July 2010
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Werewolf Tropes in Popular Culture
One of those notorious websites that leaves you glued to the screen for hours, TV Tropes, offers copious material (and some seriously clever reflections) on the depiction of our favourite shape-changers in fiction and popular culture:
“Our Werewolves Are Different”
Fur Against Fang
Vampire Werewolf Love Triangle
[Yes, the last topic might remind you of certain… movies…...
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Confessions of a Benevolent Werewolf - A...
One of the most extraordinary werewolf trials in history took place in rural Livonia, present-day Latvia, in the late 17th century. The defendant, an elderly peasant known as “Old Thiess”, astonished the court by freely admitting that he was a werewolf - and being proud of it! Against the judges’ accusations that all werewolves are in league with the devil, Thiess stubbornly...
June 2010
5 posts
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Cryptozoology A To Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch...
Cryptozoology: The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman — these are the names of the elusive beasts that have caught the eye and captured the imaginations of people around the world for centuries. Recently, tales of these “monsters” have been corroborated by an increase in sightings, and out of these legends a new science has been born: cryptozoology —...
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Lycanthropy in Byzantium →
Roman and Byzantine rulers are notorious for their eccentric behaviour - but Justin II (565–578 AD) is probably the only one who, allegedly, used to bite and eat his courtiers. The “Lycanthrope Emperor” is certain to fascinate werewolf researchers - but Byzantine literature has even more to offer on the topic of delusional lycanthropy and its treatment. Medieval News reviews a recent...
Ambrose Bierce on Werewolves
WEREWOLF, n. A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man. All werewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form to gratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are as humane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh. Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied it to a post by the tail and went to bed. The next morning nothing was...