Werewolves are among us

As we know werewolves have been around for quite some time, starting in the early 15th century. They are still present today, however, they are not the same as they used to be. In our readings we read about all of the different ways that people became these monsters, such as putting on this magical girdle. Putting on the girdle would change the person's appearance into that of a wolf, and when they would take it off it would change their appearance back into what it was before. Some other examples of how people became these werewolves hundreds of years ago, were that the people would rub some sort of ointment/salve on their body or by simply being a witch they could use a spell or potion and it would transform them. Over the course of hundreds of years this has completely changed. Looking at contemporary portrayals of werewolves it is not the same. One example of this would be the movie series Underworld directed by Len Wisemen.

Underworld portrays werewolves like any other in that they have hair all over, claws, long fangs and a long snout. Just like in the readings they are much faster than normal humans, and are quite stronger as well. One difference in this representation is that rather than being called werewolves, they are called Lycans which I'm quite positive is short for Lycanthropes which means wolf man. The origin of the Lycans in the movies is quite different than how werewolves came about in the 15th century. It all started with a twin brother who one day was bit by a wild wolf. This transformed him into a werewolf, but with white fur. This brother now being a werewolf had one problem, he could not turn back into his human form. He was stuck in this form until he was killed. While he was a werewolf he went on to do what any werewolf does and caused chaos and ravaged towns. When he bit other people they would then transform into werewolves who were also permanently stuck in this wolf state. Then these werewolves went on to ravage places; however, when they bit people those people would turn into werewolves but were able to turn back into humans as well. All of this is much different than what was in our readings, in the readings people were typically willing to become werewolves and sought out how to do it. The people in the movie were attacked by werewolves and in that they too were turned into werewolves. 

This change came about, because it mirrored things such as diseases and plagues. People were not asking to get sick, but rather they got it from some other person who had the illness. It is pretty much the same as how vampires are, a person typically transforms because they were bitten by the monster which then infects them. This is much different then hundreds of years ago, and how the devil helped people become werewolves or how witches could alter their appearances. When they would attack people those people would more than likely die and there was nothing after that, they too didn't become werewolves.