Werewolf Timeline

1550 BC – King Lycaon of Arcadia serves human flesh to the god Zeus and is transformed into a wolf as punishment. The term “Lycanthrope” is derived from this story.

440 BC – In “Histories of Herodotus“, the traveller Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC – 425 BC) writes of the Neuri people, who transform into wolves once a year.

400 BC – A victorious Olympic boxer by the name of Damarchus, an Arcadian of Parrhasia, is said to have transformed into that of a wolf at the sacrifice of Lycaean (Wolf) Zeus, and nine years after he became a man again.

37 BC – Roman poet Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC), in the “Eclogues”, tells of the change of Moeris to the form of a wolf by the use of herbs.

2 BC – 8 AD – Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) writes “Metamorphoses” including a verse about Lycaon, who is transformed into a wolf by the god Zeus.

60 – “Satyricon“, by Roman writer Petronius (27-66 AD), contains a detailed account of a soldier who is a werewolf.

432  – St. Patrick arrives in Ireland

970 – A man named Baianus is believed to be able to turn himself into a wolf through the arts of necromancy.

1020 – First use of the word “werewulf” recorded in English

1101 – Death of Vseslav Bryachislavich, the most famous ruler of Polotsk, believed by many to be a werewolf.

1182 – Welsh historian Giraldus Cambrensis (1146 – 1223) encountersIrish werewolves who transform during the Yuletide feast. The werewolves were reportedly natives of Ossory, whose people had been cursed by St. Natalis for their wickedness.

1194-1197 – Guillaume de Palerne composed.

1198 – Marie de France composes Bisclavret.

1250 – Lai de Melion composed.

1502? 1521? – The three werewolves of Poligny, Pierre Bourgot, Michel Verdung (or Udon), and Philibert Mentot are burnt at the stake being werewolves.

1541 – In Pavia, Italy, a farmer in the form of a wolf is said to have torn many men in the open country to pieces. After being captured, he assures his captors that the only difference between himself and a natural wolf, was that in a true wolf the hair grew outward, whilst in him it struck inward. In order to put this assertion to the proof, the magistrates cut off his arms and legs, and he dies from wounds.

1555 – Olaus Magnus records strange behavior of Baltic werewolves.

1573 – Gilles Garnier, the Werewolf of Dole, is burnt at the stake.

1578 – Jacques Rollet goes on trial in Paris. He was found guilty of being a werewolf.

1588 – The Werewolf of Auvergne is burned at the stake.

1589 – Peter Stubb is executed in Germany after terrorizing the countryside near Cologne in the form of a wolf.

1590 – Michel Jaques confesses to becoming a wolf seven or eight times after anointing himself with an unguent given to him by the devil.

1598 – The “Werewolf of Châlons“, known also as the “Demon Tailor”, was arraigned in France on December 14, on murder charges.

1598 – The same year, the Gandillon family, a sister, brother and two of the man’s children were tried together in France.

1598 – Jacques Roulet, a begger, is arrested in Caude in the vicinity of Angers, France for being a werewolf.

1602 – Michée Bauloz, along with Jeanne de la Pierre and Suzanne Prevost are condemned.

1603 – Teenage Jean Grenier tried as werewolf and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1623 – There are a series of court trials in which eighteen men and thirteen women are tried for lycanthropy.

1692 – An 80-year-old man named Thiess is tried in Jurgenburg, Livonia. He confesses to being a werewolf.  Judges sentence Thiess to ten lashes for acts of idolatry and superstitious beliefs.

1764 – 1767 – The Beast of Gévaudan terrorizes the former province of Gévaudan, in the Margeride Mountains in south-central France. There were over 100 victims.

1812 – Grimm Brothers publish their version of “Little Red Riding Hood.”

1824 – Antoine Leger tried for werewolf crimes and sentenced to lunatic asylum.

1852 – Traveling vendor Manuel Blanco Romasanta confesses to the murders of thirteen people. Romasanta was tried in Allariz and eluded capital punishment by professing he was a werewolf.

1865 – “The Book of Were-Wolves” is written by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. Still considered one of the leading books on werewolf history.

1920 – Right-wing terror group “Operation Werewolf” established in Germany.

1933 – British Occult writer and clergyman Montague Summers publishes “The Werewolf.” He is still known today for his ridiculous writings on witches, vampires, and werewolves.

1941 – The film “The Wolf Man” starring Lon Chaney Jr. is released.

1948 – Robert Eisler delivers his lecture “Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy” to the Psychiatric Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, England.

1981 – The film “An American Werewolf in London” is released and includes first four-footed werewolf.

1989 – The first sighting of the beast of Bray Road.

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