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Legends of the Wolf
There are many legends of werewolves and shapeshifters. Some are quite well known while others are more local folklore. I have accumulated many different legends and stories and below are some from my collection.
Peter Stubbe
The first recorded hearing regarding a werewolf took place in 1591. Europe at that time was a place of dark superstitions and fear. Towns were few and people lived near forests and untamed areas of wilderness. Fear of wolves ran rampant throughout the populace as wolf attacks became more frequent. It was not uncommon to find human limbs and decaying corpses as a result of wolf attacks and people began to fear traveling from one place to another. Numerous attempts were made at quelling the vicious beastly attacks but to no avail. Then one day something happened that would forever change the views of man. The villagers of Cologne and Bedburg Germany made a discovery that altered the course of history for wolf and man.
It is recorded that a group of villagers cornered a wolf in the town and set their dogs upon it. The villagers themselves attacked the beast with sharp sticks and farm implements but to their surprise the wolf did not turn and run; it stood on it's hind legs and purportedly shifted into a man shaped being. A man that was soon recognized as a local villager, Peter Stubbe. Peter Stubbe was the first werewolf to ever be recognized in such a manner and recorded in the annals of history. His story and execution were documented in a court record that lasts even to this day.
Stubbe was placed upon a torture wheel where he then confessed to sixteen murders. The record showed that he confessed to murdering two pregnant women and thirteen children. His downfall began at the age of twelve when he began to practice the dark arts of socery. From there his devotion grew until he even sought to make a pact with Satan himself for powers beyond imagination. He was supposedly given a magic girdle by the Dark Lord which he then donned and attacked his enemies, real and imagined, in acts of revenge. After several months he was then able to take on the guise of a wolf and continue his brutal slayings. In his wolfly form he would chase down his victims and rip their throats out to drink of the warm crimson fount of their blood. As his thirst for blood grew he began searching for more and more prey in the fields and forest roads. The brutal nature of these crimes was beyond anyone's imagination.
Stubbe told the tale that he had been hiding along a forest road and had come across two men and a woman that were traveling said road. He called out to one of the men and lured him into the forest. The man was gone for a great amount of time and soon his comapnion followed after him. When the second man failed to appear the woman tool fright and sped from the sight in search of help but to no avail. She was never seen again. Later on two mangled bodies were found among the underbrush of the forest, but the woman's body was never found. It was believed that Peter had devoured her entirely. His most frequent victims were young girls that milked the cows in the fields or tended herds. If they were in groups he would chase them as a hound chases a rabbit, and catching the slowest one he would then rape her and kill her. Upon her death he would sometimes drag her body to a safe place drink of her hot frewsh blood and eat of her tender flesh. His most gruesome act he performed against his own son. He took his own child into the forest and cracked the child's skull open and then devoured his brain while still warm.
What punishment could possibly fit this crime of savagery and brutality? The people of this time had never known such ferocious and horrifying acts of violence. His trial was swift and his sentence was harsh. he was placed upon the torture wheel and his flesh was pulled from his body with red-hot pincers. His arms and legs were broken so as to seem crushed and finally his head was severed from his body. His corpse was burned to ashes. His mistress and his daughter were also burned alive as they were thought to have been accessories to his crimes.
The Magistrate of Bedburg built a morbid monument in rememberance of the crimes and atrocities. The torture wheel was attached to a tall pole with Peter Stubbe's head above it. His head was fashioned into the likeness of a wolf, and sixteen pieces of yard long wood were hung from the rim of the wheel to commemorate the souls of the victims.
Stubbe's trial and execution traveled the land like wildfire and soon his savagery and violent acts were spread among the populace of Germany. His acts were related with the behavior of the wolves that had so traumatized the populace and so the people began to believe that men with the shadows of wolves now lived among them. Such creatures were now called Werewolves.
The Werewolf
Three workmen were mowing a meadow. Noon came, but no one had brought them their meal yet, so they agreed to mow one more round and then to lie down beneath a bush until the food arrived. And that is what they did. Two of them fell asleep immediately, because one never sleeps better than when one is tired, and there is no softer bed than one made from flowers and grass.
The third workman, however, tied a wolf-strap around his waist and crept up to a herd of horses that was grazing there. The best foal was just right for him. He grabbed it and killed it. The remaining horses and the herder ran off. The other harvesters saw what had happened, but they wisely pretended to be asleep, for they were frightened and horrified. After the werewolf had satisfied his hunger, he took off the strap, came back, and lay down to rest. Their food soon arrived: a large pot full of porridge and for each man six boiled eggs plus some bread and salt. As the two harvesters were helping themselves with their wooden spoons, the werewolf said, "Earlier I was terribly hungry, but for some reason I don't feel like eating now." The two others said nothing.
The one harvester complained the entire afternoon about cramps and a stomach ache, and often went to the brook to quench his burning thirst. The two others said nothing. That evening, as they were on their way home, he said once again that he had never felt so stuffed, to which one of the harvesters replied that it could happen to anyone. When they arrived at the town gate, and he was still complaining, the other workman said, "A person who eats an entire foal should not be surprised to feel stuffed and have stomach cramps. To that he replied, "If you had said that earlier, you would not now be walking home on your own legs." He then threw his scythe away, tied the strap around his waist, turned into a wolf, and was never again seen in that place.
Source: Carl and Theodor Colshorn, Märchen und Sagen (Hannover: Verlag von Carl Rümpler, 1854), pp. 58-59.
Wolf Woman
A woman had taken on the form of a werewolf and had attacked the herd of a shepherd, whom she hated, causing great damage. However, the shepherd wounded the wolf in the hip with an ax blow, and it crawled into the brush. The shepherd followed, thinking that he could finish it off, but there he found a woman using a piece of cloth torn from her dress to stop the blood gushing from a wound.
Witch-Wolf
At Lüttich in the year 1610 two sorcerers were executed because they had turned themselves into werewolves and had killed many children. With them they had a boy of twelve years whom the devil turned into a raven whenever they were tearing apart and eating their prey.
Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, (1816/1818), no. 214. Link to the original German text: Der Werwolf.
Werewolf Rock
In the meadow facing Seehausen near the Magdeburg village of Eggenstedt, not far from Sommerschenburg and Schöningen, there is a large rock, called "Wolf Rock" or "Werewolf Rock."
A long, long time ago a stranger sojourned near the Brandsleber Forest, which belonged to the Hackel and the Harz districts. No one knew who he was, nor where he came from. Known everywhere by the name "the Old Man," he would often show up without notice in the villages and offer his services, which he performed to the satisfaction of the country people. He was most often engaged to herd sheep.
It happened that a cute spotted lamb was born in a herd belonging to a shepherd named Melle from Neindorf. The stranger asked the shepherd repeatedly and fervently to give it to him, but the shepherd refused. On shearing day Melle engaged the Old Man to help out. When he returned he found everything in order; all the work had been done, but neither the Old Man nor the spotted lamb were there. For a long time no one heard anything about the Old Man. Finally one day he unexpectedly appeared before Melle, who was grazing his sheep in the Katten Valley. He called out sneeringly: "Good day, Melle, your spotted lamb sends his greetings!"
Angered, the shepherd grabbed his crook in order to avenge himself. Then suddenly the stranger changed shape and sprang at him as a werewolf. The shepherd took fright, but his dogs attacked the wolf with fury. The wolf fled. Pursued, it ran through forest and valley until it reached the vicinity of Eggenstedt. Here the dogs surrounded him. The shepherd called out: "Now you will die!" Then the Old Man, again in human form, begged to be spared, offering to do anything. But the shepherd furiously attacked him with his stick, when suddenly a sprouting thorn bush stood before him. But the vengeful shepherd did not spare him, hacking away at the branches instead. The stranger once again turned himself into a human and begged for his life. But hard-hearted Melle remained unmoved. Then the stranger attempted to make his escape as a werewolf, but a blow from Melle brought him dead to the earth. A rocky cliff marks the spot where he fell and was buried, and will be named after him for all eternity.
Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, (1816/1818), no. 215.
The Werewolves Advance
In Livland there is the following legend: When Christmas Day is over a boy who limps with one leg goes around calling together all those who have yielded to the Evil One -- and there is a large number of them -- bidding them to follow him. If any one of these resists or hesitates, then a large tall man is also there who hits at them with a whip braided from iron wire and little chains, driving them along with force. It is said that he whips at the people so cruelly that a long time later marks and scars can still be seen on their bodies, and they are in great pain.
As soon as they begin to follow him, it appears as though they lose their former shape and turn into wolves. Several thousand of them come together. Their leader, with the iron whip in his hand, leads the way. When they have been led into a field, they cruelly attack the cattle, ripping every animal to pieces that they can catch, thus doing great damage. However, they are not able to harm humans. When they come to a body of water, their leader strikes at it with his switch or whip, and it divides, allowing them to cross over with dry feet. After twelve days have passed, they abandon their werewolf form and become humans once again.
Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, (1816/1818), no. 216.
The Werewolf of Jarnitz
In the vicinity of Jarnitz there lived a werewolf who had the ability to transform himself into all kinds of different shapes. This werewolf spent the nights stealing sheep from their enclosures, for in those days the sheep were kept at night in enclosures in the open fields. For several nights in a row the shepherd, armed with a loaded gun, had kept watch for the night robber. He had already hit the werewolf several times, as he had clearly seen, but the bullets seemed to have done him no harm, and he had escaped with his booty every time. Then the shepherd loaded his gun with bullets made of inherited silver, which never fail. Thus this time he would be successful.
Following his custom, the werewolf appeared again that night. But as he was approaching the enclosure, he immediately sensed that this time the shepherd might do him in. Therefore he quickly turned himself into a human, walked up to the shepherd, and said to him in a familiar tone, "You don't have to shoot me dead!" That so unsettled the shepherd that he lowered his gun, which he had been aiming at the intruder. The werewolf never again dared to steel sheep from the Jarnitz enclosures.
Source: A. Haas, Rügensche Sagen und Märchen (Stettin, 1903), pp. 98-99.
The Werewolf Belt
Formerly there were people who could turn themselves into wolves by putting on a certain belt. A man in the vicinity of Steina had such a belt, and once he went away without locking it up, as was his custom. His young son came upon it and buckled the thing about himself. Instantly he became a werewolf. He had the appearance of a stack of pea straw and lumbered away heavily like a bear.
When the people in the room saw what had happened they ran quickly and brought back the father. He arrived barely in time and undid the strap before the boy could do any damage. Afterward the boy said that as soon as he put the belt on, he become so terribly hungry that he would have torn anything apart that might have gotten in his way.
From Glane near Iburg
If you throw a piece of iron or steel over a hare that is a transformed human, or over a werewolf, then the human will immediately appear before you completely naked. They call that "making blank" the witch, the wolf, and so forth. The werewolf's pelt bursts crosswise at its forehead, and the naked human emerges from this opening.
Source: Adalbert Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen und einigen andern, besonders den angrenzenden Gegenden Norddeutschlands (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1859), v. 2, pp. 25, 31.
The Böxenwolf
In the entire region between the Deister River and the Weser River they tell about the böxenwolf who at nighttime preys upon travelers, making them carry him part of the way. Such a böxenwolf is actually a human who transforms himself and gains superhuman strength by putting on a strap.
Late one evening two peasants were returning home from a mill not far from Rinteln. Each was carrying a sack of flour. A böxenwolf confronted one of them. He immediately called out for help to his companion, who threw down his sack and attacked the böxenwolf so furiously with his stick, that the böxenwolf turned and fled. The next day they went to another peasant. They had long suspected him, because was rich, but no one knew the source of his wealth. He was lying in bed, deathly ill. He had the surgeon come and bind his wounds. Thus they discovered who had been the böxenwolf.
Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, oral tradition, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), p. 245
The Werewolf Wife
In Caseburg on the island of Usedom a man and his wife were cutting hay in a meadow. After a while the woman told the man that she was uneasy and could not stay there any longer, and she went away. Earlier she had told him that if a wild animal were to come upon him he should throw his hat toward it and run away, and then no harm would come to him. The man had promised her that he would do this.
After the woman had been away for a while, a wolf swam across the Swina and approached the harvesters. The man threw his hat at it, which the beast immediately ripped into small pieces. Meanwhile one of the workers crept up to the wolf with a pitchfork and stabbed it to death from behind. Instantly it was transformed. They were all astounded to see that it was the farmer's wife that the worker had killed.
Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), no. 22, pp. 18-19.
The Werewolf
The Hessian farmer knows and fears the ravenous werewolf even today [1854]. This is a human whose shape has been transformed by putting on a belt. The werewolf attacks everything that gets in his way, and is especially dangerous for the herds. However, there is a way to destroy the belt's magic power: If one throws a knife -- a piece of shiny steel -- over the werewolf, he will instantly be transformed into his true human form and stand there completely naked.
In the vicinity of Wolfhagen there was a well-to-do woman of good parentage who almost every night would leave her house and roam the fields as a werewolf. Once a shepherd bravely approached the werewolf, as it crept into an alder thicket, its appetite sated. The shepherd, who had long pursued the werewolf, hoped to capture it. He threw his pocketknife over its head and neck, and immediately the woman was standing naked there before him. She implored him to have mercy with her and to not tell the story to anyone. The shepherd was highly surprised to see the well-known woman before him, and he promised to keep the event a secret. Nonetheless, within a few days everyone knew about it.
Source: Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, (Cassel: Verlag von Oswald Bertram, 1854), no. 162, pp. 106-107.
The Werewolf: Another Legend
A married couple in Hessen lived in poverty. To the husband's amazement, the wife nevertheless was able to serve meat for every meal. For a long time she kept it a secret where she got the meat, but finally she promised to reveal it to him, under the condition that he not call out her name as it was happening. Together they went to a field where a herd of sheep was grazing. The woman walked toward the sheep, and as she approached them, she threw a ring over herself and instantly turned into a werewolf. She fell upon the sheep, seized one of them, and fled. The man stood there as though petrified. However, when he saw the shepherd and the dogs running after the werewolf, thus endangering his wife, he forgot his promise and called out: "Margaret!" With that the wolf disappeared, and the woman was left standing naked in the field.
Source: Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, (Cassel: Verlag von Oswald Bertram, 1854), no. 163, pp. 107-108.
The Peasant and the Werewolf
One night a werewolf came upon a peasant who was driving his wagon overland. In order to break its magic, the level-headed man unhesitatingly tied his fire steel to his whip and threw it over the wolf's head, keeping the whip in his hand. However, the wolf seized the steel, and the peasant had to flee in order to save his life.
Source: Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, (Cassel: Verlag von Oswald Bertram, 1854), no. 164, p. 108.
The Böxenwolf
In the Schaumburg region a werewolf is called a böxenwolf. Böxenwolves are humans who are in league with the devil and who can assume the form of animals by buckling a strap about themselves. Then they cunningly attack and torment other people. They can be exposed by throwing a piece of steel over them. There is not a single village in which someone has not been seized in the back of the neck by a böxenwolf and has had to drag it, gasping for breath, for some distance.
Source: Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen, (Cassel: Verlag von Oswald Bertram, 1854), no. 165, p. 108.
The Werewolf of Hüsby
In Hüsby near Schleswig there lived an old, stingy woman. She offered her farm hands but little to eat, although there was fresh meat every Sunday. The household wondered about this, because the old woman never bought any meat. A young farm hand wanted to discover the woman's trick, so one day he hid himself in the hayloft instead of going to church with the rest of the household. Suddenly he noticed how the woman pulled out a wolf strap and put it around herself. She immediately became a wolf, ran out into the field, and soon came back with a sheep.
"If she can get meat that easily," thought the boy, "then she can be more generous with us. As the woman put meat into the pot, she sighed and said, as was her custom, "Oh, dear God, if only I were with you!" The boy, pretending to be God, answered, "You'll not come to me for all eternity."
"Why not, dear God?"
"Because you put too little into the pot for your people."
"Then I'll do better."
"Yes, that's my advice to you."
From now on she put a much larger piece of meat into the pot. But the boy could not remain silent, and in the village he talked about what had happened. When on a Sunday morning the woman again turned herself into a wolf, the people were on guard. However, no bullet could harm her until they finally loaded a flintlock with a silver bullet. From that time to the end of her life the woman had an open wound that no doctor could heal. She never again showed herself as a werewolf.
Source: Karl Müllenhoff, Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogtümer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg, neue Ausgabe von Otto Mensing (Schleswig, 1921), no. 370.
The Wolf Stone
In a valley in the Fichtel Mountains a shepherd tended his flock in a green meadow. Several times it happened that after driving his herd home he discovered that one of the animals was missing. All searching was in vain. They were lost and they remained lost.
Watching more carefully, he saw a large wolf creep out of the forest thicket and seize a lamb. Angrily he chased after him, but the enemy was too fleet. Before he could do anything about it, the wolf had disappeared with the lamb. The next time he took an expert marksman with him. The wolf approached, but the marksman's bullets bounced off him. Then it occurred to the hunter to load his weapon with the dried pith from an elder bush. The next day he got off a shot, and the robber ran howling into the woods.
The next morning the shepherd met an old neighbor woman with whom he was not on the best of terms. Noticing that she was limping, he asked her: "Neighbor, what is wrong with your leg? It does not want to go along with you." "What business is it of yours?" she answered, hurrying away. The shepherd took note of this. This woman had long been suspected of practicing evil magic. People claimed to have seen her on the Heuberg in Swabia, the Köterberg, and also on the Hui near Halberstadt. He reported her. She was arrested, interrogated, and flogged with rod of alder wood, with which others suspected of magic, but who had denied the charges, had been punished. She was then locked up in chains. But suddenly the woman disappeared from the prison, and no one knew where she had gone.
Some time later the poor, unsuspecting shepherd saw the hated wolf break out of the forest once again. However, this time it had not come to attack his herd, but the shepherd himself. There was a furious struggle. The shepherd gathered all of his strength together against the teeth and claws of the ferocious beast. It would have been his death if a hunter had not come by in the knick of time. In vain he fired a shot at the wolf, and then struck it down with his knife. The instant that blood began to flow from the wolf's side, the old woman from the village appeared in the field before them, writhing and twisting terribly. They finished killing her and buried her twenty feet beneath the earth.
At the place where they buried the woman they erected a large stone cross, which they named the "Wolf Stone" in memory of these events. It was never peaceful and orderly in the vicinity of the stone. The Malicious Messenger (der Tückebote) or the Burning Man (der brennende Mann), in the language of the people, still goes about his dangerous business here.
Source: Hans Sponholz, Der verwunschene Rehbock: Sagen aus Bayern um Wald, Wild und Jagd (Hof [Saale]: Oberfränkische Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei GmbH, 1981), pp. 56-57.
The Werewolves in Greifswald
Two hundred years ago for a time there was a frightfully large number of werewolves in the city of Greifswald. They were especially prevelant in Rokover Street. From there they attacked anyone who appeared outside of their houses after eight o'clock in the evening. At that time there were a lot of venturesome students in Greifswald. They banded together and one night set forth against the monsters. At first they were powerless against them, until finally the students brought together all of the silver buttons that they had inherited, and with these they killed the werewolves.
Source: J. D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen (Berlin: In der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1840), no. 259, p. 308.
The Werewolf near Zarnow
In the vicinity of Zarnow a few years ago a terrible wolf was on the loose and was causing great harm to humans and cattle. Once he even ripped a child to pieces. Then all the peasants of the region banded together and pursued him, finally surrounding him in some brush. They were about to kill him when suddenly a large strange man with a club appeared before them. Then they knew that they had a werewolf before them. This happened in the year 1831.
Source: J. D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen (Berlin: In der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1840), no. 260, p. 308.
Werewolves in Pomerania
The belief in werewolves is common throughout all of Pomerania. One can transform oneself into a werewolf by girding oneself with a strap that has been cut from the back of a man who has been hanged. Werewolves are especially fond of attacking horses. In the village of Bork not far from Stargard for a long time a man made his entire living by walking around the horse pasture in the village every night and whispering mysterious words by which he protected the horses against werewolves and other wolves, and this in spite of the fact that wolves had long not been seen in that region.
Source: J. D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen (Berlin: In der Nikolaischen Buchhandlung, 1840), pp. 340-341.
The Werewolf in Hindenburg
One still believes in werewolves in the Altmark. Even today in the village of Hindenburg they tell about a man who could turn himself into a wolf, and there are people still alive who knew him during their childhood. He had a strip of leather made from wolf skin which still had its hair. Whenever he tied it around his body, he turned into a wolf. Then he had such extraordinary strength that he could pull an entire load of hay by himself or grab a whole ox in his mouth and carry it away. In this state he had the nature of a wolf. He strangled cattle and even ate humans. He once pursued one of his neighbors, who narrowly escaped from him. But however furious he became, he did spare his wife. She knew a magic charm that brought him under control, a charm that he himself had taught her. Then she would take off the leather strip, and he would become a reasonable human once again.
Source: J. G. H. Temme Grässe in his Sagenbuch des Preußischen Staats (Glogau: Verlag von Carl Flemming, 1868), v. 1, no. 244, p. 215.
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