Excerpt from Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. 9

Without, at present, pausing to inquire what may have been the ultimate origin and cause Of such a belief, the Observer will note that, among all these transformation stories, none, from the beginning Of time to the present day, has kept such a hold on the popular imagination as the tale Of the Werwolf. It would be hard to find another with a diffusion so extensive and, at the same time, with a vitality in literature and legend so remarkable.

Why is this the case? If we ask why this particular story of the Werwolf should have extended so much farther than others of the same nature, at least one practical answer is sug gested: The wolf himself is one Of the most widely diffused Of animals. Like his brother, the dog, he shares with man the ability to live and thrive in nearly all parts Of the earth. Wherever man, in his wanderings, has penetrated there he has found, and fought, his ancient enemy.

Certainly, in the Hunting and Fishing Epoch, his howling could have been no pleasant sound to the primeval man in his rude retreat; in the Pastoral Age his enmity to the grazing sheep must have made him a never-failing topic Of conversa tion; and the glare Of his eyes across the moonlit snow of a winter's night was a terror to the lonely traveller, in any age. Hence it is that few animals have ever been surrounded with so many gloomy superstitions. NO one has a good word for Isengrim. Even among the Romans, children Of the wolf-god of Death and suckled by the she-wolf, he never was in good repute.

His distinctive features, in folk-lore, are ravening hunger and bestial ferocity, l he is the symbol of Night and Winter' and the Messenger Of Death.'

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