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Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, could become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and may become a werewolf, when the autumn moon is bright. ~ according to Gypsy lore ~ as reiterated by Maria Ouspenskaya in the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney, Jr., THE WOLF MAN (Universal Pictures). |
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The depictions and interpretations of Werewolves and Wolf Men
in the cinema didn't begin with Universal Pictures' classic 1941
film, THE WOLF MAN. The genre was in fact already fairly well
established for three decades before Lon Chaney, Jr. was to be
transformed and memorialized. The cinematic debut as a first
supporting role for any Werewolf, was in a very short silent film
that ran for 18 minutes, THE WEREWOLF, released in 1913 ..
it's thin story line being based on old American Indian legends
which tell of people being able to be transformed into wolves.
Cinematic interpretations - and misinterpretations - of Wolves
and Werewolves have been consistently inconsistent .. so that
even the mythical aspects that Canus lupus has inspired in us
have over time been extrapolated to such mythical proportions
and absurdity... to an extent that obscures actual mythic lore.
That very first "Werewolf film" (1913) was not merely the first ..
it was also the first of many which would play with established
beliefs and notions .. mangling the traditional lore and legends
of the Werewolf. Perhaps in the sense that an infant should be
held blameless - during its messy diaper phase, this particular
film (produced during the early infancy of the cinema) might be
forgiven for getting messy. In any case, it gave rough treatment
to the intricately woven and wolven traditions of the indigenous
inhabitants of America, who supposedly inspired the storyline.
In stark contrast, a very dynamic and even poetically spiritual
relationship existed between the Amerindians and the wolves
that they shared a lost world with .. to an extent that this is a
topic explored separately in another section of the WOLFsite.
Wolves and the legends that they have inspired have not only
stirred our collective imagination - throughout recorded history,
and left their stamp on the human psyche .. they also stamp
our enevlopes. Interestingly, Canada's 39¢ Werewolf happens
to be bi-lingual, which is to say: the French have a word for it-
Le Loup-Garou. And they should. It's been on their minds for
centuries longer than America & Canada have manifested their
destinies across the North American continent. In-between this
millenium and the last, many would-be, mighta-been, and never
wereWolves got tried & fried in France during the roaring 1500's.
That's not to say that the French -by no means- had a monopoly
on this Roast-a-Wolf franchise. Check your watch: this was 16th
Century Standard Time .. those were trying times .. and Werewolf
trials were all the rage (on trial from one end of Europe to the other).
Canada - by the way -- is not unique in having produced a
Werewolf stamp .. the U.S. Postal Service had unleashed
a Wolf Man on September 30th, 1997. But, typical of their
capacity for delivering the mail later than anticiapted, they
managed to miss the full of the Moon (9/16) .. by 14 days!
Inseparable from the mystique of the Wolf,
(fascinating and capable of inspiring awe and reverance)
is the enduring and variegated personna that is a tapestry
of lore and legend, woven throughout the whole of human history.
.. Choose one of the images below to continue down this Path ..
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 ORIGINS OF WEREWOLVES |
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