puget_sound_crs: Celtic Werewolf Geekery

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alfrecht ( alfrecht) wrote in @ 2006-04-29 02:06:00

puget_sound_crs,

Celtic Werewolf Geekery

Greetings all! For those of you who might be interested, here is the contents of the handout for the paper that I gave this afternoon at the symposium at UW. Enjoy!

The Legend of Vereticus: An Ancient Celtic Tale from the 1860s by Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Ph.D. University of Washington Medievalist Conference, April 28, 2006 1. Aubrey Gwynn, The Writings of Bishop Patrick, 1074-1084, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 1 (Dublin, 1955), pp. 62-63 xvi. Sunt hominess quidam Scottorum gentis habentes Miram naturam maiorum ab origine ductam, Qua cito quando uolunt ipsos se uertere possunt Nequiter in formas lacerantum [uel more] dente luporum. Unde uidentur oues occidere sepe gementes: Sed cum clamor eos hominum seu cursus eorum Fustibus aut armis terret, fugiendo [i. ut ueri lupi] recurrunt. Cum tamen hec faciunt, sua corpora [i. propria] uera relinquunt Atque [i. suis mulieribus] suis mandant ne quisquam mouerit illa. Si [i. ut moueantur] sic eueniat, nec ad illa [ad propria corpora] redire ualebunt. Si quid eos ledat, penetrent si uulnera queque, Uere in corporibus semper [i. a persequentibus eos] cernuntur eorum. Sic [i. ouium quas deuorant] caro cruda herens in ueri corporis ore Cernitur a sociis: quod nos miramur et omnes. There are some men of the Scottish race Who have this wondrous nature from ancestry and birth: Whensoever they will, they can speedily turn themselves Into the form of wolves and rend flesh with wicked teeth: Often they are seen slaying sheep that moan in pain. But when men raise the hue and cry, Or scare them with staves and swords, they take flight like true wolves. But whilst they act thus, they leave their true bodies And give orders to their women not to move them. If this happens, they can no longer return to them. If any man harm them or any wound pierce their flesh, The wounds can be plainly seen in their own bodies: Thus their companions can see the raw flesh in the jaws Of their true body: and we all wonder at the sight. 2. James Henthorn Todd, Leabhar Breathnach Annso Sis: The Irish Version of the Historia Brittonum of Nennius (Dublin, 1848), pp. 204-205.

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Atait aroile daine a n-Eirind, .i. sil Laighne Faelaid a n-Osraighe, tiagaid a richtaib mac tire, in tan is ail leo, 7 marbaid na h-indile fo bes na mac tire, 7 fagbaid a curpu fein, in tan tiagaid as na conrachtuibh aichnigid dia muinteraib can a corpu do chumhscugudh, ar dia cumscaidter n fhetfad teacht taris as na corpaib; 7 dia crechtnaigter amuich beid na crechta sin na corpaib andsna tighaib 7 bigh in fheoil dearg caithaid amuich ana fiaclaibh. There are certain people in Eri, viz.: the race of Laighne Faelaidh, in Ossory, they pass into the forms of wolves whenever they please, and kill cattle according to the custom of wolves, and they quit their own bodies; when they go forth in the wolf-forms, they charge their friends not to remove their bodies, for if they are moved they will not be able to come again into their bodies; and if they are wounded while abroad, the same wounds will be on their bodies in their houses; and the raw flesh devoured while abroad will be in their teeth. 3. Whitley Stokes, Cir Anmann, in Irische Texte, mit bersetzungen und Wrterbuch, Vol. 3.2, ed. Whitley Stokes and Ernst Windisch (Leipzig, 1891), pp. 285-444 at 376-377 215. Laighnech Faeladh .i. fer eissidhe no theghedh fri faeladh .i. i conreachtaibh .i. areachtaibh na mac tire tghedh intan ba hail d, 7 teighds a shil ina dheidh, 7 domharbhdis na hindile f bs na mac tire, conadh aire sin sberth Laighnech Feladh frissium, ar is ctna dochidh i conrecht dbh. Laignech Felad, that is, he was the man that used to shift into felad, i.e. wolf-shapes. He and his offspring after him used to go whenever they pleased, into the shapes of the wolves, and, after the custom of wolves, kill the herds. Wherefore he was called Laignech Felad, for he was the first of them to go into a wolf-shape. 4. John J. OMeara, Giraldus Cambrensis in Topographia Hibernie: Text of the First Recension, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy C 52 (1948-1950), pp. 113-178 at 144; John J. OMeara, Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland (London, 1982), p. 70. De quodam hominum genere sumus Ossiriensium. Vnde, quolibet septennio, per imprecationem sancti cuiusdam, Natalis scilicet abbatis, duo, uidelicet masculus et femina, tam a formis quam finibus exulare coguntur. Formam enim humanam prorsus exuentes, induunt lupinam. Completo uero septennii spatio, si forte superstites fuerint, aliis duobus ipsorum loco simili conditione subrogates, ad pristinam redeunt tam patriam quam naturam. Et quidem mihi peregrinationis huius socia non procul hinc grauiter infirmatur. Cui, si placet, iam in extremis agenti, sacerdotale solatium intuitu diuine pietatis indulgeas. We are natives of Ossory. From there every seven years, because of the imprecation of a certain saint, namely the abbot Natalis, two persons, a man and a woman, are compelled to go into exile not only from their territory but also from their bodily shape. They put off the form of man completely and put on the form of wolf. When the seven years are up, and if they have survived, two others take their place in the same way, and the first pair return to their former country and nature. My companion in this pilgrimage is not far from here, and is seriously ill. Please give her in her last hour the solace of priesthood in bringing to her the revelation of the divine mercy. 5. Kuno Meyer, The Irish Mirabilia in the Norse Speculum Regale, Folklore 5 (1894), pp. 299-316 at 310-311 17 and riu 4 (1908-1910), pp. 1-16 at 10-11 17. There is also in that land one wonderful thing, which will seem very untruthful to men. Yet the people who inhabit that land say that it is certainly true. And that befell on account of the wrath of a holy man. It is said that when the holy Patricius was preaching Christianity in that land, there was one great race more hostile to him than the other people that were in the land. And those men tried to do him many kinds of injury. And when he preached Christianity to them as to other men, and came to meet them when they were holding their assembly, then they took this counsel, to howl at him like wolves. But when he saw that his message would succeed little with these people, then he became very wroth, and prayed God that He might avenge it on them by some judgment, that their descendants might for ever remember their disobedience. And great punishment and fit and very wonderful has since befallen their descendants; for it is said that all men who come from that race are always wolves at a certain time, and run into the woods and have food like wolves; and they are worse in this that they

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puget_sound_crs: Celtic Werewolf Geekery

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have human reason, for all their cunning, and such desire and greed for men as for other creatures. And it is said that some become so every seventh year, and are men during the interval. And some have it so long that they have seven years at once, and are never so afterwards. 6. A. B. E. Hood, St. Patrick, His Writings and Muirchus Life (London and Chichester, 1978), pp. 77, 98 29. Cum autem ista nuntiarentur Patricio, oravit Dominum et dixit: Deus, si fieri potest, expelle hunc perfidum de presenti seculoque futuro. Non grande postea tempus effluxerat, et Corictic musicam artem audivit a quodam cantari quod cito de solio regali transiret. Omnesque karissimi eius viri in hanc proruperunt vocem. Tunc ille, cum esset in medio foro, ilico vulpeculae miserabiliter arepta forma, profectus in suorum presentia, ex illo die illaque hora velut fluxus aquae transiens nusquam conparuit. When this was reported to Patrick, he prayed to the Lord and said: God, if it be possible, cast this traitor out from this present world and the world to come. After only a short time had elapsed, Coroticus heard someone give a musical performance and sing that he would soon pass from his royal throne; and all his dearest friends took up the cry. Then, when he was in open court, he suddenly had the misfortune to take on the appearance of a little fox; he made off before his followers eyes, and from that day and that hour, like a passing stream of water, he was never seen anywhere again. 7. Stan Winston, trading card for Vereticus figure. A former king deposed for his treachery, Vereticus took the dark oath and now lives as part man, part vicious beast. His goal is to reclaim the throne and put the Kingdom under the rule of the Werewolves. Further Reading Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of Werewolves (London, 1865). Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Canids in Celtic Cultures: From Celtiberia to C Chulainn to the Kennels of Camelot, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University College Cork, 2006. John Carey, Werewolves in Medieval Ireland, CMCS 44 (Winter 2002), pp. 37-72. Montague Summers, The Werewolf (London, 1933). Jan R. Veenstra, The Ever-Changing Nature of the Beast: Cultural Change, Lycanthropy, nd the Question of Substantial Transformation (from Petronius to Del Rio), in The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, ed. Jan N. Bremmer and Jan R. Veenstra (Leuven, 2002), pp. 133-166. Stan Winston and Francis Takenaga, TrakkHis Adventures in Mutant Earth (Orange, 2002).

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