Werewolves are not a distinct species nor a common European literary motif. Rather the idea of the werewolf constitutes a collection of histories or genres differing through time and space.

Werewolf Histories
By Willem Blécourt
Series: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
Palgrave Macmillan 2015

ABSTRACT:

Werewolf Histories is the first academic book in English to address European werewolf history and folklore from antiquity to the twentieth century. It covers the most important werewolf territories, ranging from Scandinavia to Germany, France and Italy, and from Croatia to Estonia.

The Volume aims to present an academic point of view by presenting a series of essays focusing on the history of the different ways in which werewolves were considered. As such it represents a history of mentalities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Front Matter
The Differentiated Werewolf: An Introduction to Cluster Methodology
Willem de Blécourt

Good to Think: Wolves and Wolf-Men in the Graeco-Roman World
Richard Gordon

Into the Wild — Old Norse Stories of Animal Men
Christa Agnes Tuczay

Before the Werewolf Trials: Contextualising Shape-Changers and Animal Identities in Medieval North-Western Europe
Aleksander Pluskowski

‘What about Some Good Wether?’ Witches and Werewolves in Sixteenth-Century Italy
Matteo Duni

‘Species’, ‘Phantasia’, ‘Raison’: Werewolves and Shape-Shifters in Demonological Literature
Johannes Dillinger

The Judge’s Lore? The Politico-Religious Concept of Metamorphosis in the Peripheries of Western Europe
Rita Voltmer

The Werewolf in the Popular Culture of Early Modern Germany
Rolf Schulte

Estonian Werewolf History
Merili Metsvahi

The Werewolf in Nineteenth-Century Denmark
Michèle Simonsen

Dead Bodies and Transformations: Werewolves in Some South Slavic Folk Traditions
Maja Pasarić

FEATURED PHOTO:

Gerald of Wales: Topographia Hibernia Fron: Royal MS 13 B VIII, fol 17 © British Library

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