Halloween reading! A cross-cultural history of werewolf myth, a biography of Queen Elizabeth I’s arch-conjurer Dr John Dee, English parapsychologist Robert H Thouless’ 1963 study on experimental psychical research, ‘Tales From The Black Meadow’, a guide to superstitions of the British Isles, and Mark Fisher’s treatise on ‘The Weird & The Eerie’.
#halloween #books #bookworm #markfisher #werewolves #drdee #talesfromtheblackmeadow #superstitions #theweirdandtheeerie #folkhorror #robertthouless
That history of werewolf myth has a great chapter on what fills the ‘-wolf’ role in countries where there aren’t wolves. Were-hyaenas, were-buffalo etc.
Also featuring the were-salmon, which feels a bit underpowered.
Like, ‘Don’t stray off the path by full moon! Or I mean, specifically don’t go paddling I guess.’
Etymology heads will love that the ‘Were-‘ in ‘Werewolf’ is related to
Lithuanian ‘Vyras’ - man
Latin - ‘Virilis’ - manly, whence ‘virile’
The Welsh ending ‘-wr’/‘-wyr’- person/people/‘one who…’ - as in dysgi (to learn)/dysgwr (student)
Gaelic ‘Fir’ - male
Saxon ‘Wer’ - a man’s life worth.
#werewolf #werewolves #welsh #gaelic #saxon #latin #lithuanian #etymology #language #languages #etymologists #cymraeg
Hear a few more at
http://ancientsounds.net/#werewolf
Matt Potter
𝔸𝕟𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕤 🔉