A full moon, a silver bullet, a sprig of wolfsbane. The werewolf rules everyone knows feel ancient, but most of them were fixed in the 20th century by Hollywood. Here is where they really come from, and which beliefs are genuinely old.
Silver bullets
Many books claim that the Beast of Gévaudan was killed with a silver bullet in 1767. It was not. The detail comes mainly from Henri Pourrat's 1946 book Histoire fidèle de la bête en Gévaudan, in which the hunter Jean Chastel casts his bullets from melted medals of the Virgin Mary. Contemporary reports say nothing of the kind. Silver became the werewolf's definitive weakness in the cinema: the 1941 film The Wolf Man fixed silver, in a bullet or otherwise, as the one thing that can kill a werewolf, and later films kept the rule.
The full moon
Older European sources hardly connect werewolves with the full moon. Around 1210 the English writer Gervase of Tilbury noted that men in England were often seen to turn into wolves per lunationes, with the cycles of the moon, but historical sources do not describe a change forced by every full moon. The first film to make the full moon trigger the transformation was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943. Today it is the first rule most people think of.
How you became a werewolf in folklore
In the old stories the change usually came from something you did or wore. You put on a belt or a skin of wolf fur, rubbed your body with a magic salve, made a pact with the devil, or were cursed. Some tales say that sleeping outdoors on a certain summer night with the full moon shining on your face could do it, a single unlucky night rather than a monthly curse. In other words, folklore werewolves often chose their fate, which made them guilty in the eyes of the courts. You can read about those trials in Werewolf Legends.
Wolfsbane
Wolfsbane is aconite, a tall mountain plant with hooded purple or yellow flowers and one of the most poisonous plants in Europe. Its name recalls its old use against wolves. Medieval cures for lycanthropy were usually medicinal, often with wolfsbane, and many of them killed the patient. The Wolf Man then put the plant into a famous village rhyme, and it has been part of werewolf lore ever since. Admire it from a distance: even handling it can be dangerous.
Wounds that reveal the human
One belief really is old. Folklore calls it repercussion: an injury to the animal form of a witch or werewolf was believed to appear on the human body. Folk tales tell of a wolf wounded in the forest and of a neighbour who turns up the next day with exactly the same wound. The injury carries over, and the werewolf is unmasked.
Cures that were worse than the curse
Besides wolfsbane, medieval healers tried surgery and exorcism, and in the Christian Middle Ages conversion was thought to break the spell. Ancient Greek and Roman writers believed exhaustion could cure a werewolf. Silver, the one cure everyone knows today, is missing from almost all of them.
The rules at a glance
| Weakness | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Silver bullets | Film, fixed by The Wolf Man (1941); the Gévaudan silver bullets come from a 1946 book |
| Change at the full moon | Film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943); old sources mention the moon only vaguely |
| Wolfsbane | Old plant lore and medieval cures, made famous by The Wolf Man |
| Wound shows on the human | Old European folk belief (repercussion) |
| Wolf belt, wolf skin, salve | Old European folklore and trial records |
The werewolf who owns the full moon anyway is The Moon Howler, and the one who would pick the wolfsbane just because it is forbidden is The Wild Heart. What kind of werewolf are you?