fascinating. i’ve always thought of sirens in mythology - how almost every origin story includes one. perhaps i will write about it in length - but regardless this was a damn good essay to read. thanks!
Werewolves feel newly strange again after reading this. What makes the essay work is the sense of the figure changing shape across centuries, not just in body but in moral meaning. I especially liked the movement from the knightly wolf to the Victorian seductress to the weird-fiction creature that may not even fully resolve. It makes the history feel less like a lineage of trivia and more like a record of what each era feared, desired, and tried to punish.
Late to the party but have been meaning to research werewolves and this essay will be a great help for contextualising the creature as its seen outside of popular modern culture. Also liked the audio version.
I really enjoyed this piece. It's interesting how myths bend and change in form over time. I often wonder if, in a few hundred years, a writer of our present time will invent something that will become as vivid and popular a myth as the werewolf.
Does anyone know where/when the “bitten by a werewolf>>become a werewolf” idea originates?
My siblings and I were just noticing that in C.S. Lewis’s “Prince Caspian,” Caspian is bitten by a werewolf in the act of transforming from man to beast, and the observation that the (now slain) creature still has the head of a man seems meant to reassure us that Caspian is not himself in danger of becoming one. But perhaps this concept wasn’t in Lewis’s mind at all?
A damn good essay. It's instructive to know how deep this sub-genre goes in the past and its various forms.
What a fascinating and comprehensive piece! It really gets my imagination flowing.
So interesting! I could read a thousand essays by Gwen.
Fantastic essay
fascinating. i’ve always thought of sirens in mythology - how almost every origin story includes one. perhaps i will write about it in length - but regardless this was a damn good essay to read. thanks!
Fascinating essay. This is my own small contribution to werewolf fiction. https://francesbrindle.substack.com/p/interview-with-a-werewolf
Great essay. If you haven't yet, please read Tanith Lee's "Wolfland", a mesmerising tale.
And your designs are delightful, Gwen.
Werewolves feel newly strange again after reading this. What makes the essay work is the sense of the figure changing shape across centuries, not just in body but in moral meaning. I especially liked the movement from the knightly wolf to the Victorian seductress to the weird-fiction creature that may not even fully resolve. It makes the history feel less like a lineage of trivia and more like a record of what each era feared, desired, and tried to punish.
Late to the party but have been meaning to research werewolves and this essay will be a great help for contextualising the creature as its seen outside of popular modern culture. Also liked the audio version.
LOVE this - as I'm editing the Moon anthology for The Rebis!
Very informative! Silver, too, like bipedalism, that was a movie addition to the lore?
I really enjoyed this piece. It's interesting how myths bend and change in form over time. I often wonder if, in a few hundred years, a writer of our present time will invent something that will become as vivid and popular a myth as the werewolf.
Does anyone know where/when the “bitten by a werewolf>>become a werewolf” idea originates?
My siblings and I were just noticing that in C.S. Lewis’s “Prince Caspian,” Caspian is bitten by a werewolf in the act of transforming from man to beast, and the observation that the (now slain) creature still has the head of a man seems meant to reassure us that Caspian is not himself in danger of becoming one. But perhaps this concept wasn’t in Lewis’s mind at all?