The Werewolf of Bedburg. What is Pitt Hopkins syndrome? Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when it was believed the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead become blurred.
It has since evolved into a holiday when spooky legends, myths and folklore take center stage. Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States , is remembered for his vital role as the leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the United States.
He's remembered for his Vampires are evil mythological beings who roam the world at night searching for people whose blood they feed upon. They may be the best-known classic monsters of all. The Devil, also referred to as Satan, is best known as the personification of evil and the nemesis of good people everywhere.
His image and story have evolved over the years, and the Devil has been called many different names in various cultures: Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan and Over the course of years, the outlaw from Nottinghamshire who robs from the rich to give to the poor has emerged as one of the most enduring folk heroes A mummy is a person or animal whose body has been dried or otherwise preserved after death.
When people think of a mummy, they often envision the early Hollywood-era versions of human forms wrapped in layers upon layers of bandages, arms outstretched as they slowly shuffle Although accounts of an aquatic beast living in the lake date back 1, years, all efforts to find any credible evidence of the animal have failed.
The zombie, often portrayed as an undead, flesh-eating, decaying corpse, has enjoyed a popularity surge in recent years. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. The Bedburg Werewolf Peter Stubbe, a wealthy, fifteenth-century farmer in Bedburg, Germany, may be the most notorious werewolf of them all.
Recommended for you. Patton the Legend. Zombies and the Plague. The Lingering Legend of Abraham Lincoln's Ghost Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States , is remembered for his vital role as the leader in preserving the Union during the Civil War and beginning the process that led to the end of slavery in the United States.
Vampire History Vampires are evil mythological beings who roam the world at night searching for people whose blood they feed upon. A soldier stated this story happened to his grandfather.
His grandfather went into the forest to cut wood with a friend and a third man. After they had done their job and had become tired, the third man recommended they take a nap. Accordingly, the three men lay down on the ground and closed their eyes. The grandfather pretended to fall asleep but kept his eyes slightly open. The third man looked to see if the other two men were sleeping. After feeling confident that both men were asleep, he put on or took off a belt and became a wolf.
He looked somewhat different. He quickly ran off to a nearby field where he ambushed a pregnant female horse and devoured it completely. The man came back, took off or put on his belt, and lay down again in human form near the others. While returning to town, the third man complained about having a stomach ache. The story, published in the second half of the nineteenth century, is one of the oldest and most popular legend of the werewolf in Germany.
They charged him with witchery, rape, murder, cannibalism, incest, and livestock mutilation. After becoming apprehended, and fearing torturous execution, Stumpp confessed to all the crimes he committed for over 25 years. When asked about the girdle, he said that he hid it in a valley prior to apprehension.
When the magistrate sent people to retrieve it, they returned empty-handed and reported no girdle was found. As previously discussed, the French call the lycanthrope a loup-garou.
Its origin is unknown. But from our investigation, we can say that all of France was plagued with lycanthropic terror in the 16th century. From the 16th century until the first quarter of the 17th century, the French killed more than 30, people for suspected werewolfism.
In , Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun were executed as werewolves. Historical records indicate that they were a serial killer team.
He was a confessed serial killer. After further research into the loup-garou, we found the following two events that predate this widespread werewolf terror in the land. These events confirm that the lycanthropic phenomena was alive well in France long before the 16th century.
The earliest documented instance on French lycanthropy is in A priest, accompanied by a boy, was traveling from Ulster to Meath.
One night in the woods, a wolf approached the priest. As it came nearer, it began speaking of God. The trembling priest asked the wolf what kind of creature was he that had the shape of a wolf but the words of a man.
The wolf told the priest there was only one other creature like him, and it was his wife. They were the native people of Ossory, cursed by a saint named Natalis for some ancient sin. The curse compelled two Ossory people, a man, and a woman, to take the wolf form and remain in that form every seven years.
After that period, two new people would take their place, and the prior two would return to human form. The wolf told the priest that his wife was very sick and dying. Baffled and still terrified, the priest reluctantly followed the wolf.
When they came near the ailing wolf, it thanked the priest for agreeing to administer the viaticum. Seeing a weak old woman underneath the hanging wolf-skin, the priest gave her the viaticum. The old woman returned to her wolf form. What is unique about this story is that it is recorded as an instance rather than a mere myth. It became indexed in Topographia Hibernica , a treatise on Irish geography and folklore.
Giraud de Barri Gerald of Wales wrote the treatise toward the end of the 12th century, around Interestingly, the vampire and werewolf myth is a closely related subject in Eastern European countries such as Romania, the Czech Republic, and the Slavic countries, such as Serbia and Croatia.
Vukodlak Slavic , vlkodlak Czech , vlkoslak Serbian , and vrykolakas Greece , all refer to either a werewolf or a vampire. The werewolf and vampire myths developed simultaneously in these regions and share a strong linguistic kinship. That evening, as they were on their way home, he said once again that he had never felt so stuffed, to which one of the harvesters replied that it could happen to anyone. When they arrived at the town gate, and he was still complaining, the other workman said, "A person who eats an entire foal should not be surprised to feel stuffed and have stomach cramps.
To that he replied, "If you had said that earlier, you would not now be walking home on your own legs. Werewolves Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 1.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
In subsequent editions this legend is numbered No one knew who he was, nor where he came from. Known everywhere by the name "the Old Man," he would often show up without notice in the villages and offer his services, which he performed to the satisfaction of the country people. He was most often engaged to herd sheep. It happened that a cute spotted lamb was born in a herd belonging to a shepherd named Melle from Neindorf. The stranger asked the shepherd repeatedly and fervently to give it to him, but the shepherd refused.
On shearing day Melle engaged the Old Man to help out. When he returned he found everything in order; all the work had been done, but neither the Old Man nor the spotted lamb were there. For a long time no one heard anything about the Old Man. Finally one day he unexpectedly appeared before Melle, who was grazing his sheep in the Katten Valley. He called out sneeringly: "Good day, Melle, your spotted lamb sends his greetings! Then suddenly the stranger changed shape and sprang at him as a werewolf.
The shepherd took fright, but his dogs attacked the wolf with fury. The wolf fled. Pursued, it ran through forest and valley until it reached the vicinity of Eggenstedt. Here the dogs surrounded him. The shepherd called out: "Now you will die! But the shepherd furiously attacked him with his stick, when suddenly a sprouting thorn bush stood before him. But the vengeful shepherd did not spare him, hacking away at the branches instead. The stranger once again turned himself into a human and begged for his life.
But hard-hearted Melle remained unmoved. Then the stranger attempted to make his escape as a werewolf, but a blow from Melle brought him dead to the earth. A rocky cliff marks the spot where he fell and was buried, and will be named after him for all eternity. The Werewolves Advance Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm In Livland there is the following legend: When Christmas Day is over a boy who limps with one leg goes around calling together all those who have yielded to the Evil One -- and there is a large number of them -- bidding them to follow him.
If any one of these resists or hesitates, then a large tall man is also there who hits at them with a whip braided from iron wire and little chains, driving them along with force. It is said that he whips at the people so cruelly that a long time later marks and scars can still be seen on their bodies, and they are in great pain. As soon as they begin to follow him, it appears as though they lose their former shape and turn into wolves.
Several thousand of them come together. Their leader, with the iron whip in his hand, leads the way. When they have been led into a field, they cruelly attack the cattle, ripping every animal to pieces that they can catch, thus doing great damage. However, they are not able to harm humans.
When they come to a body of water, their leader strikes at it with his switch or whip, and it divides, allowing them to cross over with dry feet. After twelve days have passed, they abandon their werewolf form and become humans once again.
Livland, also known as Livonia, is a region on the Baltic Sea that comprises present Estonia and parts of Latvia.
The Werewolf of Jarnitz A. Haas In the vicinity of Jarnitz there lived a werewolf who had the ability to transform himself into all kinds of different shapes. This werewolf spent the nights stealing sheep from their enclosures, for in those days the sheep were kept at night in enclosures in the open fields. For several nights in a row the shepherd, armed with a loaded gun, had kept watch for the night robber. He had already hit the werewolf several times, as he had clearly seen, but the bullets seemed to have done him no harm, and he had escaped with his booty every time.
Then the shepherd loaded his gun with bullets made of inherited silver, which never fail. Thus this time he would be successful. Following his custom, the werewolf appeared again that night. But as he was approaching the enclosure, he immediately sensed that this time the shepherd might do him in. Therefore he quickly turned himself into a human, walked up to the shepherd, and said to him in a familiar tone, "You don't have to shoot me dead!
The werewolf never again dared to steel sheep from the Jarnitz enclosures. Source: A. Werewolf Adalbert Kuhn There were formerly werewolves. One could transform oneself into a werewolf by putting on a belt. A servant understood how to do this, and while the others were asleep at noontime he ate an entire foal.
One of the men just pretended to be asleep and observed everything. From Glane near Iburg. If you throw a piece of iron or steel over a hare that is a transformed human, or over a werewolf, then the human will immediately appear before you completely naked. They call that "making blank" the witch, the wolf, and so forth.
The werewolf's pelt bursts crosswise at its forehead, and the naked human emerges from this opening. Brockhaus, , v. Kuhn and W. Late one evening two peasants were returning home from a mill not far from Rinteln. Each was carrying a sack of flour. The next day they went to another peasant. They had long suspected him, because was rich, but no one knew the source of his wealth. He was lying in bed, deathly ill.
He had the surgeon come and bind his wounds. Brockhaus, , p. Kuhn's and Schwartz's source is an "oral tradition. The Werewolf Belt A. Schwartz Formerly there were people who could turn themselves into wolves by putting on a certain belt. A man in the vicinity of Steina had such a belt, and once he went away without locking it up, as was his custom.
His young son came upon it and buckled the thing about himself. Instantly he became a werewolf. He had the appearance of a stack of pea straw and lumbered away heavily like a bear. When the people in the room saw what had happened they ran quickly and brought back the father. He arrived barely in time and undid the strap before the boy could do any damage. Afterward the boy said that as soon as he put the belt on, he become so terribly hungry that he would have torn anything apart that might have gotten in his way.
Kuhn's and Schwartz's source is an "oral tradition from Steina. The Werewolf Wife A. Schwartz In Caseburg on the island of Usedom a man and his wife were cutting hay in a meadow. After a while the woman told the man that she was uneasy and could not stay there any longer, and she went away. Earlier she had told him that if a wild animal were to come upon him he should throw his hat toward it and run away, and then no harm would come to him. The man had promised her that he would do this.
After the woman had been away for a while, a wolf swam across the Swina and approached the harvesters. The man threw his hat at it, which the beast immediately ripped into small pieces. Meanwhile one of the workers crept up to the wolf with a pitchfork and stabbed it to death from behind. Instantly it was transformed. They were all astounded to see that it was the farmer's wife that the worker had killed. Today the island of Usedom lies mostly in German, partly in Polish territory.
The straight of Swina separates the Polish portion of Usedom from mainland Poland. Brockhaus, , no. The Werewolf Karl Lyncker The Hessian farmer knows and fears the ravenous werewolf even today []. This is a human whose shape has been transformed by putting on a belt. The werewolf attacks everything that gets in his way, and is especially dangerous for the herds. However, there is a way to destroy the belt's magic power: If one throws a knife -- a piece of shiny steel -- over the werewolf, he will instantly be transformed into his true human form and stand there completely naked.
In the vicinity of Wolfhagen there was a well-to-do woman of good parentage who almost every night would leave her house and roam the fields as a werewolf. Once a shepherd bravely approached the werewolf, as it crept into an alder thicket, its appetite sated. The shepherd, who had long pursued the werewolf, hoped to capture it.
He threw his pocketknife over its head and neck, and immediately the woman was standing naked there before him. She implored him to have mercy with her and to not tell the story to anyone. The shepherd was highly surprised to see the well known woman before him, and he promised to keep the event a secret.
Nonetheless, within a few days everyone knew about it. To the husband's amazement, the wife nevertheless was able to serve meat for every meal.
For a long time she kept it a secret where she got the meat, but finally she promised to reveal it to him, under the condition that he not call out her name as it was happening. Together they went to a field where a herd of sheep was grazing.
The woman walked toward the sheep, and as she approached them, she threw a ring over herself and instantly turned into a werewolf. She fell upon the sheep, seized one of them, and fled. The man stood there as though petrified. However, when he saw the shepherd and the dogs running after the werewolf, thus endangering his wife, he forgot his promise and called out: "Margaret!
The Peasant and the Werewolf Karl Lyncker One night a werewolf came upon a peasant who was driving his wagon overland. In order to break its magic, the level-headed man unhesitatingly tied his fire steel to his whip and threw it over the wolf's head, keeping the whip in his hand.
However, the wolf seized the steel, and the peasant had to flee in order to save his life. Then they cunningly attack and torment other people.
They can be exposed by throwing a piece of steel over them. She offered her farm hands but little to eat, although there was fresh meat every Sunday. The household wondered about this, because the old woman never bought any meat. A young farm hand wanted to discover the woman's trick, so one day he hid himself in the hayloft instead of going to church with the rest of the household.
Suddenly he noticed how the woman pulled out a wolf strap and put it around herself. She immediately became a wolf, ran out into the field, and soon came back with a sheep. As the woman put meat into the pot, she sighed and said, as was her custom, "Oh, dear God, if only I were with you!
But the boy could not remain silent, and in the village he talked about what had happened. When on a Sunday morning the woman again turned herself into a wolf, the people were on guard. However, no bullet could harm her until they finally loaded a flintlock with a silver bullet. From that time to the end of her life the woman had an open wound that no doctor could heal. She never again showed herself as a werewolf.
Several times it happened that after driving his herd home he discovered that one of the animals was missing. All searching was in vain. They were lost and they remained lost.
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