Monstrous Theories: Werewolves and the Abuse of History

The amount of popular, "scientific" werewolf theories is inversely proportional to serious investigations into the history of the werewolf. A critical approach of these theories leaves them all wanting. Although they pretend to offer valid insights, the little that is known about (primarily European) werewolf lore contradicts their basic assumptions. Because of their visual emphasis, popular werewolf theories relate more to the depiction of werewolves in twentieth-century films, in which the werewolf image was reinvented, than to werewolves as they are, or are not, described in archival sources. There is little hope that the criticized theories will wither in the future, but they need to be exposed at least once. And they do show how popular werewolf films are among werewolf exegetes.