LITMIR.BIZ

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      In 1879, Karl Bartsch wrote that in the vicinity of Klein-Krams, near Ludwigslust, Germany, there existed in earlier centuries huge woods that “were so rich with game that the dukes often came to this region to hold their great hunts. During these hunts they almost always saw a wolf who—even though he came within shooting distance—could never be killed by a huntsman. Indeed, they even had to watch as he took a piece of game before their very eyes and—something that was most remarkable to them—ran with it into the village.”

      Bartsch continued that, on one particular occasion, a hussar from Ludwigslust was making his way through the village to meet with a man named Feeg. When the unnamed hussar arrived at the home of the man in question, he got far more than he bargained, as Bartsch recorded:

      “When he entered the house a flock of children stormed out of the house with a loud cry and hurried out into the yard. When he asked them about their wild behavior, they told him that except for a small boy, no one from the Feeg family was at home, and that he—as was his custom when no one was at home—had transformed himself into a werewolf, and that they were running away from him, because otherwise he would bite them.”

      Soon afterwards, Bartsch continued, the much-feared wolf-boy appeared, but by now he was back in his human form. The hussar demanded that the child tell him what manner of devilry was afoot in the village. Although the boy was initially reluctant to say anything at all, he finally relented. In Bartsch’s words: “The child told him that his grandmother had a strap, and that if he put it on he would instantly become a wolf. The hussar kindly asked the boy to make an appearance as a werewolf. At first the boy refused, but finally he agreed to do it, if the strange man would first climb into the loft, so that he would be safe from him. The hussar agreed to this, and to be sure pulled up the ladder with which he had climbed into the loft.”

      By Bartsch’s account, the incredible transformation from boy to monster happened quickly:

      “As soon as this had happened the boy ran into the main room, and soon came out again as a young wolf and chased away all those who were standing in the entryway. After the wolf had run back into the main room and come back out as a boy, the hussar climbed down and had the Feeg child show him the magic belt, but he could not discover anything unusual about it.”

      In no time at all, the astonished and concerned hussar went to a forester in the vicinity of Klein-Krams and told him what he had experienced in the Feeg house. On listening to the tale, the forester, “who had always been present at the great hunts near Klein-Krams, immediately thought about the werewolf who could not be wounded. He now thought that he would be able to kill the werewolf.”

      At the very next hunt the forester told his friends, as he carefully inserted a silver bullet into the barrel of his rifle: “Today the werewolf will not escape from me!” His concerned friends looked on in silence.

      The boy was reluctant at first to show himself as a wolf, but he eventually agreed to do so by using the magical belt.

      According to Bartsch: “The hunt soon began, and it did not take long before the wolf showed himself once again. Many of the huntsmen shot at him, but he remained unwounded. Finally he approached the forester, who brought him to the ground. Everyone could see that the wolf was wounded, but soon he jumped up again and ran into the village. The huntsmen followed him, but the werewolf outran them and disappeared into the Feeg farmyard.”

      There was, however, an unforeseen ending to this strange saga of shape-shifting in Germany of centuries past. The werewolf killed by the forester was not the young Feeg boy, after all. Bartsch revealed the twist in the story: “In their search, the huntsmen came into the house, where they found the wolf in the grandmother’s bed. They recognized it from the tail that was sticking out from under the covers. The werewolf was no one other than Feeg’s grandmother. In her pain she had forgotten to take off the strap, and thus she herself revealed the secret.”

      WEREWOLVES AND THE BROTHERS GRIMM

      Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, far better known as the Brothers Grimm, were born in Hanau, Germany—Jacob in 1875 and Wilhelm in the following year. They are renowned for their popularization of folklore, myths, and legends, and for promoting the likes of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rumpelstiltskin. They also had an interesting tale to tell of werewolves. In 1816, they wrote:

      “A soldier related the following story, which is said to have happened to his grandfather. The latter, the grandfather, had gone into the forest to cut wood with a kinsman and a third man. People suspected that there was something not quite right about this third man, although no one could say exactly what it was. The three finished their work and were tired, whereupon the third man suggested that they sleep a little. And that is what they did. They all laid down on the ground, but the grandfather only pretended to sleep, keeping his eyes open a crack. The third man looked around to see if the others were asleep, and when he believed this to be so, he took off his belt (or, as others tell the story, put on a belt) and turned into a wolf.

      The Grimm Brothers (immortalized here in a statue in Hanau, Germany), wrote about werewolves in some of their stories.

      “However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.

      “Then he ran to a nearby meadow where a young foal was grazing, attacked it, and ate it, including skin and hair. Afterward he returned, put his belt back on (or took it off), and laid down, as before, in human form.

      “A little later they all got up together and made their way toward home. Just as they reached the town gate, the third man complained that he had a stomachache. The grandfather secretly whispered in his ear: ‘That I can well believe, for someone who has a horse, complete with skin and hair, in his belly.’

      “However, such a werewolf does not look exactly like a natural wolf, but somewhat different.”

      “The third man replied: ‘If you had said that to me in the forest, you would not be saying it to me now.’

      “A woman had taken on the form of a werewolf and had attacked the herd of a shepherd, whom she hated, causing great damage. However, the shepherd wounded the wolf in the hip with an ax blow, and it crawled into the brush. The shepherd followed, thinking that he could finish it off, but there he found a woman using a piece of cloth torn from her dress to stop the blood gushing from a wound.

      “At Lüttich in the year 1610 two sorcerers were executed because they had turned themselves into werewolves and had killed many children. With them they had a boy of twelve years whom the devil turned into a raven whenever they were tearing apart and eating their prey.”

      WOLF-MAN

      In 1898, F. Asmus and O. Knoop wrote that by using what was called a wolf strap, it was possible for just about anyone to transform his- or herself into a werewolf. If, however, someone were to call the werewolf by their human name, they would transform back into human form. As for what, exactly, a wolf strap was, the pair noted that it was “a gift from the devil.” They continued:

      “A person who possessed such a strap could not get rid of it, however much he wanted to. Anyone who accepted a wolf strap also had entered into brotherhood with the devil, surrendering body and soul to him. If real wolves

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