Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924)

This is easily a 4.5-star for me.

Not just 4-star, but also not quite 5-star either. Which I'll explain below on why.

For now, I'll say that I really loved this book a lot more than I thought I would. I thought this was going to be a generally dry read I'd struggle with, as there are really not many literary works regarding werewolves that I like, much less ones from before the 20th century.

Oh no. It wasn't. Despite having been written in the 1860s, the language is extremely clear, precise, show more and contemporary. There's no flowery purple prose that tries to make the subject seem vastly more interesting than it's supposed to be. Everything is explained well, to the point, and matter-of-factly, and is very easy to understand, with only a few words here and there that I had to look up.

What I really like is how logical this book is as well. I'm going to be very clear right now and say that this is NOT a literary book. You're going to find stories, yes, but they're more like case studies. It's not meant to be a storytelling book but an explanation of where the werewolf myth possibly started, how it evolved, and what it became.

It does this by delving into early folklore. From the Vikings and how their berserkers would usually imbibe potent narcotics, dress themselves in animal skins, and become ferocious. From the Greeks and how their gods would shed skins or put them on when changing forms. From Celtic, to Gallic, to Iberian, and even Middle Eastern, some aspects of the legends were similar in design but differed by culture.

From there, Sabine Baring-Gould explained in the medieval ages how the legends took parts of those ancient stories - from the skins, to the 'salves,' to religious fervor and more - to include them in their stories and how people also used it to explain how they as well became werewolves.

And then it connected the physical with the mental, explaining how mental issues (which at the time he wouldn't have understood, but what we know today is possible schizophrenia) could warp a person's perception of the world and allow them to believe they became werewolves.

I came in expecting this book to be just a collection of reports and more, with nothing else, but actually came away feeling like I learned something. Which is rather rare, considering this is an old book, over 170 years old, about werewolves in an era before modern medicine and modern psychiatric care. I came for what I thought was the gothic, but came away with an education and a better understanding of how modern European werewolf tropes are connected.

So, I said at the beginning that this is easily a 4.5-star for me. What was the reason I knocked off half a star for?

Mainly because, despite how well Sabine Baring-Gould connected the ancient mythologies to the (then) modern mental ailments that led to werewolf stories being seen as more of a mental malady, he includes a case that I had a hard time understanding how they were connected to Werewolves.

Gilles de Rais.

While Gilles de Rais is a... interesting (and I use the term lightly) study in serial killer and sadistic behavior, there was no clear way that it was connected to the Werewolf myth. This wouldn't have been an issue if it had been a small part, and maybe some of the more outlandish, unverifiable urban legends surrounding his actions could have been discussed. Instead, it was a considerable part of the book and really got into the weeds on the case to the point I was starting to wonder if Sabine Baring-Gould put two books together, or at least the copy I had.

Nope. So I'm left scratching my head how it was connected to the werewolf legend, and hence is what kept it from being a perfect 5/5 for me.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I'm getting myself a physical copy of the book. I had only the public domain version from Project Gutenberg with a few of the illustrations from a 1890 edition, but this is one that I - as a werewolf in real life - want to have leather-bound in my personal library. Preferably an edition which expands on the sources that Sabine Baring-Gould mentions, with more ancient art reprints, and more that I can sink my teeth into. show less

I am quite happy that I did my trips through Iceland a good deal later than Baring-Gould. There are now better roads, better places to stay, better food... but the Icelandic landscape is still overwhealmingly beautiful.

Besides complaining about the Icelandians, Baring-Gould also includes many stories from the sagas. Today we are rather horrified at the way he and his group treated the peopole, animals and geological features they met up with. But it is interesting to see that along with his show more actions he also has begun to think about what the actually do. show less

This book provided me with horrific entertainment for many a night. I first came across this book about 5 years ago, but I did not read further than the author's preface back then, thinking it to be some medieval superstitious author's work. But this time, when I gave it a go, I was surprised that the author, despite being a churchman was a most rational and scientific-minded person (I am ashamed to admit that this was a discovery to me, that churchmen aren't superstitious bumpkins as a show more rule, but now I know better). This was a most informative work, and a pleasure to read. The medieval illustrations reproduced herein really helped make the "atmosphere". And this is not just folklore and myth, but the author of this work expends no small amount of efforts to bring to light the psychological conditions behind the were-wolf, that might have lead to the origin and sustenance of the myth. show less

This was quite a trip. Winding and occasionally racist, and it likely didn't help that the free edition I downloaded from the B&N nook store was poorly formatted. It's interesting, and I appreciated several key things about it--its age, its statements as to what educated people believed at the time of the writing, the fact that most original texts were presented alongside their translations.

It might be short, but it's a slog and it's not for the faint of heart. The last quarter of the book show more is only tangentially about werewolves. I wouldn't have gotten all the way through it if I didn't need to for grad school. show less