Historically documented Incidents

Praeludium

The myth of the werewolf, the loup-garou or also called Kveldulfr, has been the subject of many stories over the centuries. Many of them obviously originate from fiction. Here the werewolf stories of modernity are mentioned as an example, although numerous stories from past epochs will also be found here. Some belong to the great amount of half-truths and others are based on true events. In the following we will focus on the latter group.

Between 1620 and 1730 a.d. alone, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were reported. Most of them may have originated from intrigue and served the purpose of disposing of a disagreeable neighbour or rival. After all, the searches had been carried out in a very unprofessional manner and the test methods very doubtful. De facto, the result had already been established before the investigation. Those who did not confess in advance were tortured until they gave the answers to the judges' questions they expected. As "proof" of a legal conviction, the confession pressed by the defendant and references to the devil's gifts such as ointments, belts, etc., which could initiate a metamorphosis, served as evidence. The fact that these alleged evidences could no longer be made available to the court was explained by the fact that the devil had taken them back and could no longer get hold of them.
Often a werewolf trial resulted in further ones, because often the accused revealed names of further "werewolves" during the torture, who in turn revealed names during their embarrassing interrogation. This also explains the incredibly large number of over 30,000 werewolf trials held over a period of about 110 years.

I would like to list some of the documented werewolf processes here.

Last modified at 29.12.2018