The Monstrefact: The Werewolf, Part 2 - Name of the Wolf
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Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

As we discussed last time, the origins of werewolf traditions may trace back to our prehistoric ancestors and the gradual domestication of the wild wolf, an act that may have made us better hunters and better watchers of the dark. At different points in human history, we saw shades of the wolf in our own animal nature, just as we also saw shades of human intelligence, cunning, and society in the ways of the wild wolf.

This is not, however, to say that the werewolf specifically is a universal concept. Shapeshifters and animal-human hybrids exist in virtually all human cultures, but the werewolf, naturally, requires some familiarity with the species Canis lupus, particularly the Eurasian wolf.

Now, I want to stress that yes, the wolf's range includes North America, and they certainly do factor into the rich traditions of various indigenous North American tribes. But these traditions, including the off-sited skinwalkers, are rather distinct from the werewolf concept as we know it today. We may come back to discussion on this topic later on, though. Let's start with the term werewolf, or the Germanic Werwolf.

This we can trace back to the writings of English Benedictine monk Bishop Wollstan, and this would have been very early in the second millennium CE.

While most famous for being the last pre-conquest English bishop, his service began a mere four years prior to the Norman conquest of 1066, Wulfstan did in fact warn the English of the threat posed by the, quote, Wulfraco werewolf, this being a threat to the church's flock. As Daniel Ogden explains in The Werewolf in the Ancient World, the usage here is broad and don't get excited, but it certainly doesn't refer to actual werewolves.

Now, as Ogden explains, the traditional interpretation of the word werewolf saw it as a combination of the Latin vir, or man, with wolf, a man-wolf. But he stresses in his book that the commonly accepted theory today is that were derives from the Anglo-Saxon warg, meaning stranger or outsider.

The werewolf is an outsider wolf, and this might too, he argues, connect to Norse ideas of wolf and outlaw. In fact, he cites a 13th century Danish tradition that saw convicted thieves hanged beside the corpse of a wolf to fully convey the dead man's criminal nature to common citizens passing by.

Of course, these ideas line up with the way werewolves have often been presented. Dangerous outsiders, threats to law and ruling landowners, and if we think seriously about the animal itself, a lone wolf that is not part of a social pack.

Male lone wolves in reality are generally only temporarily alone, moving from one social group to another or back into the same group they just left. But in some cases, this may also constitute an individual infected with rabies, a most dangerous creature indeed.

The term lycanthropy, however, is much older, first employed by the second century CE physician Marcellus of Sidde, who employed the term lycanthropia to describe medical conditions that we would now, Ogden describes, define as different forms of mental illness.

Marcellus' description continued to echo through ancient medical writings. And as Nadine Metzger summarizes in 2014's Battling Demons with Medical Authority, published in the journal History of Psychiatry, these lycanthropes were described as otherwise harmless, melancholic individuals who suffer from extreme dryness, hang out in cemeteries, and mimic the behaviors of wolves and dogs.

Modern interpretations have considered a number of actual ailments that might have underlined this broad diagnosis. Rabies, porphyria, neurological dysfunction, and epilepsy. Some additionally make a case for some manner of true clinical lycanthropy. For ancient physicians, however, it was nothing that a little fasting or the consumption of a wolf's heart wouldn't cure.

The term lycanthropy would remain a purely medical term, while other Latin words more specifically described shape-shifting beings. That is, until 9th century CE historian Theophanes the Confessor described agents of the Byzantine emperor as lycanthropes, a manner of wordplay here to invoke the Greek myth of Lycaon, wordplay that would be repeated by George Hamartolos, a.k.a. George the Monk, later that same century.

And this, Ogden contends, sets the word werewolf on the trajectory that we enjoy today. It's interesting that we've long seen this duality of magic and medicine, of the rational and the superstitious in our werewolf media.

As Matt Shemkowitz explores in a 2025 AV Club article titled Film Trivia Fact Check, Original The Wolfman Script Kept the Werewolf at Bay, the 1941 universal horror classic film was originally intended to leave it ambiguous as to whether the film's Lawrence Talbot suffered from a monstrous curse or a distortion of the mind.

The 1946 film She-Wolf of London, as well as the 1976 Italian grindhouse favorite Werewolf Woman, both employ the idea of werewolf delusion rather than literal transformation.

Finally, I want to come back to Bishop Wulfstern here. His name has nothing to do with werewolves, being rather a family name that meant wolfstone in the sense of strength and resilience. But as Brad Steiger points out in 1999's The Werewolf Book, a much later German tradition, recorded, I believe, in the 19th century, told of a wolfstone erected over the grave of a slain werewolf.

keeping the monster at rest, but also becoming a focal point for the paranormal. Join us next week as we continue this journey through the world of the werewolf. In general, you can tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

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Divorce can leave you feeling isolated, like you're stuck on an island with no direction. But you don't have to go through it alone. At Hello Divorce, we guide you step by step, offering everything from legal advice to financial planning so you can find your way back to solid ground. Start your divorce journey with the support you need at hellodivorce.com because you deserve a better path forward.