Loup-Garou: Witches, Cannibalism & The Werewolves of France

From Salem to East Anglia, Bordeaux to the black forest of Germany, it seems there is no end of infamous witch trials that took place in history, spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Somewhat less well known are the many hundreds of werewolf trials that took place alongside them and with such a degree of crossover, that made them ultimately, synonymous with the occult world of demons and the Devil, with witchcraft and the sabbath. Whilst witches may have been feared for the damage they could cause to the crops, or the corruption they could sew within their communities, werewolves were feared on a far more primal level. Their danger came not from their insidious scheming, but their brutal ferocity, attacking, maiming and devouring the flesh of anyone who might find themselves alone on a dusty path at the wrong time. A predator, stalking in the shadows, werewolves struck fear into the rural communities of France for over two hundred years and whilst they may be considered hard to believe now, for many, they were once as real as the blood stains they left on the ground.

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SOURCES

Elspeth, Whitney (2007) “On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (1612)”. Renaissance Quarterly, Renaissance Society of America, Volume 60, Number 4, Winter 2007, pp. 1405-1406, USA

De Lancre, Pierre (2012) “On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons”, Paris, France

De Blecourt, Willem (2015) “Werewolf Histories (Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft & Magic)”, Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK

Baring-Gould, Sabine (1865) “The Book of Were-Wolves.” Smith, Elder & Co., London, UK

Danjou, F. (1839) “Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France depuis Louis XI jusqu'à Louis XVIII, ou Collection de pièces rares et intéressantes. Publiées d'après les textes conservés à la Bibliothèque Royale, et accompagnées de notices et d'éclaircissemens; ouvrage destiné à servir de complément aus collections Guizot, Buchon, Petitot et Leber., ser.1 v.8 1836.”, Paris, France

Evans, Hilary & Bartholomew, Robert. (2009) “Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behaviour”, Anomalist Books, New York, USA

Rosenstock, Harvey A. Vincent, Kenneth R. (1977) “A Case of Lycanthropy”, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 134(10), 1147–1149. USA

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