There are many stories and legends about werewolves, most of them seem like beautiful fairy tales, but sometimes there are very real events behind these tales.

1. Gilles Garnier.
He was caught by a group of peasants at the moment when, in the forest, under the guise of a shaggy monster, he attacked a 10-year-old boy. According to further confessions by Gilles himself, he often killed and ate children in wolf form. He was accused of lycanthropy and witchcraft and burned alive.

2. Werewolves of Greifswald
According to old records dating back to 1640, the city of Greifswald was at that time overrun by werewolves. Their number was so great that any person who left the house in the dark was in danger of being attacked. A group of students decided to stop this mess and, having melted all the silver that was found in the houses into bullets, they cleared the surrounding area.

3. Ansbach werewolf.
In 1685, in the Bavarian city of Ansbach, the population was terrorized by a huge wolf. There were rumors that he was actually a werewolf. The disappearance of the city mayor added credibility to the rumors. After the wolf was finally caught, local residents skinned it and made a stuffed mayor out of it.

4. Klein-Krams Werewolf.
IN old times In the vicinity of the settlement of Klein-Krams there was a huge wolf, which local hunters could not kill for a long time. The beast often played with them, letting them come within shooting distance and then disappearing. According to local residents, he was a werewolf a little boy, who turned into a wolf when his parents were not at home.

5. Werewolf of Pavia.
In 1541, an Italian farmer was accused of attacking people in wolf form. After the man was caught, he stated that he considered himself a werewolf, the only thing that distinguishes him from wolves is that his hair grows inside, not outside. During the trial, to prove his words, the judges decided to cut off his leg. The unfortunate man subsequently died from loss of blood.

6. The werewolf from Chalons.
This werewolf is one of the most terrible werewolves in the history of werewolves, he is also known as Demon Taylor. In 1958, Taylor was accused of a murder so shocking that the court ordered that all documents about him be destroyed after the case was closed. He usually lured children into his store, raped them, and then slit their throats. He cut their bodies into small pieces. At dusk, he liked to wander around in the form of a wolf and attack passers-by, tearing out their throats. Subsequently, barrels full of bleached bones and other creepy things were found in his basements.

7. Claudia Gaillard, The Werewolf of Burgundy.
Claudia was one of hundreds of unfortunates put on trial by witch hunter Henry Bogue. According to eyewitnesses, she was seen in the bushes while transforming into a wolf. The woman was subjected to various tortures, but not a single person ever saw her shed a single tear.

8. Michel Verdun, werewolf from Poligny.
In 1521, Jean Boyne, an inquisitor from Besançon, accused Philibert Monto, Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdun of making deals with the devil and lycanthropy. The trio came under suspicion when a traveler passing through the area where they lived was attacked by a wolf. While defending himself, he wounded the animal and forced it to retreat. After this skirmish, the man came across a hut where he found Michel Verdun and his wife cleaning his wounds. The man immediately reported what he saw to the authorities. Verdun was captured, under torture he admitted that he was a werewolf, and also betrayed two accomplices.

9. Werewolves Benandanti.
This incident occurred in 1692 east of the Baltic Sea. The involvement of an old man named Tisa in werewolves was revealed by chance during the consideration of another case. Yew, along with other villagers, had to testify and some of them casually mentioned his ability to turn into a wolf. When the judges singled out a separate case of lycanthropy, Thies willingly testified. He explained that three times a year he, along with other werewolves, descended into hell in order to snatch from there the harvest that sorcerers and witches carried there from the fields. And even pointed out the entrance to hell. As a measure of punishment, he was given ten lashes for idolatry and released.

10. Jean Grenier.
Jean Grenier was the son of a poor day laborer from a village in the parish of Sant Antoine de Pizon. Jean was a strange fourteen-year-old teenager, he loved to scare local girls and small children, claiming that he was a werewolf, that in the fields near his house the devil appeared to him in the form of a mysterious stranger and gave him a magic balm and a wolf skin cloak that could transform him in the wolf for one hour certain days weeks, always at night, that he killed several small children, and their blood seemed to him much sweeter than that of a dog - although he never said exactly who these victims he had eaten were. Local residents took everything seriously and Jean appeared in court. To everyone's surprise, he confessed everything, recounting several more instances of his werewolf behavior with almost obscene bragging.

There is hardly a person today who has no idea who a werewolf is. Science fiction novels, hundreds of horror films and computer games are the main sources of information. In reality, werewolves are not encountered so often, but those who have had the chance never forget it... Although they would like to. There are plenty of such cases in our country as well.

Classics of the genre

This incident occurred in the late 1980s in a missile unit near Irkutsk. In the middle of the night, the senior lieutenant was called to the scene. A soldier from his platoon, Private Metrov, was on guard. Walking around the territory entrusted to him, he noticed a huge figure in the light of a lantern behind a wire fence. Outwardly, the intruder resembled a strange hybrid of a man and a wolf, only about two meters tall.

His body was covered with long gray fur, his eyes burned with an evil fire, and his long muzzle was twisted into a fanged grin. When the monster attempted to climb over the fence, the frightened but not confused guard began to shoot from a machine gun. To his horror, the soldier realized that the bullets did not cause any harm to the animal, as if bouncing off the gray skin. However, after the noise made, the monster turned and disappeared into the forest.

Colleagues found Petrov in a state close to hysterics. The senior lieutenant who arrived at the scene had difficulty understanding his incoherent speech, but the picture of the incident was supplemented by strange findings at the place where, according to the private, the beast appeared. They really didn’t find any blood there, but there were traces of large animal paws, and it looked like the animal was moving on two legs. In addition, to the great embarrassment of the guard commander, there was a tuft of gray-black wool hanging on the barricade wire.

At that time, the matter, of course, was hushed up, but this does not cancel the fact that a creature appeared in the taiga garrison, which, according to the description, fully corresponded to a ghoul. Moreover, meetings with similar or other creatures that can be classified in the same category continue.

Animal Shepherdess

Many years after the incident, a resident of Ivanovo spoke about a similar meeting in the Kostroma region. At that time, Irina Govorkova was still a schoolgirl and spent her holidays with her grandmother in the village. In the same village lived an old woman named Taisiya.

Strong for her advanced years, the exact number of which no one knew, she cheerfully drove her goats to the pasture and back, and managed the house in a way that “not everyone in the village can do.” Irina met her in the meadow. The girl was riding a bicycle, but on the wet grass she was unable to brake in time and almost crashed into Taisiya.

Then the old woman began to behave rather strangely: after making a circle around the girl, she bared her teeth strangely. Her face seemed to be covered with gray fur, stretched out, and fangs appeared between her lips. This lasted for a very short time, but Irina managed to get scared. A moment later the face was the same. The old woman looked at Irina and told her to forget everything quickly, no one would believe her anyway.

Indeed, Irina’s grandmother attributed the whole story to the rich children’s imagination. Although evil tongues claimed that they saw Taisiya go to the river in the evening, return in the guise of a black boar, and live for more than a hundred years. In a word, they considered her a witch, capable of changing her appearance. Of course, where can a hundred-year-old grandmother keep up with her goats? It’s a different matter if you transform into a wolf or a dog...

These images are most typical of both werewolves and witches. However, the latter can take other forms, such as horses.

Aunt Horse

This strange horse was first seen by residents of Ilyinka near Moscow. In the warm season, the younger generation spends a long time on the street, and it was these belated passers-by who began to encounter a gigantic horse with glowing eyes after sunset. Quickly realizing that these were tricks evil spirits, a group of activists began to figure out which of their fellow villagers was jumping onto a horse and scaring people at night. They suspected Grandma Marfa, and after the incident with Nikolai Blinkov, these suspicions grew into confidence.

Nikolai was driving home late from work in his truck. At dusk, he noticed a horse standing on the road and tried to drive around it along the side of the road, since the animal did not respond to signals. But the horse turned and, flashing its devilish eyes at the driver, galloped alongside.

The race continued for quite a long time with varying success: on the asphalt the car had an advantage, on the country road - vice versa. And before entering the village, the horse ran into the back of the car at full speed, so that the car shuddered, and turning back, Nikolai saw through the rear window the naked grandmother Marfa laughing wildly. Fear gave him strength, but when he got out of the car, there was no one in the back.

The villagers decided not to leave such a thing unpunished and sent a delegation to the witch, persistently asking her to stop the nightly outrages... For a week it was quiet in the village, and then someone trampled Blinkov’s entire garden and destroyed front door. Then a teenager was hospitalized after being frightened by a three-meter horse. From severe shock, the guy began to mumble and stutter.

Now the local men decided to take serious measures. In the evening, they lurked near the house of a werewolf woman and saw how she came out onto the porch and turned into a monstrous mare. Several lassoes were thrown at the werewolf at once, but it was not immediately possible to cope with the wildly resisting animals. The werewolf horse was brought to the stable yard, shod as required in such cases, and released.

The next morning, all the men who participated in the capture of the witch were taken to the police at the request of Grandma Marfa, but then the whole village was indignant. They threatened the old woman that they would burn down her house, and if she was caught in the guise of a horse, she would be sent to a meat processing plant. Grandma Marfa had to withdraw her application and look for other entertainment.

Swinely act

In addition to the fact that witches can turn into animals, they also love to cause damage. A resident of the Stavropol Territory had to face this in practice. Sister Svetlana Titova developed a tumor on her leg. Medicine was powerless in this case, so the sisters decided that this was the work of one of the local witches, most likely a neighbor who had long been notorious.

On the advice of the old people, who still remembered the rituals, Svetlana prepared to settle scores with the witch. On the night of St. George's Day, she set the milk to boil. When the milk boiled at midnight, she threw 12 new unused needles into it, one for each stroke of the clock. After that, she went outside the gate, read a prayer and prepared, according to the ritual, to throw the liquid towards the house of the one whom she suspected of witchcraft.

After this, it was necessary, backing away, to return to the house and wait for the suspect to come the next day and ask to give her something or, conversely, offer to take some object. You can neither take nor give anything, otherwise removing the damage will not work.

And at the stage of milk splashing, Svetlana noticed a large light-colored animal not far from her and at first mistook it for a dog. But in the sudden silence, hooves clattered on the asphalt - a pig stood in front of the woman and glared at her angrily. Svetlana began to back away towards the house, and the moment she touched her gate, the ominous pig disappeared into thin air.

And the next day the same neighbor whom Svetlana suspected came to her and offered to try her pies, which in itself was strange. The woman, of course, refused, and a few days later the tumor on her sister’s leg disappeared.

This scary tale Happened to me in the 90s. At that time I worked for a newspaper. Writing about everything unusual. Half of these stories were, of course, fiction, but some of them were based on real events.

Our boss had an intuition on Mystic stories. I don’t know where he found them, but if he sent them on a business trip, then it was definitely worth it.

This happened in early autumn. That day, the boss called me to his place and showed me an article from a small newspaper. It said that in one small village in the Urals, small children began to disappear. In total, five children disappeared. Within two months. Children disappeared from yards when adults were not around. Nobody saw anything. A couple of times it really seemed like we saw a wolf and wolf tracks. That's all the information.

The boss suggested that I go, since I have the most realistic view of events.

The next day I already hit the road. I had to go by train; I was met at the station by a driver with whom we had previously agreed that he would take me to that village.

Having arrived at the place, I began to look for a hotel. But she was not there. A local family agreed to take me in. Husband, wife and two children aged 5 and 7.

The children seemed unsociable and looked at me like wolf cubs. The parents, on the contrary, were very friendly. I was put in a small room with only a bed and a nightstand.

Having wished the hosts good night, I went to bed.

I fell asleep almost immediately, the road and fatigue took their toll. At night I dreamed of wolves. Large, with a human look. I spent the whole night running away from them in my dreams.

In the morning I woke up exhausted and with a sore head. After washing my face and having breakfast, I went to the local police officer. Having learned the purpose of my visit, he did not want to give me information. But a little monetary motivation and now I’m holding in my hands the addresses of families where children have disappeared.

I went to the first address, fortunately the village was small and it wasn’t far to go. I introduced myself to the parents of the missing child as an investigator from the regional center. They showed me the place where they last saw their five-year-old girl. It was the backyard of their house. The whole place was naturally trampled all around.

Carefully examining the grass, I saw several footprints similar to those of a dog. The strange thing was that there were traces of three animals there. One big one and two smaller ones.

In other places the same picture appeared. There were tracks of three animals at each place where the children disappeared. Having visited all the addresses, I returned to my temporary home. And she sat down to write down everything she saw in a notebook.

These traces haunted me. I decided to ask my owners about the dog with puppies. Perhaps they know something. The woman shuddered at my question and looked away; her husband said that there were a lot of dogs and puppies here. And there are probably traces of these animals in every yard, and not just where children disappeared.

After working a little with the notes, I went to bed. At night I was awakened by a howl and some whining. Looking out the window, I saw a wolf and two wolf cubs near the owner’s barn. They were gnawing on something. I decided to wake up the owner, but neither he nor his wife, nor the children were in the room. Maybe they went to spend the night with someone?

The wolves did not let me sleep, and I sat and watched them through the window. Closer to dawn, I realized that something was wrong. The animals began to rush around and change before our eyes. Leaning against the window, I watched as a man and two children began to appear in place of the wolves. After about five minutes I realized that it was the owner and his children. I broke out in a cold sweat. Moving away from the window so as not to be noticed. I watched as they stood up, and as the hostess approached them from the direction of the forest. Everyone was naked.

Waiting for them to enter the house. And they calmed down, I secretly made my way to the place where they were messing around. There was a pile of rags lying there. After moving them, I discovered the children's remains.

Anna.

Anna grew up in a family of doctors. Therefore the word lycanthropy always caused her an association with mental disorders, when human behavior is very similar to the behavior of an animal. All stories about werewolves which the girl heard in the summer camp seemed to her like terrible fairy tales.

Anna was raised in atheistic traditions and believed that after death a person goes straight to the pathologist's table. It was difficult to surprise Anna with any phenomenon. The girl always found a logical explanation for everything that happened to her or her friends. But that evening remained a mystery to her.

A noisy group of young people decided to relax in the forest. We lit a fire and prepared a barbecue. The guys took out a guitar and began to entertain the girls with songs. Suddenly the cracking of branches was heard. Anna, who went up to the fire to add brushwood to it, instinctively turned back and saw unknown guy. She asked him why he came to them, to which the guy replied that he was lost and wanted to find the way to the nearest village.

It was getting dark. Anna noticed that an incredible thing was happening to the guy: he was noticeably fussing, marking time and did not dare to come closer to the fire. The girl promised to help him and approached her company. She told about a strange guy who was lost and stood three meters from the fire. The guys decided to help him, but what a surprise they were when they saw that the guy was gone, and traces of someone’s paws stretched from the bushes.

The company decided that Anna had dreamed of this meeting and returned to the tents. But the girl, having lost her vigilance, decided to take a closer look at the tracks. She walked down the road as if spellbound...

Anna was saved. Now she has a prosthetic instead of an arm and huge scars on her stomach. The girl is convinced that werewolves exist. She tells everyone that the eyes of the animal that attacked her were similar to the eyes of the guy who asked her for directions. Perhaps it's just a coincidence. But how to explain the paw prints that appeared out of nowhere, which she saw after losing sight of the stranger for just a few minutes?

Maria Lukinichna.

Maria Lukinichna lives in the village of Bolshie Budishcha, Poltava region, in Ukraine. She knows many folk tales about unexplained phenomena. In her youth, the old woman witnessed how werewolves attacked her village. Certainly, Soviet authority did not recognize the demonic nature of what happened on the farm, but in the archives of Poltava there are still memories of that terrible 1935, when more than ten local residents were attacked by strange creatures.

It should be noted that in those places, despite the abundance of forests, there are neither wild boars nor wolves. Wild boars, moose, foxes, martens and hares - that’s probably all the wildlife that the Poltava region is rich in. Therefore, the appearance of wolves in the village was perceived by old-timers as a bad sign.

Maria Lukinichna recalls that in those days there were rumors throughout the village that werewolves were summoned by a local witch - Kilina - who knew how to cast spells even on priests. The village head offended Kilina and the witch decided to deal with the entire village.

And this event is connected with the appearance of strangers in the village. A strange elderly couple with a young son settled near the local cemetery. They did not greet anyone, went out into the street before dark and hid in the house at the first dusk. At night, people's living creatures began to disappear. Confidence that these people are werewolves appeared among the residents when they discovered paw prints near the house of strangers.

The villagers decided to waylay the strangers in the act. Maria Lukinichna remembers how one night people with burning torches approached the strangers’ house, broke the windows and went inside. There were no signs of human presence in the house. There were gnawed carcasses of chickens everywhere. There were red pools of blood on the floor. People hurried to leave their home, but suddenly a pack of wolves appeared from somewhere.

Maria Lukinichna is reluctant to tell the further course of events. About six people died in that battle. The Party took control of the investigation into this case. Soldiers and police came and searched the forest, but no animal den was found anywhere. Until now, this case is considered inexplicable.

And of course, there was no trace of strangers. The witch Kilina was taken to a mental hospital because she began to claim that they were real werewolves, and in those years, for public statements about such things, the necessary diagnosis was quickly made and sent for treatment.

Certainly, stories about werewolves in our age of multimedia technology it seems like something incredible. Whether you should believe them is up to you to decide. But for some reason the stories of eyewitnesses inspire deep doubts that the world exists only for people...

Since ancient times, humanity has been writing legends about people with supernatural abilities that are inaccessible to other members of the race. The most popular of them are stories about the existence of werewolves. Werewolves are people who, under the influence of certain conditions, can turn into an animal, while retaining human intelligence and some physical traits. But whether werewolves exist in real life, or is it just a fiction of writers, will soon become clear.

What are werewolves like?

Mythology does not have a clear idea of ​​what a werewolf should be. Each nation has its own understanding of what animal a person can turn into, and does it have mythical abilities:

• Lycanthrope is the most common werewolf. This creature has many names: wolfhound ( Slavic mythology), vilktak (Lithuanian), werewolf (German and Anglo-Saxon), mardagail (Armenian), bisclavert (Breton), ulfhednar (Scandinavian).
• The Berserker is a warrior with the strength of a bear and the rage of a wolf, originally from the Scandinavian epic.
• Kitsune is a werefox from Japanese mythology. From there, stories began about Tanuki (were-raccoon), Anioto (leopard man) and Rugaru (human-pet hybrid).
• Silkies are wereseals from Celtic mythology.

Methods of transformation

According to legends, there were two ways to transform a person into a werewolf - by one’s own will and against one’s will. Each werewolf had his own way of transforming.

That is, if he could become a beast whenever he wanted, then nothing could force him to turn against his will. And this principle also applied to those who were forced to become werewolves. Unfortunately, they could not control their transformations.

But who exactly could transform whenever they wanted, and which werewolf was influenced by the desires of his beast? This was available to certain types of mythical creature:

Why is the possibility of their existence more controversial than the reality of other werewolves? Just imagine. Werewolves who did not know how to control themselves would attack anything in moments of hunger. Living being, which is in the access zone. How many random attacks were there? Accordingly, the number of new changelings would increase tenfold. And the more inexperienced newcomers there are, the more difficult it is to keep their very existence a secret. Therefore, the presence of werewolves in real life would have long ago become an indisputable fact, and not the usual interesting legend from the depths of mythology.

Man in the form of a beast

The transformation process itself was quite painful. It all started with a slight chill, developing into a fever. There was a throbbing pain in my head that gradually spread to my whole body. First, the arms and legs lengthened and enlarged, their muscle mass increased, and the skin darkened and became rough. At this stage, the person lost his mind, speech became slurred and more like a growl. Then the whole body increased in size, and the skin became covered with fur. Gradually, moving away from sensations, human intelligence and ingenuity returned to the werewolf.

It was an unusual creature, far superior to its fellow animals in physical parameters and endurance. Usually, werewolves walked on both four and two legs, were very tall and enormous strength. The duration of their life depended on the number of transformations, that is, the more there are, the longer their youth lasts. According to some reports, immortal werewolves also existed.

These were the kings of the animal world. Any living creature felt the presence of a werewolf and obeyed him. There is very little information about whether werewolves possessed magical abilities or not. But the fact that they are always associated with the phases of the moon (the so-called full moon) suggests that they felt the magnetic poles of the Earth and could influence them.

Do werewolves really exist?

It is difficult to figure out whether werewolves are a myth or reality, because if you are guided by the number of testimonies about encounters with werewolves, then there is no doubt that they exist in real life. If you remember common sense and the lack of significant evidence, you immediately begin to doubt the mental health of those people who made up legends about them. But what could have influenced so many witnesses so that they unanimously affirmed the reality of encounters with a bloodthirsty killer beast?

Firstly, we must remember the time in which the authors of these legends lived. The Middle Ages was a period when it was not the president and his ministers who reigned, but the church and the Pope. The Church used the Bible for its own purposes, interpreting the sacred laws in its own way. Accordingly, everything that did not fit into the generally accepted framework was considered the machinations of the devil, eager to grab another human soul.

Secondly, lycanthropy is a mental disorder during which a person considers himself an animal. The work of that part of the brain that is responsible for a person’s perception of himself as an individual is disrupted, and the patient seriously begins to perceive himself as a representative of the animal world and copy its behavior and habits.

During an attack, the body temperature rises very strongly, dehydration begins in the body, as a result of which the eyes become dry and the tongue cracks. Severe claustrophobia begins, and the patient strives by all means to find himself on the street. He perceives anyone who decides to interfere with him as an obstacle that must be eliminated. This explains all his attempts to scratch, bite or push.

This disease is incurable, but is not permanent. It appears and disappears, however, the person remembers everything he did at these moments. And he talks about it himself. This is similar to a split personality; the patient is firmly convinced that he has turned into an animal, and strives to tell all his friends and acquaintances about it.

Now imagine people frightened by the church who consider any manifestations of the weather to be the whims of the gods, and too revealing a neckline to be a temptation from the devil... Can you imagine? And so sick people come to such people and tell them about their nightly adventures. They want to help in their own way, going to the church for advice. Only she has only two ways to cure a person: to a monastery or to the fire...

What if a person was “lucky enough” to meet a sick person in the forest at night, pale with crazy eyes, scraps of clothing on his body, which he tore in a fit of fever? He climbs on all fours, growling and trying to figure out where to find water, and the man has already imagined all seven circles of hell. Here are the details of bloody encounters with a huge beast...

Facts about the existence of werewolves in Russia

No matter how strange it may sound, it also happens that a person meets a mythical creature in person, face to face. One fact of the meeting can be attributed to the fact that the person lied or confused him with some kind of animal. The second case can be attributed to an ordinary coincidence. But what to do when this happens for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth time? For example, we can recall the cases that occurred in Russia:

• Meeting in Irkutsk: This incident occurred in the late eighties on military territory. In the middle of the night, the senior lieutenant is called to the service unit. When he arrived, he noticed among the soldiers his private, intelligent and reasonable man, in a state close to hysterics. In addition, what he said did not fit within the framework of reason. Judging by his words, the incident occurred an hour ago, when he was making another round of the facility entrusted to him. Behind the barbed fence, the man saw an incomprehensible creature that looked like a wolf, but was about two meters tall. It also noticed the man and tried to climb over the fence. The private was not at a loss and opened fire on him. To his horror, the bullets bounced off the creature without harming it. But the beast did not like the noise made, and he went deep into the forest. To study all the details of the incident, the lieutenant and the chief of guard went to the scene of the incident. To their confusion, there were indeed traces of a very large animal walking on two legs. In addition, there was a large clump of dark wool hanging on the barbed wire.
• Kostroma region: Schoolgirl Ira spent her summer holidays with her grandmother in the village. One day, while riding a bicycle in the forest, she accidentally bumped into a local old woman, almost knocking her down on the path. Stopping in time, the girl wanted to apologize to the woman. But, looking at her, she was scared to death. The old woman's face became long and covered with gray fur, and white fangs flashed between her lips. This only lasted a couple of seconds, and her face returned to normal. The woman looked at the girl and told her to forget about this meeting, turned around and left.

And there are many such cases. None of us know what a werewolf looks like in reality., and even more so cannot answer the question of whether werewolves exist in our time at all. But no one can dispute the fact that such strange meetings occur in our time. What is this, a wild human imagination, or a truly real mythical creature? On this moment no one knows this.

Virgo