So I finished with vampires... jump to were-wolfies
If you ask me I feel myself closer to the werewolves instead of vampires, maybe because I can get angry more easily about something at full moon evenings than on simple days... Hahaha
The belief in the human-animal metamorphs is ancient. For example human-wolves are known from antiquity across middle ages, from Europe to North-Asia. [Asian cultures has were-leopard or were-cat while Far-East has were-fox as the man-eater female creature the 'húli jīng'/fox-spirit in China or 'Kitsune'/fox in Japan and the human liver eating creature the 'Kumiho'/nine-tailed fox in Korea... and Monty Python has were-rabbit! Haha Love that part...] According on German ethnographers this myth can be a remembering of the Indo-European, mask-wearing man companies from the middle ages [there were 'Werwolf' huntings in Germany to the 16. century, along with witch-huntings... soo much fun in the history...].
Around Hungary, they call it vlkodlak [in ancient Checz mythology], wilkolak [Polish mythology]. Other slavish words for werewolves are vukodlak, volkodlak, vurkolak, kudlak. Romanian people use the word priculici [came from slavish vîrcolac] where we have got one of our word for werewolves, prikulics. [1]
Sometimes when I read about folk creatures I am thinking about what inspired the people centuries ago to create such monsters. I think the first reason is always the same, that you can easily explain away someone's/or your crime... and don't forget that in those times when these monsters had been created most of the people were deeply religious, many of them were analphabetic or bigoted when superstitions can spread more faster.
Or the 'werewolf' was an easier explanation to serious sexual deviancy or other strange mental/bodily disorders. Think about it, about only 100 years ago handicapped/disabled people still must played at the circus like monsters whom the audience laughed or feared, mentally disordered people had been unhumanly closed and experimented at many times...
I have a personal story. About 5 years ago I worked for three months in a school for seriously disabled and handicapped children [The school named after Flóra Kozmutza, who was the first in the XX. century who helped the handicapped children in the 30's. She established the first special education department in Hungary as well.]. It was a temporary job for me but I learned many thing there, not just about tolerance [and most of the teachers' haven't got any!], but what I saw there it changed me... I learned not to complain ever again about my life. I am very lucky to have legs and arms and clear mind [well almost... Haha]. Anyway, so there was this poor little - both bodily and mentally disabled - boy Jocóka, who - and forgive me, I'm not mocking at all! - but he totally reminded me of some vintage horror movie wolfman. His face was very morbid like someone would made an eerie-hairy mask for him, his teeth were long and half of his mandible missed, but although he looked scary, he was very shy and looked miserable. I think I didn't wonder at all when I learned about his "parents" whom left him behind... The mother was the biological sister of the father whom never learned about useing a condom beside that 'do not touch a family member because it's not really normal'... Ok they were very analphabetic people but... and many children had the same fate or worse. Now I think I've got my answer how "humanoid monsters" were created in ancient times as well... but in the real life these children are anything but monsters, istead of their look they are much more humaine than the "healthy" ones... [at least they whom I had the luck to know] In that school I often asked myself 'Who is the abnormal here?' seeing the teachers stupid arguings and fightings over pity things instead to care about those children...
But back to the topic the most disillusioning thing for me when I learned about how mermaid legends were born... [Andersen would cry...]
If you ask me I feel myself closer to the werewolves instead of vampires, maybe because I can get angry more easily about something at full moon evenings than on simple days... Hahaha
The belief in the human-animal metamorphs is ancient. For example human-wolves are known from antiquity across middle ages, from Europe to North-Asia. [Asian cultures has were-leopard or were-cat while Far-East has were-fox as the man-eater female creature the 'húli jīng'/fox-spirit in China or 'Kitsune'/fox in Japan and the human liver eating creature the 'Kumiho'/nine-tailed fox in Korea... and Monty Python has were-rabbit! Haha Love that part...] According on German ethnographers this myth can be a remembering of the Indo-European, mask-wearing man companies from the middle ages [there were 'Werwolf' huntings in Germany to the 16. century, along with witch-huntings... soo much fun in the history...].
Around Hungary, they call it vlkodlak [in ancient Checz mythology], wilkolak [Polish mythology]. Other slavish words for werewolves are vukodlak, volkodlak, vurkolak, kudlak. Romanian people use the word priculici [came from slavish vîrcolac] where we have got one of our word for werewolves, prikulics. [1]
Sometimes when I read about folk creatures I am thinking about what inspired the people centuries ago to create such monsters. I think the first reason is always the same, that you can easily explain away someone's/or your crime... and don't forget that in those times when these monsters had been created most of the people were deeply religious, many of them were analphabetic or bigoted when superstitions can spread more faster.
Or the 'werewolf' was an easier explanation to serious sexual deviancy or other strange mental/bodily disorders. Think about it, about only 100 years ago handicapped/disabled people still must played at the circus like monsters whom the audience laughed or feared, mentally disordered people had been unhumanly closed and experimented at many times...
I have a personal story. About 5 years ago I worked for three months in a school for seriously disabled and handicapped children [The school named after Flóra Kozmutza, who was the first in the XX. century who helped the handicapped children in the 30's. She established the first special education department in Hungary as well.]. It was a temporary job for me but I learned many thing there, not just about tolerance [and most of the teachers' haven't got any!], but what I saw there it changed me... I learned not to complain ever again about my life. I am very lucky to have legs and arms and clear mind [well almost... Haha]. Anyway, so there was this poor little - both bodily and mentally disabled - boy Jocóka, who - and forgive me, I'm not mocking at all! - but he totally reminded me of some vintage horror movie wolfman. His face was very morbid like someone would made an eerie-hairy mask for him, his teeth were long and half of his mandible missed, but although he looked scary, he was very shy and looked miserable. I think I didn't wonder at all when I learned about his "parents" whom left him behind... The mother was the biological sister of the father whom never learned about useing a condom beside that 'do not touch a family member because it's not really normal'... Ok they were very analphabetic people but... and many children had the same fate or worse. Now I think I've got my answer how "humanoid monsters" were created in ancient times as well... but in the real life these children are anything but monsters, istead of their look they are much more humaine than the "healthy" ones... [at least they whom I had the luck to know] In that school I often asked myself 'Who is the abnormal here?' seeing the teachers stupid arguings and fightings over pity things instead to care about those children...
But back to the topic the most disillusioning thing for me when I learned about how mermaid legends were born... [Andersen would cry...]
Werewolfs and Hungarians
1. Cinema
- Underworld series, but I skip writing about it again of course.
- The wolfman [1956] - with Béla Lugosi in a role of a background character, as - creatively named - Bela.
- The Werewolf of Washington [1973] - A horror comedy where "a reporter is bitten by a werewolf in Hungary"
- Zoltan, Hound of Dracula [1978] - with Michael Pataki as Dracula and the make up artist was also Hungarian.
- Romasanta [2004] - with Elsa Pataky, who is a Spanish actress with Romanian an Hungarian ancestry
2. Folklore [1]
In our folklore instead of werewolf we just had something similar, farkaskoldus or csordásfarkas - literally means 'wolfbeggar' or 'herdwolf'.
We call it on different names by regions: csordásfarkas around Göcsej, farkaskoldus around Hont [now it belongs to Slovakia, but it was also a Hungarian territory historically], szakállas farkas/'bearded wolf' at Tisza region and North-East of the country, küldött farkas/'sended wolf' at Central Transdanubia region [where I live], around Szatmár and Hont, prikulics near the Romanian-Hungarian border area.
Shape-shifter were any herdsmen whom can became a wolf. But mostly someone who was against his/her community. As always in history, if someone had own idea or opinion instead of the average thinkers and biggy religious people, he/she automatically was an outcast, a mad weirdo, a monster or just simply a witch... and those whom not endured reality well, those whom were bored with their lives or feared their positions and hated when someone said 'no' or 'I do not agree with you' to them started the pain-in-the-ass business called witch-hunt [and other hunts if they had some free times between two hangings, torturings, burnings and soo much exhausting paperworks]. If you ask me they hunted their own frickin' fears... and in small villages life was much more dangerous for a free thinker than in a bigger town. But not only free spirited people may have been werewolves/outcasts, but an unjust feudal lord, a thief, a charlatan or someone who was not from that nation at all... About those wolves whom were peculiarly bloodthirthy they belived that they are shape-shifted men.
The most common beliefs and superstitions were:
The ability of shape-shifting can appear in the earlier childhood, for example when the wise woman [the local maternity nurse or obstetrix] is incautious or ill-intentioned and she get through the baby under a birch-wood tyre three times, than the baby will be a csordásfarkas for 7 years, who able to shape-shifting anytime he wants. Someone just later become a shape-shifter. They can be half-man, half-wolves.
The ability of shape-shifting can appear in the earlier childhood, for example when the wise woman [the local maternity nurse or obstetrix] is incautious or ill-intentioned and she get through the baby under a birch-wood tyre three times, than the baby will be a csordásfarkas for 7 years, who able to shape-shifting anytime he wants. Someone just later become a shape-shifter. They can be half-man, half-wolves.
If someone wants to escape his/her own devilish form just need to get through again under a birch-wood tyre three or seven times but backwards or someone need to burn a cross on his/her back three times.
Other variations:
The csordásfarkas is shape-shifting with his wife or a woman gave birth to a wolf-baby. Unbaptized people can be werewolves too or a thief who commit a burglary with his wife. That man/woman who accidentally brake the tyre he/she just got through will stay a csordásfarkas till his/her death.
The wise herdman's power is bigger than the bloodthirsty wolves. With his magical tool he takes away their powers. The wolves beg for mercy, then the herdman get them through the birch-wood tyre and they became human again.
In 1847, Mihály Tompa wrote a ballad ["Szakállas farkas"] about a wife whom husband is a werewolf at nights, so one day while he is sleeping she cut his troat. They never saw a werewolf again on that land, althought there is one, what is in chains but it is free only for one night in a year...
This is the first literatural adaptation of the szakállas farkas.
Later in 1862, László Bak collected folk tales among village people at Kolozsvár and there was a tale about szakállas farkas, "Tóth János története"/The story of János Tóth".
Another spieces, the wolf-girls:
Mostly a herdman's daughter became wolves to bulglar food to the spinning revelry or they ask a witch to turn themselves into wolves then they can scare the boys [out of their trousers]. The witch get them through the tyre. The boys try to protect themselves against the wolf-girls. They shoot down the witch. Call a wise man who turn the girls back into human forms. If it not turn out well they stay wolves for the rest of their lives and they must to wander and starve till they die.
The high-powered leader of the ancient Hungarian religion, the táltos [shaman/sámán] could own the art of shape-shifting as well. The word sámán means, 'the man who has the knowlegde'. This legend had been believed in the XIX. century too in the Great Plain. They believed that there were special people whom could become a huge wild dog, a jackal or a lynx at full moon.
While they hunted the "witches" there were csordásfarkas/werewolf-lawsuits as well in the XVI and XVIII. century:
- 1653 - an old villager just saw a herdsman at Szombathely, whom tore apart many sheeps with the helping of the Devil... [The X-Files: A Serious Senile Case]
- 1724 - three witches assaulted animals in a form of wolves [and three life were at risk because of some idiots...]
- XVIII. c. - a man who was a horse-herd, could shape-shifted into a küldött farkas. During the XVIII. century lawsuits they often asked the accused one whether he/she can becomes a wolf or not...
- ...and I read among news, that a woman [with slithly alcoholic face among others] from the X. village [what I do not know where the hell is that?] wants a divorce because she is sure that his husband is a werewolf... Among news in 2015! No comment again.
3. Reality
We do have a real wolf-man, a trainer and wolf keeper, Zoltán Horkai. He trained many wolves to Hollywood movies too. He keeps and has been training them for 15 years at a farm, near Budapest. The number of his wolves about 100! But beside wolfies there are many bears, boars, deers and other animals. There is the HORKAI Állatkoordinációs Központ [HORKAI Animal Training Center] as well, where they are teaching and training animals based on natural motivation not like the circuses...
I just think we need more like him. Maybe you ask, why these animals not live in the Hungarian or Carpathian wilderness. My answer is that nowadays sadly many of the hunters not care about the limit at all and waste and there are poachers as always [not but that I agree with simple hunting as well... I hate hunters too...]. After Cecil, the lion too I think that slowly animals will be more safe in a zoo or in a private farm then in the wild or in a rezervated area where poachers can easily slip in anyway... and it's very sad. A well found and big private farm can be ok, but I hate zoos.
Back to Carpathian wolves, on papers - according on Romanian official hunter associations too - there are enough number of wolves. But it's sadly a purposely miscalculated data... there are much lesser wolf in the Carpathian Mountains than only 10-20 years ago because of man.
Hungary didn't see a wolf since 100 years ago and we are next to Carpathian Mountains... About a couple of years ago there are some wolves again in our mountains and thankfully they are protected now. There is the same problem with bears... I wondered last time when they said in the news that from Slovakia a brown bear came across to Hungary and now you can see here and there in our northern mountains. It's about one bear, but what a big news! We saw a living bear outside a zoo in the woods in our country! ... Now this sounds terrible, huh? And I am not meaning this only on our country. What will be on Earth after 50-100 years later?
Hungary didn't see a wolf since 100 years ago and we are next to Carpathian Mountains... About a couple of years ago there are some wolves again in our mountains and thankfully they are protected now. There is the same problem with bears... I wondered last time when they said in the news that from Slovakia a brown bear came across to Hungary and now you can see here and there in our northern mountains. It's about one bear, but what a big news! We saw a living bear outside a zoo in the woods in our country! ... Now this sounds terrible, huh? And I am not meaning this only on our country. What will be on Earth after 50-100 years later?
So
while we often chase mythical creatures here and there, like Nessie,
werewolves, yeti, big foot etc. we slowly lose the real living and unique creatures around us: animals. You want aliens? Look in the ocean!
Thousands of the strangest but beautiful creatures... Yet! But the human is human, and the majority abuse and kill their own kind too without sense, so not much wonder we could expect...
About the mysterious Carpathian Mountains I can't find a better song than this
About the mysterious Carpathian Mountains I can't find a better song than this
Next time: "something completely different"
Good Day!/Szép napot! ✌
[1] "Hungarian Etymological Dictionary" and Hungarian Electronic Library |
