Page 105 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysterious Creatures 85

strength of the beasts would magically rub off control until the next full moon—when she
on them. Most often, in the Northern Euro- would snarl, howl, and resume her wolflike
pean tribes, the fierce animal of choice was behavior. Rosenstock and Vincent stated that
the wolf or the bear. the woman was eventually discharged and
provided with antipsychotic medication, but
In ancient Scandinavia, the Norse words
she declared that she would haunt graveyards
ulfhedhnar (“wolf-clothed”) and berwerker refer
until she had found the male werewolf of her
to the wolf or bear skins worn by the fierce
dreams.
Viking warriors when they went “berserk,”
war-mad, and fought with the fury of vicious
M Delving Deeper
animals against opponents. In the Slavonic Clark, Jerome, and Loren Coleman. Creatures of the
languages, the werewolf is called vlukodlak, Outer Edge. New York: Warner Books, 1978.
which translates to “wolf-haired” or “wolf-
Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf. London: Spring Books,
skinned,” once again suggesting the magical
n.d.
transference desired from wearing the skin of a
Fodor, Nandor. Between Two Worlds. New York:
brave animal into battle.
Paperback Library, 1967.
Interestingly, the popular conception that ———. The Haunted Mind: A Psychoanalyst Looks at
one becomes a werewolf after having been bit- the Supernatural. New York: New American
ten or scratched by such a creature of the Library, 1968.
night originated not in ancient tradition but Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to
in the motion picture The Wolf Man (1941). Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver-
Such werewolf deterrents as sprigs of garlic, sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1998.
wolf bane, and the deadly silver bullet were Steiger, Brad. The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of
also created for classic werewolf stories from Shape-Shifting Beings. Farmington Hills, Mich.:
Frankenstein Meets the Werewolf (1943) to An Visible Ink Press, 1999.
American Werewolf in Paris (1997). Even the
ancient “gyspy folklore” repeated by Ankers,
the heroine in The Wolf Man, was created by
Siodmak: “Even a man who’s pure in heart Monsters of Land, Sea,
and says his prayers at night, may become a and Air
wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the
autumn moon is bright.” hile so many of the mysterious crea-

Just as certain humans imagine themselves tures that are frightening and dis-
to be vampires, others believe themselves to Wturbing may belong completely to
shapeshift into wolves. Psychologists recog- the realm of the supernatural and fanciful,
nize a werewolf psychosis (lycanthropy or judgment must be reserved concerning some
lupinomanis) in which persons so afflicted of the monsters reported roaming the forests
may believe that they change into a wolf at and jungles. In recent decades a large number
the full moon. Those who are so disturbed of animals previously unrecognized by the
may actually “feel” their fur growing, their fin- experts, although well-known to the aborigi-
gernails becoming claws, their jaw lengthen- nal inhabitants of the locales that were the
ing, their canine teeth elongating. In their creatures’ natural habitat, have been officially
paper “A Case of Lycanthropy,” published in “discovered.”
the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1977, Although hunters in Kamchatka, Man-
psychiatrist Harvey Rosenstock and psycholo- churia, and Sakhalin had long been telling
gist Kenneth Vincent discussed the case histo- excited stories of the giant carnivorous brown
ry of a 49-year-old woman who received daily bear they had encountered, European scien-
psychotherapy and antipsychotic drugs and tists did not accept the existence of the bear
who still perceived herself as a wolfwoman until 1898. The largest land animal next to the
with claws, teeth, and fangs. Medical person- African elephant is the white rhinoceros,
nel would manage to get the woman under which remained officially unacknowledged

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