Sunday, June 21, 2009

Fairy Tales to Read Under a Full Moon: The Werewolf



Grimm’s Saga No. 213: The Werewolf

Oral tradition from Hessen.
See Braeuner’s Curiostiy Pages

A soldier told the following story, which supposedly happened to his own grandfather. His grandfather once went out into the forest to cut wood with his cousin and a third person. They both suspected something wasn’t right with this third person, but couldn’t lay their finger on it. Now the three had finished their work and were tired. The stranger proposed that they should all sleep it off. And so it happened, each lay down on the ground. The grandfather lay down and only pretended to sleep and opened his eyes a little. The stranger looked around to see whether the others were sleeping and when he believed that they were, he threw off his belt and became a werewolf. A werewolf doesn’t look exactly like a natural wolf but looks a bit different. He ran away to a nearby meadow where a young foal was grazing. He attacked and ate it, skin, hair and all. Returning to his two sleeping comrades, he buckled the belt around his girth and lay there as before in human form. After a short time they all got up and made haste to get to their homes in town. As they stood at the edge of the town, the stranger complained about a fearsome bellyache. The grandfather whispered secretly into his ear: “That I do believe, when one devours a horse, skin and all!” But the stranger replied: “If you had said those words in the forest, you wouldn’t be speaking now.”

A woman took on the form of a werewolf and fell upon the flock of a shepherd, whom she hated. She would have done him enormous harm. But the shepherd wounded the wolf by throwing a hatchet into its hip and the wolf crept into the bushes. The shepherd followed the wolf into the brush and thought he would subdue him. But instead he found a woman trying to stop blood from flowing out of a hip-wound with a torn-off scrap from her dress.

Two magicians were executed in Luettich in 1610 because they had turned themselves into werewolves and killed many children. They kept a young boy of twelve years their captive, whom the devil transformed into a raven when they tore to pieces and devoured their prey.



To read more tales about wolves and werewolves:

http://www.fairytalechannel.com/2010/09/men-who-become-wolves.html


To read a fairy tale about a prince and his horse:

More fairy tales can be found under the link:

Translation FairyTaleChannel.com

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