Note: Errors in German quotes and booktitles were mostly not corrected. A more detailed transcriber's note can be found at the end of this text.
THE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.[1]
The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that is, a wolf which is really a human being.[2] So the werewolf was a man in wolf’s form or wolf’s dress,[2] seen mostly at night,[3] and believed generally to be harmful to man.[4]
The origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorily explained. Adolf Erman[5] explains the allusion of Herodotus[6] to the transformation of the Neurians (the people of the present Volhynia, in West Russia) into wolves as due merely to their appearance in winter, dressed in their furs. This explanation, however, would not fit similar superstitions in warm climes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy to primitive Totemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the members of a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.[7] Still another explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as the original werewolf.[8]
The explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves must be one which will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstition is found pretty much all over the earth,[9] especially to-day[10] however in Northwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in the lands where the wolf is most common.[11] [12] According to Mogk[13] the superstition prevails to-day especially in the north and east of Germany.[14]
The werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.[15] The point in common everywhere is the transformation of a living human being into an animal, into a wolf in regions where the wolf was common[16] into a lion, hyena or leopard in Africa, where these animals are common; into a tiger or serpent in India;[17] in other localities into other animals characteristic of the region.[18] Among Lapps and Finns occur transformations into the bear, wolf, reindeer, fish or birds; amongst many North Asiatic peoples, as also some American Indians, into the bear; amongst the latter also into the fox, wolf, turkey or owl; in South America, besides into a tiger or jaguar, also into a fish, or serpent. Most universal though it seems was the transformation into wolves or dogs.[19]
As the superstition is so widespread—Germany, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, America, it either arose at a very early time, when all these peoples were in communication with each other[20] or else, in accord with another view of modern science, it arose independently in various continents in process of the natural psychical development of the human race under similar conditions.
The origin of the superstition must have been an old custom of primitive man’s of putting on a wolf’s or other animal’s skin[21] or dress, or a robe.[22] Thus Leubuscher,[23] says: “Es ist der Mythenkreis eines jeden Volkes aus einfachen wahren Begebenheiten hervorgewachsen.”[24] [25] Likely also the notion of attributing speech to animals originated from such disguising or dressing of men as animals. In the following we shall examine into primitive man’s reasons for putting on such a skin or robe.