The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 Read online

  Shifters

  The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849

  Edited by

  Andrew Barger

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  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  Shapeshifting the Werewolf in Literature

  Andrew Barger

  Stories

  Hugues the Wer-Wolf: A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages

  Sutherland Menzies

  The Man-Wolf

  Leitch Ritchie

  A Story of a Weir-Wolf

  Catherine Crowe

  The Wehr-Wolf: A Legend of the Limousin

  Richard Thomson

  The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains

  Captain Frederick Marryat

  Appendix

  List of Short Stories Considered

  About Andrew

  Shapeshifting the Werewolf in Literature

  My hunt for the best werewolf short stories published between 1800-1849 in the English language was difficult. This is largely because the werewolf short story was in its infancy during this period and there were only a few of these stories written during this period. All great monsters of our modern literature germinated, at some point, out of superstitions; from superstitions they grew into the saplings of folklore, and from folklore into the redwoods of legend and finally into great literature. Werewolves are no different.

  At the beginning of the 19th century, legends of this monster existed in the Greek, English, Italian, German and French tongues. In each, varying names were used for what we today call a “werewolf.” The devil or sorcerers were typically the cause of werewolfism. In Vol. I, page 98 of The Menageries: Quadrupeds, published in 1829, we find the following passage in reference to Verstegan’s Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the most noble and renowned English Nation, Antwerp, 1605.

  ‘Were-wulf: this name remaineth still known in the Teutonic, and is as much to say as man-wolf— the Greek expressing the very like in Lycanthropos. The were-wolves are certain sorcerers, who, having anointed their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certain inchanted girdel, do not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they weare the said girdel; and they do dispose themselves as very wolves in wurrying and killing, and waste of humane creatures.’

  In reference to German legends of the werewolf, The Menageries: Quadrupeds, continues:

  The Germans had a similar superstition; and, as late as 1589, a man was executed in the Netherlands under the charge of being a were-wulf. This pretended sorcerer, assuming one of the most formidable shapes of mischief, was called, in France, loup-garou. It is said that the wolf, when it has once tasted human flesh, gives it the preference over all other animal food; and from this cause it probably arose that, for many centuries of ignorance, when the influence of evil spirits was universally believed, and the powers of witchcraft were not doubted even by the learned, a raging wolf, devouring every thing in his way—the sheep in its fold, and the child in its cottage bed,— and even digging up newly buried bodies from their graves, should be supposed to be possessed with some demon more fearful than its own insatiate appetites.

  Great Britain took the legends and superstitions of werewolves a step further. On page 397 of The Living Age Vol. V of 1845, there is the following passage:

  The common peasant, who alone knows anything about the animal, is withheld by superstition from even mentioning the name of wolf; and if he mentions him at all, designates him only as the “old one,” or the “grey one,” or the “great dog;” feeling, as was also the case in parts of Great Britain with regard to the fairies, that to call these animals by their true name is a sure way to exasperate them. This caution may be chiefly attributed, however, to the popular and very ancient belief in the “Wär Wolf;” not a straightforward, open-mouthed, plain-spoken beast, against which the cattle may plunge, and fight, and defend themselves as best they may, and which either wounds or kills its prey in a fair and ferocious way; but that odious combination of human weakness and decrepitude, with demoniacal power and will, which all nations who have believed in have most unjustly persecuted and most naturally hated—in other words, a bad, miserable old woman leagued body and soul with Satan, who, under the form of a Wär Wolf, paralyses the cattle with her eye, and from whom the slightest wound is death. Be this as it may, the superior intelligence of the upper classes is to this day occasionally puzzled to account for the fate of a fine young ox, who will be found in the morning breathing hard, his hide bathed in foam, and with every sign of fright and exhaustion, while, perhaps, only one trifling wound will be discovered on the whole body, which swells and inflames as if poison had been infused, the animal generally dying before night. Nor does the mystery end here; for, on examining the body, the intestines will be found to be torn as with the claws of a wolf, and the whole animal in a state of inflammation, which sufficiently accounts for death.

  Werewolves leaped from legend into the literature through poetry. The famous Roman poet, Publius Ovidius Naso (more commonly known as “Ovid”), gave mention to the werewolf two thousand years ago in Book I of his “Metamorphoses” that signifies a transformation in its very title. In the poem a Lycaon man is so ferocious as a wolf he is deprived of ever attaining the human form again by Jupiter. Consider this translated Latin text from “The first book of Ovid’s Meta
morphoses, with a literal interlinear translation” of 1828 starting at the end of line 230:

  Ille,

  He,

  territus fugit, nactus-que silentia ruris,

  terrified flies, and-having-gained the-silence of-the-country,

  exululat, contur-que frustrà loqui: os

  howls-out, and-endeavours in-vain to-speak: his-countenance

  colligit rabiem ab ipso, vertitur-que in

  collects rage from himself, and-he-is-turned against

  pecudes cupidine solitæ cædis; et nunc quoque

  the-cattle by-desire of-wonted slaughter; and now also

  gaudet sanguine. Vestes abeunt in villos,

  he-rejoices in-blood. His-garments pass-away into hairs,

  lacerti in crura. Fit lupus, et servat vestigial

  his-arms into legs. He-becomes a-wolf, and preserves the-traces

  veteris formæ. Est eadem canities, eadem

  of-his-ancient form. There-is the-same greyness, the-same

  violentia vultu, oculi lucent idem,

  violence in-his-countenance, his-eyes glare the-same,

  eadem imgo ferittis.

  there is the-same appearance of-ferocity.

  The described shapeshifting of clothes into the hairs of the wolf, arms into legs, and wanting to speak but being unable is the first of its kind in recorded poetry. A thousand years later the poets of the Middle Ages continued the lycanthrope legend in their poetry.

  One such early poem involving werewolves is “Roman de Guillaume de Palerne,” which is thought to have been expounded from Italian legend in the late 1100s and translated to French in 1350 a.d. The poem was translated into modern English in 1832 from a rare copy of an ancient manuscript found in King’s College Library of Cambridge and given the modern and endearing title: “William and the Werwolf.”

  In the 13th century a Frenchwoman known only as “Marie” gave us the poem now called “The Lay of Marie” or more properly, Marie’s “Lai du Bisclavaret,” which references the werewolf. A quote from the poem is given at the beginning of the short story “The Wehr-Wolf: A Legend of the Limousin.”

  Promulgation of the werewolf legend in Great Britain as it regards cattle and the devil is due in no small part to English poet Michael Drayton who penned “The Moon-Calf” in the late 16th century or early 17th century that tells of the fierce “wär-wolf” and its thirst for the blood of cattle.

  A transformation of the werewolf in literature made its greatest strides in the 19th century when the monster leapt from poetry to the short story. It happened when this shorter form of literature was morphing into darker shapes thanks in no small part to Edgar Allan Poe, Honoré de Balzac, George Soane, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wilhelm Hauff, Charles Dickens, and Samuel Warren. Although each of these authors penned stories that are contained in “The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849” that I edited and introduced, you will surprisingly find none of them as authors of a werewolf short story in this collection. Sigh.

  Only a few novels addressed werewolves in this time period. The first was “The Albigenses” published by Charles Maturin in 1824. This gothic novel, however, does not center around werewolves. A novella titled, “Norman of the Strong Arm: A Tale of the Sanctuary of Westminster,” was penned by H. Laurence and published in 1827 in the Second Series of London in the Olden Times. It points out and draws upon the superstitions of the middle ages in many of the stories. In the last few pages of “Norman of the Strong Arm,” a man is imprisoned for purportedly befriending a werewolf.

  The first English novel in which a werewolf is the protagonist was serialized by George W. M. Reynolds in his Reynold’s Miscellany from November 6, 1846 to July 24, 1847 and titled, “Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf.” Reynolds was an author and editor of British Penny Dreadfuls that were very popular among the working classes during 1825-1855. These pulp rags contained mostly trash fiction, but in a few instances works that are remembered for being “first” in a particular genre. Two years later “Sidonia the Sorceress” was penned by Wilhelm Meinhold. It is a multi-volumed work that gives a fine example of a she-wolf.

  Given the relative dearth of novels about werewolves leading up to and continuing through 1849, the appearance of werewolves in a number of short stories during this half-century is significant. The short story is not, as some believe, a lesser form of literature than the novel. Poe was quick to laud short fiction in his April 1842 review of “Twice Told Tales” in Graham’s Magazine: “We have always regarded the Tale (using this word in its popular acceptation) as affording the best prose opportunity for display of the highest talent.”

  The fifty year period between 1800 and 1849 is truly the cradle of werewolf short stories. Yet when this genre was in its infancy, this key period gave us some very good werewolf stories. One peculiar story that I did not include in this collection is “Ursel. The Water-Wolf” that was published in 1839 because it is unclear whether the water-wolf is a shapeshifted human. The only clue in the story is that wolves on the land howl when the creature approaches a boat from the water. The creature is never described in the story. A passage in Volume XXXV of The Living Age for 1881 provides some background in Germanic water tales and creatures:

  Loki’s name signifies the “flame” (Ger. Lohe) Nevertheless, he is the father both of the wolf Fenrir (the roarer from the deep), who is also called Wanargandr, that is, water-wolf, and of the midgard snake, which represents the world-encircling sea. From Fenrir's eyes and nose, fire glows; yet Fenrir, as the name proves, must originally have been a mythic being of the stormy waves. He is a water-wolf; but in old poems his name is also used as a synonym for fire. His progenitor, Loki, is said to have once lain, in monster shape, in the grove of hot springs. Albeit a fire-god, Loki is the “confidant of the whale.” Under another name he is known as Loptr, that is, the Aërial, who dwells aloft; and this aërial character connects him with the waters of heaven. Freyja and Freyr, the offspring of a sea-god, are, in one of their aspects, typical solar deities. Their father, Niörd, who has a dwelling in Asgard, was said to be able to still both water and fire. Wate, the German watergiant, was the father of Wieland, or Wayland the Smith, a German Vulcan.

  At the end of this anthology is a list of short stories considered along with the author and earliest publication date. Stories of rabid wolves were not considered in this collection.

  Please visit AndrewBarger.com for an exclusive interview regarding these stories. As always, thanks for reading.

  Andrew Barger

  James Sutherland Menzies

  (1806-1883)

  Introduction

  Hugues the Wer-Wolf

  A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages

  The first of this collection is a classic werewolf story that has been widely reprinted. It was first published in the September 1838 issue of The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic by “S. M.” The general belief is that the story was penned by Sutherland Menzies, although some believe it was really Elizabeth Stone writing under a penname (or penletters). The historical nature of this story and the detailed footnotes support Menzies as the author who later wrote such historical-based yawns as “Political Women” and “Royal Favorites.”

  Like a number of the short werewolf stories from 1800-1849, this tale is based in the middle ages and centers around the ancient Hugues family, as derived from the Norman extraction of Henry II, and its reputed lycanthropic bloodline. Menzies, in the second footnote of the story, also informs us that Hugh Lupus was the first Earl Kent. A wolf’s head was part of his family crest.

  “Hugues the Wer-Wolf” was not, however, the first werewolf short story to draw upon the legends surrounding this family or employ a protagonist named Hugues.

  The name was used seven years earlier in “The Man-Wolf” by Leitch Ritchie. It is included in this collection for comparison.

  The story before you is the first werewolf short story that involves the severing of a member. It also is the first to show that a werewolf�
�s hide cannot be pierced by spear or arrow, though it is vulnerable to the edge of a steel blade.

  “Hugues the Wer-Wolf” is set on All Souls’ Eve, that haunted night of the year before All Souls’ Day when the dead are reputed to rise from the graves and return to their homes. Before our modern Halloween, this was the most haunted night in all the year.

  Hugues the Wer-Wolf

  A Kentish Legend of the Middle Ages

  (1838)

  “Ye hallow’d bells, whose voices through the air

  The awful summons of afflictions bear.”

  Honoria, on the Day of All Souls.

  ON THE CONFINES of that extensive forest track formerly spreading over so large a portion of that garden of England, the lovely county of Kent, a remnant of which “woody way” to this day is known as the Weald of Kent, and where it stretched its almost impervious covert midway between Ashford and Canterbury during the prolonged reign of our second Henry, a family of Norman extraction, by name Hugues—or Wulfric, as they were commonly called by the Saxon inhabitants of that district—had, under protection of the ancient forest laws, furtively erected for themselves a lone and miserable habitation; and amidst these sylvan fastnesses, ostensibly following the occupation of wood-cutters, the wretched outcasts—for such, for some cause or other, they evidently were—had for many years maintained a secluded and precarious existence. Whether from rooted antipathy, actively cherished against all that usurping nation from which these woodmen derived their origin, or from recorded malpractices, they had been long looked upon by their superstitious Anglo-Saxon neighbours as belonging to the accursed race of wer-wolves, and, as such, churlishly refused work on the domains of the surrounding franklins or proprietors; so thoroughly was accredited the descent of the original lycanthropic stain transmitted from father to son through several generations.