Werewolves in fiction

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Werewolf fiction is dominated by portrayals of men cursed to become wolves or wolfmen during the full moon (see werewolf). The process of transmogrification is portrayed in many films and works of literature to be painful. The resulting wolf is typically cunning but merciless, and prone to killing and eating people without compunction regardless of the moral character of the person when human. The form a werewolf takes is not always an ordinary wolf, but is often anthropomorphic or may be otherwise larger and more powerful than an ordinary wolf. Many modern werewolves are also supposedly immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver objects (usually a bullet or blade). This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involve lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like a disease by the bite of another werewolf.

Werewolves have been used in many movies, short stories, and novels, with varying degrees of success. The first feature film to use an anthropomorphic werewolf was Werewolf of London in 1935, not to be confused with the 1981 film of a similar title, establishing the canon that the werewolf always kills what he loves most. The main werewolf of this film was a dapper London scientist who retained some of his style and most of his human features after his transformation. The genre was also popularized by the classic Universal Studios movie The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the werewolf Larry Talbot. This movie contained the now-famous rhyme: "Even a man who is pure in heart / And says his prayers at night / May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms / And the autumn moon is bright." This movie is often credited with originating several aspects of the legend which differ from traditional folklore (including invulnerability to non-silver weapons, contagiousness, and association with the moon).

More recently, the portrayal of werewolves has taken a more sympathetic turn in some circles. With the rise of environmentalism and other back-to-nature ideals, the werewolf has come to be seen as a representation of humanity allied more closely with nature.

  • A prime example of this outlook can be seen in the role-playing game Werewolf: The Apocalypse in which players roleplay various werewolf characters who work on behalf of Gaia against the destructive supernatural spirit named Wyrm, who represents the forces of destructive industrialization and pollution.
  • Author Whitley Strieber previously explored these themes in his novels The Wild (in which the werewolf is portrayed as a medium through which to bring human intelligence and spirit back into nature) and The Wolfen (in which werewolves are shown to act as predators of humanity, acting as a "natural" control on their population now that it has been removed from the traditional limits of nature).
  • The novel Howling Mad by Peter David takes the unusual approach of featuring a wolf who has been bitten by a werewolf, becoming a "werehuman" as a result. The werehuman provides the reader with a unique perspective on human civilization.

Unsympathetic portrayals of Werewolves as monsters also continue to be common in popular culture.

  • The movie Underworld features werewolves in a centuries-old feud with vampires. According to the plot, werewolves were subservient watchdogs for vampires until one werewolf led a rebellion in response to the death of his lover (who happened to be the daugther of a high-ranking vampire). Later in the film it is revealed that werewolves were persecuted by the vampires, under the pretext that the werewolves were dangerous and wild.

Contents

Films

Image:Werewolf vs vampire women.jpeg

Literature

This section includes novels and short stories.

Comics

Games

  • L. Lee Cerny and Bradley K. McDevitt, Night Life (Stellar Games, 1990). Three editions to date, a few supplements.
  • Mark Rein-Hagen, Werewolf: The Apocalypse (White Wolf, Inc., 1992). Two editions, innumerable supplements, and a short story collection (When Will You Rage?, edited by Stewart Wieck).
  • Mike Tinney and Stewart Wieck, Rage (White Wolf, Inc., 1995). The card game inspired a couple of novels from White Wolf: Breathe Deeply by Don Bassingthwaite and The Silver Crown by Bill Bridges.
  • 1995 Sierra On-Line game The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery.
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