The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (17 page)

 

The court took the physician’s testimony into account as they decided the fate of Jean Grenier. In the end, they concluded that prison was not the right place for the deranged boy. Instead, they sentenced Jean Grenier to a lifetime of imprisonment at the Bordeaux Monastery. The belief was that, at the monastery, Grenier would receive a proper education. He might also learn how to conduct himself appropriately in both social and spiritual matters. Additionally, and just in case Grenier really
was
an agent of the devil, the court probably figured that the righteous presence of the Bordeaux monks would be able to cleanse any such evil influences from his soul. There was, however, one strict condition to Grenier’s lightened sentence—if he ever escaped, or even attempted to do so, then Grenier would immediately be removed from the monastery and publicly executed.

 

Grenier’s arrival at the monastery was said to be rather disconcerting. Once he’d been released, he is written as having begun running around on his hands and feet, eyes wild. He ran from one end of the monastery to the other, howling loudly and growling like an animal. He soon came upon a pile of discarded, raw meat scraps and began to gobble down the bloody mess with enthusiastic voracity. He had completely eaten the entire pile in a matter of minutes.

 

Seven years into Grenier’s sentence, investigators (both from the courts and medical community) came to the monastery to conduct a follow-up interview. The young man they found was little more than a shadow of his former, rebellious self. He spoke very little, and avoided making eye contact. Grenier’s physical appearance had hardly improved. His eyes darted around wildly. His fingernails are said to have turned black, as if from bruising. Several of his blackened fingernails were also torn and broken, as if he had recently tried to claw his way through solid stone.

 

During the interview, Grenier was almost a vegetable. He rarely made verbal replies, and those he did make were short and/or incomprehensible. When presented with problems and questions that were designed to test him for any improvement in his intelligence, Grenier proved unable to provide answers for even the most simple of them.

 

Shortly after this follow-up interview, Jean Grenier died as a prisoner in Bordeaux Monastery. The cause of death remains unknown (though some speculate, based on his deteriorating intelligence, that he died from brain damage or some unidentified neurological disorder). At the time of his death, Jean Grenier was only 20 years old.

 

Chapter 9

Werewolf Chronicles

We have discussed the infamous werewolf trials, as well as the medieval church’s resulting persecution of wolves and werewolves. We have also discussed the widespread werewolf obsession of medieval France. However, the story of werewolves in human history does not end with these. There still remain a multitude of historical accounts of lycanthropy that must be included in any comprehensive discussion of the subject. These are the werewolves who refused to fit into categories. These … are the werewolf chronicles.

Job Fincel, in the second book of his manuscript
Wunderscheizen,
which roughly translates as “On Miracles,” recorded the tale of one werewolf account in Italy. In 1541, in the Italian city of Padua (also spelled Padova), a nearby villager savagely attacked a large group of men when he came upon them in a rural field. The villager even succeeded in killing some of the men, using nothing more than his teeth and hands. After an extreme and violent struggle, the surviving members of the group managed to subdue him. They tied up the wild man and immediately dragged him to the local authorities of the Ecclesiastical Court of the Inquisition.

 

Upon questioning, the man insisted to the inquisitors that he was actually a wolf when he attacked. One of the inquisitors posed a question—if the man was indeed a wolf as he claimed, then where was his coat of fur? The man explained to the inquisitors that, unlike natural wolves, he wore his coat of fur in a concealed layer that was between his skin and his muscles.

 

The inquisitors decided that they would test the truth of his claim. If their test turned out to prove he was telling the truth, then he would be immediately executed as a werewolf. If he turned out to just be a madman, then they would set him free.

 

Unfortunately for the accused man, the inquisitors’ so-called “test” was to chop off all of his arms and legs and then inspect the areas beneath his skin for any signs of fur. The man was tied down and dismembered. The inquisitors found no signs of the fur he had claimed to possess. As the man lay bleeding on the table (but still alive, apparently), the head inquisitor informed him that he had been found innocent of lycanthropy and would therefore be referred to their surgeons and released. The man, despite the surgeons’ best efforts, died from blood loss only a few moments later.

Auvergne is located just west of the city of Clermont-Ferrand, France. The account of the she-wolf of Auvergne rides the line between history and folklore, which is why it is included here instead of in Chapter 8.

 

Certain medieval sources do cite evidence for the story having been verified. However, such sources are not always entirely reliable. Once again, the choice of whether or not to believe the tale is left to you.

 

The story is believed to have been first told sometime around 1588. It says that, in the wooded regions of Auvergne, a large and savage she-wolf had for some time been making human prey out of the local hunters and woodsmen. One day, a local nobleman was inspecting his property when he came across a huntsman who was just about to embark into the woods. The nobleman admired the hunter’s bravery, having heard the stories about the man-eating she-wolf that roamed those woods. The hunter explained that he was planning to hunt the she-wolf, as he’d heard that a bounty of 125 francs had been issued on the heads of all she-wolves in the region (likely in the hopes that one of them would be the man-eater).

 

Having become concerned for the safety of his wife, crops, and livestock (though not necessarily in that order), the nobleman asked the hunter if, after he’d finished the hunt, he would report back to him what, if anything, he had encountered. The hunter agreed to do so and continued to trek into the forest.

 

Later on, as the hunter stalked for game in the woods, he stumbled onto a giant she-wolf. The beast lunged at the hunter, not giving him time to release so much as an arrow. The man reached to his side and drew his knife. The man and beast struggled for their lives. Seizing hold of one of the beast’s immense claws, the hunter stabbed and slashed at the attaching joint and succeeded in severing the appendage. The she-wolf, terribly wounded, fled into the woods and disappeared. The hunter tucked the severed paw away into his game pouch and made his way back to the nobleman’s estate.

 

When the hunter arrived at the estate, he conveyed to the nobleman the story of his life-and-death struggle with the wolf. The nobleman asked if he might be allowed to see the giant claw that the hunter had kept as proof. The hunter reached into his pouch and removed … a woman’s left hand. For a moment, both men were dumbfounded by the sight. How, or even why, would the she-wolf’s claw be transformed into the hand of a woman?

 

The hunter noticed something gleaming from beneath the blood and wiped one finger clean to reveal a shining gold ring with a number of encrusted jewels. The nobleman’s eyes went wide. He had seen that ring before on his own wife’s finger. This was her wedding ring. Doing his best to hide his reaction, he thanked the hunter for his time and sent the man away. Then he went through the estate, looking for his wife.

 

The nobleman found his beloved wife in the kitchen. She was wrapping a towel around what appeared to be an injury to her hand. He commanded her to remove the towel and show him what had happened. When she did not comply, he took it off himself. He was aghast to find that her entire left hand had been severed. Having seen the evidence, he interrogated her as to what she had done. His wife soon confessed that she was the same she-wolf that had been terrorizing the woods.

 

The nobleman immediately turned his wife over to the court authorities. She was tried and condemned shortly thereafter. Her sentence was execution by fire, which was carried out immediately.

This is another tale that rides the line between history and folklore. While it is certain that the accounts of this story are for the most part true, some of the details may have at some point been falsified. In recent years, some claims made by certain sources regarding this case have been proven false.

 

According to accounts, in the year 1920, two girls were discovered living in the woods near Godamuri, India. What was most astonishing, these accounts claim, is that it was found they were being cared for by a she-wolf. A hunter claimed to have rescued the girls from the animal, and they were soon brought to an orphanage in nearby Orissa (from which their nickname comes).

 

The oldest girl was thought to be eight years old and was given the name Kamala. The younger sister, thought to be around one-and-a-half years old, was given the name Amala. Accounts claim that the girls behaved like wild animals, preferring to walk around on all fours. In addition, they seemed to have developed nocturnal habits, sleeping during the days, waking around dusk, and becoming
very
active through the nighttime hours (much to the exhaustion of their caregivers).

The accounts of the incident also claim that the girls preferred to eat little else but raw meat. At least one report claims that the girls could smell it from a distance and could use this ability to track it down. The girls were also said to have the eyesight and hearing of wolves and were faster, stronger, and more agile than the other children in the orphanage, many of whom they would often growl at when approached. If challenged, the girls were quick to use violent attacks. They were even said to have fought like animals, using only their teeth (fangs) and fingernails (claws).

 

Amala, the younger of the two girls, died after only a year inside the orphanage. (The cause of death often differs from one source to another.) She had never learned to speak so much as a word of language. Kamala, on the other hand, lived until the age of 17, when she died of an unspecified illness. Unlike her little sister, Kamala eventually learned to speak at least a handful of key phrases. For the most part, however, she continued to behave as she always had and, without her sister, lived a very solitary life until her death.

Despite having a good amount of rather weird lore surrounding the details of his life, Prince Vseslav Bryachislavich of Polotsk doesn’t appear to have been all that bad of a guy. He had a plethora of names, which included Vseslav of Polotsk, Vseslav the Seer, Vseslav the Sage, and Vseslav the Sorcerer. No matter what name you call him, this guy remains one of the most colorful (and perhaps most memorable) rulers in the land now called Belarus. Today, the country of Belarus is located on the southern borders of Lithuania/Lativa and the northern border of the Ukraine.