Post by Joanna on Aug 22, 2014 17:59:33 GMT -5
Our Werewolf Obsession
In the 1941 film The Wolfman, the gypsy Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) says to Larry Talbot, the Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.),: “Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” Why are we so fascinated by werewolves? Is it because all men have a hidden dark side? A beast that is hidden within our inner being, our very soul?
Fascination with half-man, half-beast creatures can be traced to ancient times. We hear of the Egyptian Gods such as Anubis – a human with the head of a jackal; Sobek – a human with the head of a crocodile; Horus – a human with the head of a falcon. Even the Egyptian Sphinx is half-human, half-beast monument with the body of a lion and the head of a man.
But there is something about the wolf, with its piercing predator eyes – that fascinates us more than any other beast on Earth – except man himself. We admire the way they hunt in packs, how they go for the kill with predator calculation. We get goosebumps when we hear a wolf howling at the moon.
Did primitive man dream up werewolves? Or is there a genuine basis for the legend? In the 1500s, there were rumors of a Forest Demon stalking Salzburg, Austria, and Hamburg, Germany. Many have surmised the “beast” was nothing more than a witch wearing an animal head and skin while engaging in some forgotten primitive rite, but was it? Could the culprit have been a man suffering from congenital hypertrichosis, a condition in which a person has too much body and facial hair like Mah Me of the hairy family of Burma? In photographs, Mah Me truly looks like a werewolf. His condition was his downfall and he died at the young age of 18.
Could rabies be the source of the werewolf legend? In days before rabies was understood, it is possible people thought those bitten by animals who subsequently went mad were turning into a beast. If a person was bitten by a wolf, it is possible those around him believed his rabid fits was an indication he was turning into a wolf?
People in both Europe and North America were (are) obsessed with wolves. There are no forest demons on Vancouver Island in British Columbia (Canada), but members of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribe wear the Nootka Mask that resembles the head of a wolf. If a person unfamiliar with the area and its natives saw an Indian in a Nootka Mask, he might very well believe he was seeing a werewolf.
Another theory is that the werewolf legend was the result of the delusions and fits of those suffering from ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus found primarily on rye and when the bread made from grain containing ergot is eaten, people experience hallucinations similar to those brought on by ingesting LSD and some victims believe they see werewolves. Ergot poisoning was common in Europe in the Middle Ages and the German word for ergot is wolfszahn (wolf-tooth). However the werewolf legend started, it is a primeval fascination that can be found, in one form or another, almost everywhere.
Thousands of books have featured werewolves and they have appeared in hundreds of movies. The first werewolf movie, The Werewolf of London, was released in 1935. In the late 1950s, Michael Landon starred in I Was A Teenage Werewolf. Later, when he became a big-name star, Landon was embarrassed by the film, but after David Selby – starring as werewolf Quentin Collins on the late 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows – transformed werewolves into major heartthrobs, Landon became so proud of his teenage werewolf exploits that the film was featured on Highway to Heaven.
The wolfman’s popularity has never waned and even the Harry Potter films include a werewolf named Professor Remus Lupin. In the movie Van Helsing, Hugh Jackman turns into a werewolf in order to defeat his archenemy Dracula, and in K. R. Smith’s novel, Scent, a character asks: “Why go for something cold and dead, when you can have something hot and panting?” SyFy’s Being Human is a story about a ghost, werewolf and vampire who are roommates.
It appears werewolves are here to stay. The shape-shifting beasts aren’t just a fad, there remains a deep dark fascination for human beings who are able to transform into beasts on nights when the moon is full and wolves and dogs howl in the distance.
Source: Paul Dale Roberts, The Costa Rican Times, August 19, 2014.