The Werewolf in Lore and Legend (Dover Occult)

If Stephen King had a history degree, this is what he would produce. This is not a quick read. This book was written by a man who seriously believed this stuff, and has gone to great length to research proof from the archives of the same Catholic Church that now says all these creatures do not exist. He reprints said material (especially witness statements) in their entirety. I had to look the guy up in Wikipedia, and if that article was only half right, the guy was certainly nuts...but the entertaining scary sort of nuts, not the kind you need to lock away. Their next edition should have a description of Mr. Summers at the beginning. Picturing him at the head of a Hogwarts-style classroom, lecturing on lycanthropes and vampires, with this material, whoa.

I love this book! I only wish the french parts would have an english translation 😅, but...I love it! So interesting!!!!!!!

i have not finished it, but for anyone with a love for werewolves or with a curiosity of them, it provides great theories.

Being a big werewolf fan, l felt this would be a good addition to my library. This is a wordy book written in older fashioned English, and could lose someone who isn't too passionate about the subject matter. But it is still very in-depth and informative on the origins of this phenomenon.Montague Summers discusses lycanthropy, and the fact that he believes it to be a mental illness separate from actual shapeshifting abilities. Summers is clearly not an objective observer, and his Christian bias is ever-present. Honestly it doesn't take anything away from the book though. The most famous cases surrounding the idea of werewolves are examined, as well as beliefs and customs from around the Old World, mostly Europe.The biggest drawback in my opinion are all the quotes and paragraphs written in foreign languages, chiefly Latin, that are either left untranslated or explained at the end of the chapter in tiny footnotes. lt's kind of laborious to keep track of all the notes and look them up as you go. Otherwise it's a good read on one of my favourite topics.

Great book, good gift idea for those that love folklore

This is an interesting read, even though it gives a rather Christian slant to the subject of werewolves. Given that it was written in 1933, the language is at times difficult to muddle through, much like Shakespeare, but it's not completely off-putting. My only complaint is that much of the references are not in English but in Latin, Greek, German and French, and there are no translations given. I'm barely literate in German and French, so I muddle through, but I'm completely lost with the others. I would love to find a version which has been annotated with translations. Overall, so far it has been informative.

Everything as announced!

A fine copy of Montague Summers write ups on werewolves to be companion to his book on Vampires. Any occultist and folklorists and writer's library.

me gustó pero eran todo datos sobre libros antiguos que habían escrito sobre hombres lobo

The work is not an easy read. It is not for everyone. However, if you are looking to understand the origins of this late-medieval myth, or get a sense of how this translates into the age of modern storytelling?This work is a must-read.

I don't think it is OK to cite from international historical sources and thereafter leave the same intersting foreign quotations untranslated. This might appear arrogant and I think it is, as it reduces the circle of readers potent to understand the quotations. I appreciate it very much that we get to know important foreign quotations on lycanthropos (lycanthos = Greek for wolf, and anthropos = Greek: man, human). The English name "werewolf" derives from the German "Werwolf" (man-wolf).For any interested reader I recommend the strange reports of the cruel "Beast of Gevaudan" that over a span of three years killed and partly devoured more than hundred women and children in the area of Gevaudan in the Limousin (from where the cartype "limousine" is derived) in 17th century France. The original title is "La bête du Geavaudan" and the most famous account is that of certain clergyman Abbé Pierre Pourcher. They say that nobody ever could tell with certainty what the true nature of that ferocious beast was. It was decribed as much larger in hight than a great wolf and its fur being reddish. Some suspected a giant hyaena or something completely unknown.In addition to that the Book German book "Von Wölfen und Hunden in der Eifel" by Hubert Pitzen (2001) may be helpful to add to some extent to the subject of the werewolf. Also there is a very old german tale about a werewolf, perhaps the oldest recorded in German language. As it is very short I will be going to give a short account of it. I think the title is "Der Werwolf". Once, some early morning about the beginning of th 13th century a young guy, his uncle and another man went for wood cutting deep into the dark forest. After having worked hard until noon they laid down for some sleep. Soon everybody was asleep. But the young guy didn't trust the third (man), so he acted as if he was sleeping, but through his almost closed eyes he saw the third man get upafter a while. The man took of his brought belt and immediately turned into a werewolf. The werewolf ran vividly into to the forest. The young folk followed him hiding behind the trees. After a while the werewolf reached a meadow with some young horses grazing on it. The werewolf killed one young horse and swallowed it almost in one piece. The young folk quickly returned to their sleeping place where he lay down and acted again as if asleep. The werewolf as he returned pulled on his brought belt once again and in doing so immediately turned into the third man again. Shortly after that, the three men got up, continued their work and late in the afternoon went back to town. Having reached the edge of the town the third man complied having a stomache. "Of course, if I had eaten a young horse myself, I most certainly should have a stomache, too." There the third men replied "If you only had told me that down back in the woods, you surely wouldn't have made it back to town again."The other story of a werewolf is about a brave young man who spends some night in a watermill. At night a werewolf attacks him, but the young man manages to cut off the wolf's right claw. With a terrible howling the wolf escapes into the night. Next morning miller is delighted to see the young man a good health. So the young man tells the miller about the strange happenings of last night. The miller went to look for his wife and found her ailing in bed with a cut-off right hand.

I needed a small research on warewolves for my upcoming book series coming up through history and this book is awesome. Also I love some details in the book.

Large chunks of this book are in french, latin, italian and german with no translation given. The author also connects mental illness to demonic possession. The Montague Summers book on Werewolves is a much better read.