Happy
Halloween Season! October is possibly my favorite month of the year, and
Halloween has a great deal to do with that. This year, I thought it would be
fun to do a little fact finding about the traditional Halloween monsters
(werewolves, vampires, and Frankenstein) and their evolution in folklore and
literature.
Since my
upcoming release - Andromeda's Fall - (release date TBD) involves mountain lion
shifters, let's start with werewolves (and shifters in general).
As I
researched this topic, I found it very interesting that--unlike vampires and
Frankenstein--almost every culture around the world has some type of
transformation or shape-shifting mythology (typically with animals indigenous
to the area) that go back to antiquity.
In
earlier history, shapeshifters were most commonly deities (gods or goddesses)
with the magical ability to transform. In Japan they have Kitsune, a fox
shifter who is typically benevolent but often a trickster. Korea and China have
similar fox shapeshifter myths. In Africa, deities shift into lions or
leopards. In South America they transform into jaguars. Some gods/goddesses in
Greek, Roman, Norse, etc. mythology can pick their forms.
Another
frequent myth seen for shifters in earlier history were humans who were
transformed into something by a god or goddess as a punishment. In Greek
mythology, Arachne was transformed into a spider. In Roman and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, King Lycaon was changed
to a wolf by Jupiter (some attribute this as the beginning of werewolf
mythology). But in these cases, the person shifted had no power to change back
to human. This theme continued in later European folklore. The Frog Prince and Beauty
and the Beast both involve transformation into animals as a punishment.
Enter the
Middle Ages where the werewolf mythology became prevalent. Most of the people
executed for being werewolves in this time period were later found by
historians to be serial killers. The werewolf mythology closely follows witch
folklore and persecution. In fact, shifters mythologies were not all that
prevalent in North America until brought over by European colonists at the same
time as they brought their fear of witches.
Based on
what I could find, not a lot seemed to change about shapeshifter folklore for quite
some time. Up to the 1940s (and even later) they were truly seen as monsters
eliciting terror and revulsion. Early books and movies about werewolves have
the happy ending being the death or defeat of the creature.
In my
research, I couldn't find a specific trigger for the change in perception of
shapeshifters and werewolves as monsters to the view of them today as
sympathetic and even heroic. Even books written in the mid- to late-1900s still
use a more classic example of shifters. For example, in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles
of Narnia, Eustace is shifted into a dragon - but more as a learning moment or
punishment, not at will.
I would
argue that shapeshifters we see today are found in literature and movies only
in the last 10-20 years. Unlike their earlier counterparts, these
people/creatures are not deities (or not always), are not being punished, can
change forms at will (or at least aren't permanently an animal), are powerful,
are usually benevolent or good, and frequently have an entire sub-culture of
like-shifters to support them or deal with in some way.
What a
change from the monsters they originally were. Right?
I've
found this topic so interesting to research, I'll have to dig more on the
psychology behind this phenomenon. My guess is that, like vampires, we've
romanticized werewolves and other shapeshifters, giving them more human
qualities, behaviors, and values. Dissatisfied by our human frailty, we are
intrigued by the thought of what additional power assuming such a form could
provide.
It makes
me wonder what the next 10, 20, 100 years have in store for these
fascinating--and ancient--creatures.
Abigail Owen
Award-Winning Author of the Svatura Series
Thanks for this great information.
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