Since Halloween is tomorrow, I thought I’d make this thread in tribute to lycanthropy ( the art of becoming a were-wolf ).
The etymology of the word lycanthropy comes from the ancient king Lycaon of Arcadia, who offered Zeus human flesh as a meal.
This, being sacrilegious, offended Zeus, and as a consequence, the king of Arcadia was turned into a wolf, to match his carnal desire for
consuming human flesh.
Essentially throughout all cultures, there has been some myth of the were-wolf.
In Viking Scandinavia, the berserkers were a unique group of warriors, who would wear bear skins during battle and work themselves into an uncontrollable, animalistic frenzy, brutally killing all who stood in their path, sometimes even their own comrades. In places where the wolf was non-existent, another
apex predator took its place (were-animal). But this thread will focus soley on the were-wolf.
During the late middles ages, in conjunction with the witch-hunts, werewolves were also hunted down and burned at the stake.
The word werewolf continues a late Old English wer(e)wulf, a compound of were “adult male human” and wulf “wolf”.
The word “lunacy” has its origin in lycanthropy; luna-cy ( luna = moon ).
People were believed and are still believed to go mad during full moons.
Many people, when they think of the werewolf myth, believe that people literally turn into wolves; but a more realistic approach would be a Jungian one:
that the werewolf is an archetype. “An archetype of what?” you ask. The werewolf is an archetype of repressed masculinity and sadism.
The werewolf is a man, who becomes a wolf, a ferocious animal…wolf-man.
It’s something that exists deep within all men, an atavistic rage that has been suppressed by society.
The Vikings had a myth about this primeval force: the myth of Fenrir.
Fenrir (Old Norse: “fen-dweller”) or Vánagandr (Old Norse: “the monster of the river Ván”), a baleful wolf and son of Loki, was mentioned in the Poetic Edda - a werewolf archetype.
Fenrir represents the savage and brutal nature of mankind, the dark animalistic side that must be bound/repressed, in order for society to function. Tyr sticking his hand inside of Fenrir’s mouth, knowing that it would be bitten off, so that Fenrir would be locked up, symbolizes how man voluntarily castrates a part of himself, in order to be civilized.
To be “civilized” is another word for " domesticated ", which in turn is a euphemism for “castrated”.
You can tell the difference between a tiger out in the wild and one that has been locked up for years inside of a cage; the latter has a look in its eyes, the fire extinguished…
So too with man, he has been domesticated through civilization, his primordial nature locked-up and suppressed within the deepest, darkest part of his psyche.
The werewolf archetype is representative of man regaining connection with his virility, his animal side, his untamed masculinity.
