This book brings together contributions from anthropologists and folklorists on werewolf legends from all over Europe. Ranging from broad overviews to specific case studies, their chapters highlight the similarities and differences between werewolf narratives in different areas and attempt to explain them. The result of interaction between elite and popular culture, local and external influences, and nature and culture that lasted several centuries or even more, nineteenth- to twenty-first-century werewolf legends represent a kaleidoscope of the darker sides of human life.

Brings together contributions from anthropologists and folklorists Highlights the similarities and differences between werewolf narratives Written by Willem de Blécourt and Mirjam Mencej

Autorentext

Willem de Blécourt is Historical Anthropologist and editor of Werewolf Histories, also in this series.

Mirjam Mencej teaches Folklore Studies and Comparative Mythology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Inhalt

1. Werewolf Legends: False, Fabricated and Altogether Absent. Fragments of a Nineteenth-Century Historiography; Willem de Blécourt.- 2. You Are A Werewolf! Swedish Legends in International Perspective; Willem de Blécourt.- 3. On Wolf's Belts, Hungry Farmhands and Tattered Skirts. The Werewolf in North German Legends; Petra Himstedt-Vaid.- 4. Wolf-Shaped Otherness. Finnish Werewolf Legends Reflecting Suspension From Human Community; Kaarina Koski & Pasi Enges.- 5. Werewolves in Lithuanian Folklore Sources of the End of the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century; Jrat lekonyt.- 6. Legends and Beliefs about Werewolves Among Eastern Slavs: Areal Characteristics of Motifs; Marina Valentsova.- 7. The Werewolf as the Slavic and Germanic 'Other': Czech Werewolf Legends Between Oral and Popular Culture; Petr Janeek.- 8. Werewolves as Social Others. Contemporary Oral Narratives in Rural Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mirjam Mencej.- 9. When the 'Other' is One of Us. Narrative Construction of Werewolf Identity in Romanian Western Carpathians at the End of the Twentieth Century; Laura Jiga Iliescu.- 10. A Strange Kind of Man Among Us: Beliefs and Narratives about Werewolves in Southern Italy; Vito Carrassi.- 11. Werewolves in the Western Alps; Fabio Armand.- 12. Running the Fate: Portuguese Werewolf Legends and Memorates; Paulo Correia.- 13. From Type to Cluster: Werewolf Legends in the Netherlands; Willem de Blécourt.- 14. The Werewolf of Hull; Deborah Hyde.