Description
Book SynopsisWerewolf 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.
Trade Review“Werewolf Histories is a fascinating look at the diversity of beliefs about werewolves, and a valuable reminder of the different contexts in which these beliefs occur. … Werewolf Histories is packed with fascinating analysis of an under-examined piece of folklore. It’s particularly compelling because of the way in which it looks at the phenomenon of werewolf belief from several different scholarly perspectives.” (James Holloway, Fortean Times, Vol. 335, December, 2015)
'The volume's aims, as outlined in de Blécourt's introductory essay, are met by the essays collected, particularly the stated intention to mark a 'transition from popular werewolf publications to academic historical perspectives'. The clear and nuanced historical perspectives presented certainly set the volume apart from the putative 'werewolf history' presented in the popular publications that are commonly cited in studies of contemporary literary and cinematic werewolves.' Hannah Priest, Swansea University, UK
Table of Contents1. The Differentiated Werewolf: An Introduction to Cluster Methodology; Willem de Blecourt 2. Good to Think: Wolves and Wolf-men in the Graeco-Roman World; Richard Gordon 3. Into the Wild: Old Norse Stories of Animal Men; Christa Agnes Tuczay 4. Before the Werewolf Trials: Contextualising Shape Changers and Animal Identities in Medieval North-Western Europe; Aleksander Pluskowski Interlude: Wolf-Riding 5. "What About Some Good Wether?" Witches and Werewolves in 16th Century Italy; Matteo Duni 6. "Species", "Phantasia", "Raison": Werewolves and Shape-shifters in Demonological Literature; Johannes Dillinger 7. The Judge's Lore? The Politico-Religious Concept of Metamorphose in the Peripheries of Western Europe; Rita Voltmer 8. The Werewolf in the Popular Culture of Early Modern Germany; Rolf Schulte Interlude: The Shepherd of Wolves 9. Estonian Werewolf History; Merili Metsvahi 10. The Werewolf in Nineteenth-Century Denmark; Michele Simonsen 11. Dead Bodies and Transformations: Werewolves in Some South Slavic Folk Traditions; Maja Pasaric
