Hello, my name is Benji, I was a DPhil student at the University of Oxford,
my research focussed on worlds in mediaeval, Icelandic and Norwegian literature.
So quite naturally today I will be talking about mediaeval werewolves,
except this time it is in comparison to what we are used to seeing on the big or small screen.
So behind the scenes was the mediaeval literature was as immortal on TV.
I suppose we all know what a werewolf is and how it is supposed to behave, even if you are not a monster nerd.
You must have seen some movies where Wolves just happened to be one of those monsters greatly favoured by filmmakers and storytellers.
More often than not, the ferocious camera walks on amongst the trees in the dark, with staff new crawls and thirsty tees,
its yellow eyes shining in the shadow on dark grey fur shimmering under the silver heights of performance night.
In perfect silence, it waits in the flesh it kills.
It is the monster in our horse in these two wars, but now we're far enough for you to feel safe.
It is the monster of our homes who, in the sweep of the mediaeval officers, were fascinated with werewolves just as much as we are.
Yet, despite all the four fearsome ferocity, the world wolf they have imagined is not quite the same as we do.
So here are five common sense Where am I the you all where wolves are?
Well, they were from the modern portrayal, and I start with the most important of which is how does one transform into a wolf?
If there are? How do they come back? And so in modern cinematic world,
the very a very common way for a man to transform into a wolf is to basically have a whole wolf coming out of the human skin,
normally from the mouth, forcing the magic on a horror effect.
I would imagine this is quite interesting because it seems as if it is a wolf that we are
so human appearance on when the we actually don't quite see them turn back into a human.
But at least in one case, we see basically the same process where at worst we have this human coming out of the wolf.
Well, in imari or literature on the werewolf transformation still centres on the concept of skin or skin change.
But in most cases, it is the human that wears the wolf.
So at least in all Norse Icelandic literature,
the most common way for a man to transform into a wolf is to wear a wolf skin as if it were a piece of clothes that.
And this kind of transformation is often referred, is referred to in Hummer, which is skin related terms.
So basically, this will change. The shape is to change the skin as if as long as the skin has been changed,
your body and the organs on the bones would just follow the skin and you would become in your career just because your appearance has changed.
Well, this, of course, the tradition of Basilica Wolf has the warriors who are Bothell friends who are warriors,
but we're innocent, but there are wolf skin. So we have been ignoring the saga account of all for suckers.
It is sad that so those bizarre cars want to insult Meryl on were as wild as
dogs or wolves biting their shells as portrayed here in the Always Tribesmen,
and there are strong as parasol boots. They kill the people, but now they're firing.
All our own took effect on them. And this is called bizarre fury.
And in this poem, heartless tragedy, we also have this mentioning of the wolves and the Warriors, who are very similar to the puzzle cars.
Outside the mediaeval Scandinavian we have in the topography of our island, written by Giraldo Wells in the 12th century, a werewolf.
That's. Well, that basically has a human body or what's in a wolf skiff.
So according to Gerald, a priest is travelling through a forest in the region of Ulcerated in Ireland,
and he during the night he is approached by a speaker who the world claims to be to be a human in your region.
He only takes on the wolf form because he's so he's he's come on is a curse.
And so every seven years to two people from this crowd in the house to to become a wolf have served their time,
and he wants this press to put her on the bus rides on his dying companion.
And of course, they'll press. Refuse to believe him, follow him.
He he's quite scared because who knows this wolf might be called the devil.
Well, in order to convince the press to perform the right,
the werewolf brings the press to his companion and then unzips the wolf skin to reveal an old woman underneath.
So eventually, the priest does perform last rites because apparently, well, unfortunately, it's not portrayed here, but apparently there is a woman.
There is a human underneath that wolf appearance. So she has a human intelligence on the human mind.
And most importantly, she has a human soul, which makes it OK for the priest to perform his duty.
Well,
this difference in transformative mould results in difference in emphasis on the world's identity when it is the wolf that comes also of the man.
It is as if the wolf has been there all the time, lurking under the guise of a seemingly ordinary human.
The violence it is about to unleash is heralded by the torn flash, by the freshly torn flash on the or not.
The man is about to answer your show broken down. Cast away.
The wolf is assassins in the matter you will portray.
On the other hand, even though in some cases the wolf skin does burn at some of these nature.
The man is only a rough heathen, but now we're destroyed. So when they shot the wolf skin, they will automatically become human again.
And now we move on to the second point, which is the werewolf nature on behaviour.
In mediaeval literature, well, in modern cinema, as we have seen some, we have seen some examples just now, the world wolf is always ferocious.
It is a monster that caused the Aurora Human Being.
But in mediaeval literature, it is the continuity and consistency of their identity,
of their human identity that it was born to on this short sentence here.
You know, Wolf have the understanding of a man is taken from them from also around Romans retained gotten called Asa Gallego in the story,
Can Gallego is turning into a wolf by his treacherous wife.
She could have gone with what she could have gotten away with was the crime because it was because originally in the curse, it is the that.
So if you strike that you with a branch of a very specific tree and then say, be a wolf, be a wolf, have the understanding of a wolf here we're just.
Go away as ordinary Wolf, and there will be no return for him because humour will be worked out like told me.
However, he or she made this very unlikely mistake.
And this is very unfortunate for her. But it does bring another major this major difference between more than maybe you won't wearables.
So the mediaeval werewolves are real, savage monsters in style.
They can be surprisingly intelligent, rational and well behaved.
Well, in the case of Gallego, he has no difficulty in mingling with kings, cars and knights.
So later in the story he is this hour by hour king who recognises humour, tired of seeing the wolf so that Kim Beazley adopts him as a pet dog?
Well, he even sits on the horse on the for the tycoon's table, with his foreign policy rocked where you can grab and drink from the same cup.
So he's basically eating with his paws as if there were his hands.
And he was apparently not eating a warfare forward.
He's even bragged on drinks and one which is very human. And when I hear that Kim, once he always followed.
So that's not as he would, then he would quit. Wouldn't I don't be sorry that Kim's fat?
Well, this courtesy does not necessarily make the world wolf smile unfriendly creatures.
But even when they do perform some of these old violence,
the violence is well justified as originating from some human reasons, for instance, in this conflict, which is a 12th century.
For me, that tells about the story of this fall flat,
who was very whose story is very similar to that of Gilligan's, so he is also betrayed by his wife.
And then Kinchen embarking on the wife remarries on when the wife of the current husband go to the court,
the wolf recognised them and he inflicts great harm upon both of them.
But this action is immediately treated as revenge rather than wolfish violence.
So no one is our free persecuting lone wolf. Everybody is just there must be something wrong with a woman.
So this this act of violence actually confirms rather than forfeits the wolf's humanity.
Well, what makes this, so be here. Well, this could be here are so important for the world, Wolf is that well,
it's partially because in you literature, the werewolf is actually the same.
They're basically the same as an ordinary wolf. So if they don't behave well, there is no way to tell.
Whereas in many representations in our Our The World Wolf, its content creator, that stands on two feet.
Sometimes, though, you will have creases or human features being on the face, as in this case, which is the wolf man from 1941.
In fact, this image is closer to that of a monstrous race called and also follies or dog hat.
So they have a they have a dog for help, but more than that because it's a human body.
And according to a tribe, also served raw mango. They are actually quite so intelligence on a rational.
And there are very good fighters and they have a social structure very similar to a human society.
And they worship a God which takes the form of a cow of an ox here on the in some in some Orthodox churches,
and Kristoffer is even portrayed as soon as a single follows.
Well, the word wolves. On the other hand, they are just to where there are just ordinary wolf, except they may be quite vague.
But there are still on their feet. They could also be more dangerous because apparently they are cleverer than ordinary wolves.
But that's OK.
And this makes sense trickier, and all of it more difficult because, as I said, it's very hard to tell which is a real wolf on which it's human.
So in this sense, it is a riddle. Again, you have to solve it.
You have to pick up the camels in their behaviour to know what to discover about.
It could be a human handler and use. And the very important question here is, but what about the Moon?
I'm sure a lot of people have this in mind at the beginning of this presentation.
Well, in fact, of all the my view, all your European literature about werewolves,
that's how I know of only one mentions the curse of the Moon in relation to Mount Wolf transformation.
And that is in the downhill single work called Alter and Parry Audio or recreation for an emperor written by Travels of Tiberi.
So he begins this session by saying the curse of human destiny is such that certain mountain dreams wolves, according to the cycles of the Moon.
And then he gives one example of a man called Roosevelt, who is tormented by having to software the fate of the werewolf whenever there is a new moon.
And he says that's when the time has come.
He parts company from all his friends, bases close under a bush or rock, and then girls naked in the sun for a long time until he takes on the shape.
And we're also hearing of a wolf. Yeah, it is quite noticeable that it's a new moon that's that's on pause here,
which is the very opposite to the full moon and the little detail of rolling nectarine casket.
One The impression of crying to son of his human skin.
So this again brings us back to the school motif in the transformative mode.
Well, this connexion between this connexion between a werewolf and a moon possibly has its roots
in the etymology of Dumbarton word for more now from which our word lunatics derive.
Well, the lunatics or the madmen there are models of human reason dehumanises them, so they are basically figurative beasts.
So you know where they are already. They are parallel yet so opposite to the world wolves.
Because where as the werewolf is a perfectly normal human mind trapped in the form of a wolf?
Well, here we have some people whose mind is already gone.
So there could be an animal is taken away in their behaviour for their story of human form.
And the last question we're going to talk about is werewolf sources, vampires.
Well, other best friends or astronomy, the werewolves on the vampires always enjoy a very special bond.
So all the years, the werewolf may be a servant or partner to a vampire,
or it is the only one of whom was where the vampires could be killed, as in Herald-Sun Twilight, who's out in the floor?
On the movie of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992, you will have your world transformed into a creature that really resembles the werewolf.
At one point in the movie. Well, in fact, it invokes very similar to the Wolf Man movie from 1941 to have a human face here, almost human face.
And before that, in the previous moment in the movie, he shows some very special ability with Wolves,
with wild wolves, so he can't have this wild wolf that runs free from the.
So apparently there is some connexion with wolves there.
Why? Well, this may have to do this connexion between werewolves and vampires goes back really far.
So in some regions of the world, for one person, werewolves are actually the same on Paul Barbering,
whose article Forensic Pathology on the European Vampires tries to explain why.
Well, the roots of this myth. So he so basically again suggests that maybe people find this wolf.
I'll put kerbs on that corpse is just happens to be Andy Cave, which is a sign of vampirism.
So in that way, the wolf will be seen as an ally of the villagers, either on a party or forward to the vampires.
But anyway, he concludes that this colostrum of the three ideas that's werewolf and vampire may occur simply because,
as producers, of course, we treat Troxel Wolf. So it's a very practical explanation.
Although vampires on the vine perished, figures rarely make their appearance.
You marry you all eyes on the Norwegian literature. There are bones, always.
The werewolf is still found on our Sargasso Sea, a crater called the dorigo.
It is a Walking Dead kind of creator that shares many features with the vampires.
Well, to start with, Daugaard is more active during the night when it's dark or during a winter,
which is the same as the night in Norse, but the North Iceman bones you're on.
Their rationale was coming back from the grave to haunt people, and they could be very confident because they can.
In fact, other people always this dog harness turned them into a dog as well.
One of the most famous dargah Koroma in grittiest saga.
Also, Anderson is south to her wolf grau wolf grey hair.
And this word wolf grey is now where used all natural wolves, but only over enlightened humans such as Eeyore Scott Scott Goranson,
whose entire family has a reputation of being wolfish opposite career.
The fact that Homer has the same hair colour certainly burns him closer to wolfish finish while over Bradshaw, who inherits from Cromer this dog.
Our nature becomes a figurative wolf when he is all told and is forced to feed on the sheep on the island of Corgi.
Well, it is very intriguing to ponder over just how different the werewolves and the
vampires have been developed throughout all the years in the mediaeval literature.
The werewolf literature As I have mentioned, werewolves tend to be aristocrats.
There are knights, princes or even kings.
In most cases, there are victimised and there are receival and the human, and there are often sympathised from the vampires.
On the other hand, while its version of the folkloric ones, they are not very high on the social ladder to begin with.
And the concept of sympathetic vampires has only become fashionable in the past century.
Was the interview with a vampire? So how this difference came into being?
It may have to do with one fundamental difference between the vampire on the werewolf, and that is the former's immortality.
So the vampires immortality and resistance to change makes and somehow makes it more desirable because
he saw that while the Biden-Harris identity is always fixed and they come of age well on this.
And I suppose this makes it easier to romanticise vampires. The werewolves, on the other hand, that concerns transform and when they turn into a wolf,
it is so very well despite the human nature of evil werewolves.
It is still the animal's size of man comes up to the surface.
I suppose it is quite scary because no one wants to lose their minds and become like a wild beast.
Well, although there is no one answer to this question, it is certainly something to think about.
And the same goes with all saying for all those previous points that have been talked about in this presentation,
what has been changed, all for granted and what has not?
But what seems to remain constant in the struggle is the struggle between man and beast forever embodied in the figure of the werewolf.
Thank you.