like a known thing that I've never heard
of in my life. Whatever. And in some in some tales,
the wolf is larger and they could even keep their
human eyes or the human.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Voice for the human voice one, I feel like the
voice whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
If a wolf starts talking to me, I'm gonna be like, Okay,
there's some masses that's like, that's not weird to me.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, if you know he could talk, he pritty him
to be the grandma, so he has a human voice.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, And I feel like I don't know if if
they can do mine link mind Lincoln stuff, why can't
they just talk, like come on, it's fine whatever. Here's
one of the tail theory tail stories. So in some
Swedish accounts, war wolves run on three legs and they
stretch the fourth leg leg back to look like a tail.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Why don't just have a tail. I don't know why
all the legs needed versus tale They're like you're already.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Changing into a wolf. Where's the tale coming from? I guess.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I mean, I guess. But also.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
What we're also going to get into some other weird legends,
because like obviously most often where wolves turn in like
just on a full moon, like that's the deal, right,
But in some stories they can change just by like
putting on a wolf skin or a wolf belt, which
I was like, okay, fashion, or by drinking beer and
repeating a chant.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, that just seems way too easy. I honestly think
that it's just people getting drunk.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Right, Let's just you're just dancing in the woods and
you're like, and became a wolf last night. And your
friend's like, yeah, man, you were a total wolf.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, they're like, you got so crazy row. Yeah, you
started biting people, got really fucking weird.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Actually Greg hates you now, but it's whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You have his leg and said, you're a wolf, so.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah whatever. So now ancient Greek literature, so you know
it's gonna get hot, fun and crazy. So here's a
story I've never heard before, but one of the more
famous warwelf stories. This is the only one I found.
Apparently there's a couple. Well I didn't really look them up,
but whatever, the it's the story of king like Kyon,
(08:17):
like Caon, whatever of Arcadia. Bro had fifty sons. First
of all, that's like a whole other story. Nice okay,
But he had like one daughter and fifty sons. I
think I bet.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
He hated her or maybe he liked it. I don't know,
could go either way. But too many kids.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
A lot of his sons like ended up founding cities.
I don't really know how that happened. I didn't look
too far into it because it was like a lot
more than I expected. Anyways, there's a lot of drama.
He has fifty children, obviously, but he was also like
a drama king himself. Because this is there's like a
million different ways this story is told, but essentially like
(08:55):
he was visited by Zeus in a disguise, so like
a beggar came to his town and was like hmm,
flips up food, and like people were like, oh, that's Zeus,
And so he wanted to test if it actually was
Zeus or not. So he did what any of us
would do. He killed someone. Maybe it's a hostage, maybe
it's a child, maybe it's his youngest son. It differs
(09:16):
by the story done.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I mean, you might as well get killed one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
You have too many, right, And he feeds that to
Zeus or attempts to, and Zeus is like no, I'm like,
he recognized it obviously, So in his fury he turns
like Kean into a wolf. So that's like the ancient
Greek Greek version. In some other less fun versions or
maybe more fun, I don't know, Zeus blasts him and
(09:42):
his sons with thunderbolts. I don't know. Seems like classic
Zeus boring to me. He could do more fun stuff,
like turn him into a wolf. That's cool. Yeah, And
this actually there was multiple stories like this, because there's
similar stories of men that were turned into wolves after
eating the entrails of a human that was sacrificed to Zoos.
I don't know why this was such a popular thing
(10:03):
back then. There's more to it too, because if these
men that did this, if they were if they refrained
from eating human flesh while they're wolves, they can become
human again after nine years.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That's a long time.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Just like be a wolf for nine years, don't eat
any humans, and you'll be a human again. And then
it like said that like it was something that like
they turned back to human like with the years added on,
and I was like that seems rude, Like.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, actually a decade older.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Sorry, sorry, whatever. So one of those stories about the
dude eating flesh, becoming a wolf whatever, it's a story
about an Olympian named DeMarcus Demarchius. We have evidence that
this guy actually existed, but there's like no wolf story stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well we don't have evidence, No, it's.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Not on his record. It's like, oh, this guy, he
was like a boxer, but there's nothing in the actual
records of him being a wolf. Well that's like his backstory,
and they're like, we're gonna keep that out. It's fine.
So yeah, there's another similar story in Arcadia, which I
think is where Lai Kean was from. I looked it up.
(11:16):
It's like a place in southern Greece. But also it's
like a utopic ideal, so it's like real but not.
I don't know. So once a year in this town,
a man was chosen and he was taken to a
marsh where he would hang his clothes in a tree
and then swim across the marsh and he'd turn into
a wolf once again. If he could make it nine
years without eating human flesh, he'd become a human again,
(11:38):
with those nine years added to his appearance. For whatever reason,
I don't know why that has to be added in,
like just so you know you're not like well.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Maybe since then people would be like, well, fuck, I
got to live an extra nine years, Like well, I
mean I guess, well, don't eat people. Were Wolves like
eating people a big problem in Greece because it's not common.
Wolves actually don't behave like that. Really, they're more they
don't go near your time.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, there's listen we have I think I have a
weird animal story later on that maybe you've heard, maybe
you haven't. I don't know people were scared of wolves, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Oh yeah, but like they are, they don't they're not
like human.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
There's a lot more back then too, I think.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, but like that's just not how wolves behave. So
I don't know why they're like, good luck not eating
human guys. It's gonna be really fucking nine years when
most wolves probably have not eaten the human, right.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I would say a lot of wolves haven't eaten people,
but I don't know. Maybe it's different.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Back then maybe, but yeah, I just I know wolf
behavior is just not like that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
No, and then I got like two more freaky little
wolf turning stories. Virgil we've all heard of him. He
was a the Hilosopher. I don't fucking know anything you're
gonna sae a loss of raptor. It's a loss of
raptor my favor, not what he did. But okay, listen,
I'm saying now, if we bring back velociraptors, it's an
(13:05):
idea for a name.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Okay, I don't know his name for one, I guess you.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Anyways, he wrote about a guy that took herbs and
poisons to become a wolf. Not very exciting. Some other
guy named Gaeis Petronius Arbiter wrote about a guy who
stripped down pete in a circle around his clothes and
then turned into a wolf. And that's badass, Like if
(13:31):
that's all it takes, Like, that's really funny. He did
it like his friend too, and his friend yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Think that's the drunk guy from earlier.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
And his friend's just like yeah, because he's drunker.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah. Weird weird night out.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Weird night out. Okay, So now some stuff from the
middle Ages. So turns out lots of people believed in
were wolves in the Middle Ages as well, so we
have tons of story stories from all over in Scandinavia
and stories berserkers if y'all haven't heard of them. They
were known to channel the spirits of animals to like
(14:07):
enhance their effective effectiveness in battle, and they were known
as being like kind of like undefeatable because they'd be
like so high on adrenaline. I thought they took drugs.
Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but they'd just be
like off killing bitches.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Were probably on PCP without knowing it. I mean, I
think ACP might be a man made drug.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I don't know what the fuck what is I definitely
think they were on drugs though, so usually like well
not usually, but sometimes they would like channel bears. But
there were also here's a word I'm going to fuck up,
the wolf Hidnar or the wolf coded men. So these
tales spread through Eastern Europe into Slavic States, which was
(14:44):
just like a part of Europe. Forget where we know
where Slavic States maybe is eastern Europe. Yeah, so in
the eleventh century. Here's the thing. This was really funny
because I was a lot of this is Wikipedia, and
I was just like going off on links, and in
the werewolf Wikipedia whatever, they mentioned this guy, this eleventh
century Belarusian prince lev Slav of Polotsk, totally mispronounced that
(15:10):
one too. Whatever. So like you go on that guy's
page though, and it's like the werewolf thing is like
just like a two sentence blip on his page. But
on the werewolf thing, it's like this guy he was
a fucking werewolf and he was considered a werewolf because
he was included in a twelfth century epic called the
Tale of Igor's Campaign, and he was depicted as a
(15:31):
werewolf in this. For some reason, didn't really get why
he was. Also, like when he was born, he was
said to be a sorcerer because he had like a
call on his face, you know, which happens with some births.
It's not like uncommon, but like back then they said,
like they told some sorcerers. I don't know if they
(15:51):
were at the birth or what, but they told his
mom they were like.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You know, they were pretty much midwives back then. You
bring your.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Sorcerer, yeah, he throws some herbs on you, says a chance,
have a baby, it's fine, so whatever. He was known
as a werewolf after the epic was written, though, and
I could not really find a lot of reason why.
I don't think he did it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I said he was a werewolf, but he's like, damn,
he's a werewolf.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Guy, he's a werewolf. I mean it's a good you'd
be like, oh, that's Prince Vlassoslav. He's a werewolf, and
he's gonna be like, bitch, Yeah, I am, what up
are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Deny it?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right? I would? I would not deny that. Well, maybe
depends on if I'm gonna be like hey or not. Well, okay.
So Also in the twelfth century, Marie de France. I
think she was French. Maybe Marie from France is what
that means, I don't know. She wrote a series of
poems called bis biscleverret or the Werewolf is what it
(16:44):
translates to, and it basically tells the story of a
baron who was like the king loved him, and he
had a wife and like she was cool, but he
disappeared every week for three days and like no one
knew why. They just felt like accepted it because he
was so cool, but like no one knows why he's
disappearing all the time. Eventually, his wife is tired of
this shit, and she's like, why why are you disappearing
(17:05):
all the time, And he's like, well, I turn into
a were wolf and like while I'm a wolf, like
I have to like hide my clothes in like a
safe space or I won't be able to turn back
into a human. Weird detail, but okay. His wife is
disgusted by this. She's like, can't believe that, don't even
know my husband. Like, I gotta get out of here,
I gotta get away from him. And so she eventually
(17:28):
convinces this night that happens to be in love with her.
She's like, hey, like help me out with this. So
Bro steals her husband's clothing while he's wolfing out, and
then so her husband never returns, so she ends up
marrying the night. His people are really sad about this
because they really liked him, but they do like give
up the search for him. They're like, he's probably dead.
Who knows, maybe a wolf ad him. Apparently that's common
(17:50):
in these tides.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, wolves be eating people a lot more than they
do now.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah, I don't know, Maybe we should bring that back
I don't know. A year later, the king goes hunting
and he corners the baron, who's like stuck as this
wolf still. So the baron runs up to the king
as a wolf and starts like kissing his foot in
his leg and stuff, and the king is like what
and he's like begging for forgiveness. But the King is like,
this is a weird wolf. I like it. So he
(18:17):
takes the wolf to the castle to like live with him,
and the wolf is like really chill with everyone, and
he's like hangs out and stuff. So he's like living
happily with the king until one day the night that
married his wife shows up and bro attacks this knight
on site. He like goes for the face, right. Everyone
is like, what the fuck is happening. He has never
attacked anyone. He is so chill, and so the court
(18:40):
is like, oh the night wrong to the wolf. Somehow
everyone on the wolf's side and so he's fine whatever.
Later on, the king goes to visit like where the
baron used to live, like at like the town or whatever,
and he brings the wolf along and they end up
going to his old house because like his wife had
heard the king was coming so she was like, I
gotta get I get a bunch of gifts for him.
(19:03):
And when the wolf sees her though, attacks on site,
rips her nose right off her face. Jesus right, and
once again people are like, okay, this wolf, so we
attack two people. Now there has to be a connection here,
Like someone is like, oh my god, like that's the
wife of the baron that died, and like she's married
to this night. Now holy shit. So the king questions
(19:26):
her under torture as you do, until she reveals the truth.
And so the wolf gets his clothes back because apparently
they kept the clothes. I don't know why you wouldn't
like burn the clothes, but whatever, he turns back into
the baron, or maybe he just can wear any clothes.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I don't does it have to be this certain pair
of clothes, because like just give him a shirt and
he's good to go, or like.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Clothes or like, I don't know. Anyways, he turns back
into a man, runs to the king and kisses him.
I don't know if that's like in a gay way,
but I kind of hope.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So they seem in my mind it is they're making
out and they're in love.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, and his wife, I guess gets to live after
being tortured because all of I don't know how many
kids this bitch has, but all of her female kids
are born without a nose. And then it says like
all of her kids like it's obvious, like like where
they came from or something. And I was like, does
that just mean they're ugs like.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Her night husband killed or just muled?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Don't know. Well, I didn't read this poem, actually, I
just read like a summary.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Of the I feel like I've read this. This poem
sounds familiar. Maybe I was supposed to reading class, but
I got questions about So she had kids after this
attack then, because her off they were born without nose.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
It'd be pretty freaky if they're all the noses falling off.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, Baron, get with her? Was her?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I also have questions. Sorry, I didn't do all of
that research. Now let's get into actual wolf attacks. So
in the sixteenth century, there was a lot of reports
of wolf attacks in France, and there was like a
lot of trials for these attacks because like people be
like that guy did it, he's a fucking werewolf. And
in some of these trials they could prove murder and
(21:05):
even cannibalism, but no one could prove that anyone was
a werewolf.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Okay, so why I wonder why they couldn't prove that.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Right, or that a wolf was even involved, Like there's
no wolf, right, yeah he was, but like not as
a wolf.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I listened to a couple of podcasts about this, and
if this is like that one town in France that
like went all wild on that werewolf.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Thing, yes, or I do talk about it at some point,
but like yeah, it's crazy, but it's like someone was
just being crazy, I don't know whatever. So in fifteen
seventy three, there was a guy who killed at least
four children and he was convicted of being a werewolf
because he was like I don't know, they were violent.
(21:48):
It was a violent deaths and so like that didn't
help the whole werewolf craze thing. They're like, we got
this guy, he's totally a werewolf, convicted of it. And
he was like literally known as the werewolf of Dole
because that's the city. There were more werewolves that were
convicted even in the Swiss VOD region up until sixteen
fifty three, when a VOD pastor literally was like no
(22:10):
loo can't the prettiest fake We're done with that shit.
And everyone was like, okay, I guess I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Love that he's like, no more of this and they listened. Like.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
There was like one more claim in sixteen seventy where
a kid was like, hey, me and my mom can
turn into wolves, but like no one believed him.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So yeah, he's a kid red wolf.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I don't know. There was also so James, the first
of England, prosecuted witchcraft and he said that werewolves were
victims of delusion induced by a natural superabundance of melancholic
So you're just like a little depressing.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I do like when werewolves were connected with depression.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He's like, you're not a werewolf, You're just a depressed bitch.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Okay, like that, you're too email you're a werewolf.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Like, so, I guess whatever. By six fifty, most of
French speaking Europe didn't believe in lacanthropy anymore because it
was seen at this point as a disorder of the brain.
So like, not cool anymore, You're just you got the sads.
I guess. They still saw werewolf like beasts, well not
werewolf like, just wolf like beasts. They just didn't consider
(23:17):
them were wolves. I guess they were just like, that's
a wolf. Because there was a beast called the Beast
of Javaden. That's wrong, which it's in France, obviously. This
beast terrorized a region in France from seventeen sixty four
to seventeen sixty seven and it killed like at least
(23:37):
eighty people. It was kind of like a lot.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
But yeah, I think this is the one where the
king had like a whole hunting group and then they
killed something that the king had stuffed and they're like
what was this? It eight more people died, so then
they're like, dim we ketch it? Did we not?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah? There was yeah, no one.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It might have been like a tiger. Actually it could
a there was serious that it. Maybe it was actually
just a whack ass tiger that got out.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well, and if you're not used to seeing tigers, you're
not gonna know what the fuck that is.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, because they're like this page is crazy, what the
fuck is is? So? Yeah, yeah tiger.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, here's another crazy one. In fifteen eighty nine, a
man in Bedburg, Germany, was accused of being a were
wolf and he had like the most insane trial and
execution to follow. He was tortured into giving a confession,
and in that confession he said he did black magic
when he was twelve and the devil gave him a
(24:31):
magic girdle that allowed him to change into a wolf.
And they're like, where's that girdle at and he's like, oh,
it's in this valley. It was never found. Big surprise.
Testimony said from you know, I don't know who who
in town was like, yeah, I hate that guy. They
said he was an insatiable bloodsucker who feasted on animals
and women and children. He did not discriminate, so under
(24:55):
the threat of more torture, he confessed to killing and
eating fourteen children and two two pregnant women. Yeah, the
pregnant women part is actually worse than what I'm gonna
say because I didn't like it, So hopefully he didn't
actually do that. So one of the fourteen children was
that he killed was his own son, and he said
that he ate his brain, and I'm like, why so
(25:17):
specific in all of these things. Hate that. He was
also accused of having an incestuous relationship with his daughter,
so then she was sentenced to die with him because
it was also said that she maybe slipped with like
her uncle or something, and they were like, that's the law.
You gotta die.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
She's the victim of that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, she know how women be.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
He said he had sex with a suckubis, so that
a is fucking low. They killed him on Halloween in
fifteen eighty nine, alongside his daughter and his mistress.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Okay, what the fucking mistress even do?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Right again, here's where it gets a little brutal. So like, sorry, guys,
for his execution. He was put on a wheel and
like flesh was torn from his body in ten places
with hot pincers, and then they broke all of his
limbs with an axe head, which I was like specific,
And then they cut his head off and burned his
(26:18):
body on a pyre. And then while that was happening,
his daughter and mistress were flayed and strangled, and then
they were burned with his body.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I don't like that they flayed and strangled them because
I don't like the idea of strangling someone who's skin
you just cut off.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It's pretty nasty.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I strangled first, right.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Then the local authorities put a pole with a torture
wheel and a figure of a wolf on it, and
they put that up and then they put his head
on top of it. That's cute, so not great. I
think that's my last story because I guess I wanted
to end it on the worst thing I could find.
So it's now thought that whereboth legends could have been
(26:58):
used to explain serial killer, which I think makes a
lot of sense, especially these more brutal ones that I
think people would probably be like, no man could do this,
no like human could do this, So it always easier
for them to blame a beast. And like I said,
these kinds of stories have been have existed forever, so
(27:18):
like it's easier to blame that than be like, oh,
it's fucking Craig down the road freaking out and killing everyone.
But yeah, that's my werewolf literature. That has nothing to
do with werewolf literature. It's more werewolf folklore. I guess.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
The serial coiling thing makes a lot of sense because
we didn't even like there isn't like records of serial
killers from back then, even though obviously there had to
be because people beat people. Yeah, and teriokillchalk like a
new thing, but there's very few that you could like
trace back to then so yeah, it's probably just people killing.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, people are gross. There's a lot of werewolf books
out there are now Obviously there's a lot of horny
ones now too. Originally I was gonna go more into
how they've changed over the years, but like, werewolf formance
was pretty popular. Whatever, everyone's a werewolf now you still
only be dude werewolves. Ladies be war wolves now too,
(28:18):
proud of them, girl power progress.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
That's really cool that feminists got that far. I can't
think of any werewolf book besides Twilight, and that's more
vampire than werewolf.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, honestly I should be able to since I read
a lot of articles. Actually I got like I really
was deep diving for a second. This is pretty fun
to look into. Actually, I don't know, man, everyone knows
where to find werewolf books. It's pretty fucking easy in
this day and age. But there you go. If you
(28:49):
want to listen to more minis on other things that
are vaguely book related, you can find us wherever you
listen to podcasts, and while you're there and give us
a little five star review, tell us how we're doing.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, and if you want to look at pictures of
real life werewolves, you can find us on Instagram at
book Hold Podcasts where both were wolves That's what I'm saying.
And you can find us on TikTok, at book cult Pod,
and online at book gold, poddowardbreast dot com.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, so that's it. Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You gotta be a shape shifter so I could choose.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
You know, I think tonight might be a full moon.
I think the full moon is happening pretty soon ish. Actually,
I'm gonna look it up right now.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Lock up them people.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Oh my god, it is tonight at eight. Oh my god.
Eleven minutes ago was like the cusp of the full moon.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Okay, well, all the werewolves are currently out and about.
Oh wow, terrible
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