Q: Both vampires and werewolves are very popular right now. We know why vampires are popular - there's a kind of sexy allure. But what do you think accounts for the continued fascination with the werewolf?
Curran: I think that vampire and werewolf stories have survived and still continue to be popular because they address some of our fundamental issues. The vampire, for example, addresses the problems of aging and death.
It poses the question -- and the hope: "What would it be like to live forever and retain one's looks?" and "If I did live forever, would there be a price?" As you point out, there is a certain sexiness about that idea.
The werewolf idea addresses the notion that, for all our seeming "culture" and "civilisation" there is a remnant of those old prehistoric hunters still buried somewhere in our psyche. I think that idea both fascinates and repels us. I think it is the dichotomy of the civilised man and the wild hunter -- or the crouching beast that I think lies within all of us -- that proves the basis of that "allure" -- a kind of horrified fascination if you will -- and has resulted in the notion of the werewolf roaming with us down the years, just as much as the vampire.
Q: In her book The Beast of Bray Road, Linda Godfrey presents some evidence, mostly in the form of eyewitness sightings, that there may actually be real werewolves out there. What do you think? Could there possibly be real werewolves?
Curran: It depends, of course, by what you mean by "real werewolves." Coming from my perspective as a folklorist and a psychologist, the question is not so much "Do these creatures exist?" (a question that I'm asked a lot) -- they may or they may not -- but a much more interesting question is: "Why do people want -- or need -- to believe in them? What role does such a belief fulfill in our lives?" As I said above, I think that the werewolf idea addresses a number of very basic questions about ourselves and our nature. Is there perhaps some form of early animalistic-like being lurking beneath the veneer of civilisation? Are we, in effect, really no better than the animals around us? This is, I think, a question which humans have been asking themselves since earliest times, and the werewolf motif is a way of answering it.
There are of course "real" werewolves if you cast your definition wide enough. There have been feral children who have been abandoned by their human parents and who have been raised in the wild by animals, including wolves, which are often sociable animals with a strong emphasis on rearing young. There are children like Amala and Kamala, the "wolf children" found in India in the 1920s. Feral children go back even to Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron in 1797 and Peter of Hanover in 1724.
Then, of course, there are those who suffer from mental disorders that make them behave like wolves; there is a specific mental condition known as lycanthropy. But you never know, and I'm not discounting anything. Perhaps out there in the wild woods there is something living which may correspond to our idea of a werewolf -- something that might indeed be very hungry.
Dr. Bob Curran is also the author of:
And with co-author Ian Daniels:
Curran: I think that vampire and werewolf stories have survived and still continue to be popular because they address some of our fundamental issues. The vampire, for example, addresses the problems of aging and death.
It poses the question -- and the hope: "What would it be like to live forever and retain one's looks?" and "If I did live forever, would there be a price?" As you point out, there is a certain sexiness about that idea.
The werewolf idea addresses the notion that, for all our seeming "culture" and "civilisation" there is a remnant of those old prehistoric hunters still buried somewhere in our psyche. I think that idea both fascinates and repels us. I think it is the dichotomy of the civilised man and the wild hunter -- or the crouching beast that I think lies within all of us -- that proves the basis of that "allure" -- a kind of horrified fascination if you will -- and has resulted in the notion of the werewolf roaming with us down the years, just as much as the vampire.
Q: In her book The Beast of Bray Road, Linda Godfrey presents some evidence, mostly in the form of eyewitness sightings, that there may actually be real werewolves out there. What do you think? Could there possibly be real werewolves?
Curran: It depends, of course, by what you mean by "real werewolves." Coming from my perspective as a folklorist and a psychologist, the question is not so much "Do these creatures exist?" (a question that I'm asked a lot) -- they may or they may not -- but a much more interesting question is: "Why do people want -- or need -- to believe in them? What role does such a belief fulfill in our lives?" As I said above, I think that the werewolf idea addresses a number of very basic questions about ourselves and our nature. Is there perhaps some form of early animalistic-like being lurking beneath the veneer of civilisation? Are we, in effect, really no better than the animals around us? This is, I think, a question which humans have been asking themselves since earliest times, and the werewolf motif is a way of answering it.
There are of course "real" werewolves if you cast your definition wide enough. There have been feral children who have been abandoned by their human parents and who have been raised in the wild by animals, including wolves, which are often sociable animals with a strong emphasis on rearing young. There are children like Amala and Kamala, the "wolf children" found in India in the 1920s. Feral children go back even to Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron in 1797 and Peter of Hanover in 1724.
Then, of course, there are those who suffer from mental disorders that make them behave like wolves; there is a specific mental condition known as lycanthropy. But you never know, and I'm not discounting anything. Perhaps out there in the wild woods there is something living which may correspond to our idea of a werewolf -- something that might indeed be very hungry.
Dr. Bob Curran is also the author of:
- Vampires: A Field Guide to the Creatures That Stalk the Night
- Celtic Lore & Legend: Meet the Gods, Heroes, Kings, Fairies, Monsters and Ghosts of Yore
And with co-author Ian Daniels:
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