Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Werewolves: Do They Live Among Us?

In 500 BCE, Herodotus, in his book The Histories, mentioned a tribe called the Neuri who were said to be able to change into wolves during a religious ceremony.

Skip ahead to 435 AD when St. Patrick arrived in Ireland and reportedly discovered entire families of werewolves living among his flock.

Then, in 1182, a Welsh historian, Giraldus Camrensis, learned about an Irish tribe whose members transformed themselves into wolves during their Yuletide feast. A few decades later, Gervaise of Tilbury reported a similar case in the Auvergne region of France.

In 16th century France, tens of thousands of suspected werewolves were tortured and killed. Cases like this continued, sporadically, into the 17th century and include the trial of a man named, Theiss, who not only confessed to being a werewolf but a member of the Benandanti (from my last blog post -- and I'm willing to bet the idea of a "heroic werewolf" went over well with the church.).

So for centuries, the werewolf was considered a real threat. But this was hundreds of years ago, right? We've got science on our side now to disprove all this superstitious nonsense.

Right?

In 1989, a woman named Lorianne E. was driving down Bray Road in Wisconsin late at night. She reported that she saw what looked like a person kneeling by the side of the ride. She slowed down, as she passed, to get a better look. What she saw was a humanlike figure, covered in hair, with distinct wolflike features, feasting on a piece of roadkill. Whatever this creature was, Lorianne stated that it wasn't the least bit afraid of her. It stared directly at her, growling and snarling as she drove past.

More sightings of the Beast of Bray Road would follow. Later, it would be revealed that there had actually been previous sightings dating all the way back to 1936. I recall reading about one witness who was so traumatized by his encounter that he's been making wolf and werewolf related crafts for years since -- and selling them out of a shop -- as a way of coping with what he saw.

The local animal control, in the county where Bray Road is located, are said to have a file labeled "Werewolf," and in a documentary about the Beast, a local deputy that was interviewed said that every member of the local police force was issued a single, .357 magnum, hollow-point silver bullet.

Why?

"Because you never know," he said.

The Beast has been sighted all over Wisconsin, which suggests it either roams around quite a bit -- or maybe there's a pack (or packs) living in the Badger State.

There have also been sightings of similar creatures in other states too. There are tales of the Dogman in Michigan and the Loup Garou of Bayou Goula. There have also been isolated sightings in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Alabama.

I did my best to incorporate some of these "historic" werewolf sightings into the Harmony mythology the best I could -- that there are packs living in the US where these sightings have occurred. I included the Pacific Northwest though (where Sheriff Ron grew up), because it's an area with a large wolf population, and it seemed like a good place for a werewolf -- I mean, lupoi pack -- to blend in.

I liked the idea of the Change being associated with religious ceremonies or, in the ancient times, the sabbats -- which mark the changing points of the seasons and other turning points in the year. But I decided to make these nights when monsters were at their most active and decided that the lupoi's heroic acts were tied into a biological need to protect their territory from other predators the same way an actual wolf would.

I tried to incorporate other aspects of wolf behavior into my lupoi. For starters, an actual wolf pack is a family, not some random group of wolves. So are my lupoi. The members of a wolf pack are also very loving and devoted to one another. There are reports of packs caring for sick and wounded members, bringing them food until they've recovered and are able to rejoin them on future hunts.

Wolves are also awesome parents too. In fact, each year, when pups are born, the entire pack helps take care of and raise them, not just the parents -- the alpha pair. I've even read that if a pup is stillborn, the parents will actually bury it. Because of this, I decided to make Sheriff Ron and Mrs. Sullivan the "perfect" parents, loving and devoted to their children but firm and strict when they need to be. This affection is also expressed in how quickly the Sullivan family take Dillon, a lone pup, into their fold.

That's not to say there are never conflicts within a wolf pack -- or in a lupoi pack -- or in a human family for that matter. Any member of the pack who won't follow the alpha is either banished or choose, on his own, to "disperse." Wolves are social creatures, and it's said there's nothing sadder than the cry of a lone wolf. I addressed this, to a point, with Dillon before he discovered the existence of other lupoi, and will be explored further in future stories.

For my lupoi, I made the idea of "dispersing" as necessity at times. Wolves will keep the size of their packs proportionate to their territory. The bigger the pack, the bigger the territory. My lupoi live by the same principle. In future stories, I plan on addressing the territory issue.

In Welcome to Harmony, Sheriff Ron reveals that he dispersed from his pack by choice after marrying Michelle. It was an arranged marriage, which I decided to make a lupoi custom. Dillon's parents are suspected of being disperers too -- for reasons that will be revealed in a later story.


UPDATES:

For the handful of people actually reading this blog, I know I said this particular post would come "a week later." In reality, I teach at an elementary school, and late July to early August (when I originally planned on writing this post) is when the "back to school crunch" officially begins. I'm not promising anything, but I'll do my best to put out a new post once a month -- for you devoted few.

Being back to school has also brought along the challenge of setting a writing schedule. I have to wake up at four in the morning each day. If I don't write before school, it won't get done. I'm way too tired to it after (as anyone who works with children can attest to).

Enough "singing the blues." My Goodreads giveaway ends this Friday. So far, 500 people have entered it and almost 200 people have marked it as "to-read." Wow.

I'm also little over halfway through the next Harmony story, Gwen Gladstone, and have sketched out the third one, Bloodline. I posted the covers on my Facebook page as a way of motivating myself. I'm aiming to have Gwen published in early 2014 and Bloodline published by the end of that year. I hope I'm not being overly ambitious.

That's it for now. See you in a month.

Thanks for reading,

DT