Notes on Werewolves
Full moon tonight, (October 14th 2008) — well, in Canada anyway. And that thought has led to a post I’ve been meaning to do for some time — A post about werewolves…
Sometimes, I just don’t know what to think about werewolves. What I mean is this: It’s a great legend and there’s all sorts of facinating stories about werewolves and then, you read something like an old copy of The Encyclopaedia Britannica’s entry on werewolves and lycanthropy…It’s enough to make you really wonder…
Speaking of The Encyclopaedia Britannica; my set is packed away right now so I can’t reference it or pull tidbits of info from it right now unfortunately. But their entries on werewolves and lycanthropy in their early 1900 editions are detailed and huge.
One of the most interesting sources of werewolves and lycanthropes which is cited by many who are interested in this field of study is a book called “The Book of Were-Wolves“. It was written in 1865 by a very interesting and eccentric (by some counts) English, Anglican priest named, Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924). Gould was also a prolific novelist, a folklorist, and ecclectic scholar. He also wrote a number of notable hymns, including “Onward Christian Soldiers”.
And those notes are just a small handful on the curious life of the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould.
I discovered the other day that “The Book of Were-Wolves” has been re-printed (and slightly re-titled) with an introduction by noted Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman. I would highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this classic book if you have any interest in werewolves.
Related Link: Wikipedia: Werewolf
