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My St. Bernard had a loud roar, but not like that.
My guess would be a large bear.
Either that or Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford with a record player trying to scare people.
Speaking about the movies; today we are more skeptical than we were fifty or a hundred years ago. Seeing an old Boris Karloff film, even with terrible special effects, was very scary if you go back 60, 70, or more years ago. It could give many nightmares for years to come. The Exorcist scared the heck out of my late wife when she was young and I thought that many of the scenes were poorly done. Today it is all about special effects and we critique what we see by what are the most visually appealing. I don't think that the movies have the same 'scare' factor today. Of course many times they are simply remaking old stories and have very little new content; which might be a factor?
That said, the farther back in history one goes; the easier it was for people to let their fears rule the day. There was no internet to check the authenticity of the stories. Many were spread only by word of mouth and could never be confirmed or denied. It is one reason that so many of us have similar but different last names. Usually a man would ride his horse around to find out who lived where and not write down the information until he got back to his home or office. Of course some of them could not spell besides having terrible memories. The same thing happened with many of these old superstitions.
The very first 'werewolf' was a man (Peter Stubbe, or something like that), I believe he lived in Bavaria, he claimed to have made a pact with the devil and was given a wolves pelt, when he put it on, he transformed into a 'werewolf' (half human, half wolf).
At his hearing, he admitted to killing 100s of people including children and eating them.
It didnt say what the devil got out of this deal either! lol
The very first 'werewolf' was a man (Peter Stubbe, or something like that), I believe he lived in Bavaria, he claimed to have made a pact with the devil and was given a wolves pelt, when he put it on, he transformed into a 'werewolf' (half human, half wolf).
At his hearing, he admitted to killing 100s of people including children and eating them.
It didnt say what the devil got out of this deal either! lol
It sounds like we man never know the full story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stumpp. he could have been a monster or simply a puppet for political and religious purposes? But his case did feed the fires of superstition and hate for many years to come.
It sounds like we man never know the full story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stumpp. he could have been a monster or simply a puppet for political and religious purposes? But his case did feed the fires of superstition and hate for many years to come.
His death sounded terrible!
There are other drawings of him from that time period, one of them shows him in wolf form consuming a child, there is another showing the transformation ( I have read that a number of people actually saw him transform, and that the wolf he turned into, was not like a normal wolf, it was much much larger, and walked upright like a man, oddly they say it did not have a tail though)
Im not sure I believe he made a pact with the devil and was given this special pelt, (if such a deal was even possible, there would be no incentive for a devil to take part, or to give a human this type of power.) Im thinking it was the result of his black magic and witchcraft.
Very poor region and very poor basic uneducated people. Very superstitious. A church of some form gave them there general ideology. I don't believe any of it.
Very poor region and very poor basic uneducated people. Very superstitious. A church of some form gave them there general ideology. I don't believe any of it.
For once we are in agreement. Not so much because the area was a 'very poor region and very poor basic uneducated people'. The whole known world at that time had very little compassion and believed in torture to obtain the 'truth'. So, like the Wikipedia article on Peter Stubbe states: "So it is not inconceivable that the werewolf trial was but a barely concealed political trial, with the help of which the new lord of Bedburg planned to bully the Protestants of the territory back into Catholicism."
Most of us would say anything to prevent our torturers from coming back with the second hot poker. It is the main reason that our 'civilized world ' turned away from torture when we finally realized that the confessions had nothing to do with the truth. At the time of this werewolf trial the Spanish Inquisition was happening in Spain. The whole world was about half (maybe three fourths) nuts during the Dark Ages.
The very first 'werewolf' was a man (Peter Stubbe, or something like that).
Nope. Werewolves are older than history. But even Peter Stumpp was a latercomer. There are Greek myths of werewolves that predate Stumpp by many centuries.
Nope. Werewolves are older than history. But even Peter Stumpp was a latercomer. There are Greek myths of werewolves that predate Stumpp by many centuries.
Really? I didnt know that, I will have to do some reading on them.
I have read about some early explorers, that claimed they came across an island that was inhabited by 'dog people', they walked up right like men, but had bodies and heads of dogs/wolves, they were even said to wear clothing and have commerce on the island, as well as their own language. I cannot recall the name, but it was something like 'Cyania------'. Im pretty sure this was long before Peter Stumppes time too.
Really? I didnt know that, I will have to do some reading on them.
I have read about some early explorers, that claimed they came across an island that was inhabited by 'dog people', they walked up right like men, but had bodies and heads of dogs/wolves, they were even said to wear clothing and have commerce on the island, as well as their own language. I cannot recall the name, but it was something like 'Cyania------'. Im pretty sure this was long before Peter Stumppes time too.
Many people feared wolves and with just cause: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attack. As you can see in that article I quote: "The country with the most extensive historical records is France, where nearly 7,600 fatal attacks were documented from 1200 to 1920." So there were many good reasons for this fear. Now once you combine fear and lack of scientific data or education; it is easy to see how these superstitions became the 'reality' of the day. A wolf was a terrifying predator and giving it supernatural abilities just took that reason to fear it up a few notches.
Bears, when a front leg is seriously injured, have been known to walk on its hind legs. That could be mistaken for a werewolf. I am curious if wolf, when their front legs get injured, have ever walk on there hind legs? I tried Googling and only came up with bears. But it would not surprise me if there were cases of upright wolves. If somebody watched a bear walking on its hind legs and then suddenly go down and start walking on three or four legs or go from four legs to two legs; that would perpetuate the myth.
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