GRIMM
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, far better known as the Brothers Grimm, were born in Hanau, Germany—Jacob in 1875 and Wilhelm in the following year. They are renowned for their popularization of folklore, myths, and legends, and for promoting the likes of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rumpelstiltskin. They also had an interesting tale to tell of werewolves. In 1816, they wrote:
“A soldier related the following story, which is said to have happened to his grandfather. The latter, the grandfather, had gone into the forest to cut wood with a kinsman and a third man. People suspected that there was something not quite right about this third man, although no one could say exactly what it was. The three finished their work and were tired, whereupon the third man suggested that they sleep a little. And that is what they did. They all laid down on the ground, but the grandfather only pretended to sleep, keeping his eyes open a crack. The third man looked around to see if the others were asleep, and when he believed this to be so, he took off his belt (or, as others tell the story, put on a belt) and turned into a wolf.
The Grimm Brothers (immortalized here in a statue in Hanau, Germany), wrote about werewolves in some of their stories.
“However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.
“Then he ran to a nearby meadow where a young foal was grazing, attacked it, and ate it, including skin and hair. Afterward he returned, put his belt back on (or took it off), and laid down, as before, in human form.
“A little later they all got up together and made their way toward home. Just as they reached the town gate, the third man complained that he had a stomachache. The grandfather secretly whispered in his ear: ‘That I can well believe, for someone who has a horse, complete with skin and hair, in his belly.’
“However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.”
“The third man replied: ‘If you had said that to me in the forest, you would not be saying it to me now.’
“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.
“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.”
WOLF-MAN
In 1898, F. Asmus and O. Knoop wrote that by using what was called a wolf strap, it was possible for just about anyone to transform his- or herself into a werewolf. If, however, someone were to call the werewolf by their human name, they would transform back into human form. As for what, exactly, a wolf strap was, the pair noted that it was “a gift from the devil.” They continued:
“A person who possessed such a strap could not get rid of it, however much he wanted to. Anyone who accepted a wolf strap also had entered into brotherhood with the devil, surrendering body and soul to him. If real wolves were feared in earlier times, werewolves were feared all the more. A real wolf could be shot dead or lured into a so-called wolf pit, where it would perish from hunger. However, a werewolf could not be brought down with a rifle bullet, nor would it ever fall into a wolf pit.”
“A person who possessed such a strap could not get rid of it, however much he wanted to. Anyone who accepted a wolf strap also had entered into brotherhood with the devil.…”
Asmus and Knoop put this question to their readers: “What is the use of running around as a werewolf?” It was, indeed, a good question. The pair answered it, themselves:
“This was not done for no good reason. When the pantries and meat containers were empty, one would only have to fasten on the wolf strap, run off as a wolf, seek out a fat sheep that was wandering off toward the edge of the woods, creep towards it, seize it, and drag it into the woods. In the evening one could bring it home without anyone noticing. Or the werewolf would know when a peasant was going through the woods with a lot of money. He would ambush him, rob him, then run off across the field with the booty.”
In earlier times, the pair expanded, and after the horses had been unhitched from a wagon or a plow, “they would be driven out to a community pasture where they would be watched until morning by two herdsmen. Even colts were put out for the night. People took turns watching after them.” There was a very good reason for that: the fear the horses would become the victims of the deadly werewolves in their very midst.
WOLF STONE BEAST-WOMAN
In a century long past and in a valley in the Fichtel Mountains, Bavaria, Germany, said Alexander Schöppner, a shepherd was tending his flock in a green meadow in 1874. Several times, it happened that after driving his herd home he discovered that one of the animals was missing. On each and every occasion, the search for the animals ended in complete failure. They were, said Schöppner, “lost and they remained lost.”
On one occasion, however, the shepherd spied a huge wolf-like animal stealthily exiting the woods and attacking, and quickly killing, a small lamb. The shepherd gave chase but was not quite quick enough. The wolf-thing was near-instantaneously gone, as was the unfortunate lamb. Schöppner noted that the shepherd was not going to give up quite that easily, however, and he formulated a plan:
“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.’”
The old woman, eying the shepherd with suspicion, replied: “What business is it of yours?” She didn’t wait for an answer and quickly went on her way. The shepherd, said Schöppner, took careful note of her reply. Chiefly because the old 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.”
That was not the end of the story, however. Sometime later, Schöppner recorded, the shepherd encountered the wolf again, yet again on the fringes of the forestland and late
