Werewolves and Berserkers: Origins

Sources Below
Germanic pagan traditions associated with wolf-men persisted longest in the Scandinavian Viking Age. Harald I of Norway is known to have had a body of Úlfhednar (wolf-coated [men]).

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Sources
Herodotus, Histories

Pomponius Mela

Pliny the Elder

The Tale of Igor's Campaign

Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend

Egils Saga

Annales Medico-psychologiques

Olaus Magnus

Jons saga Leikara

Hrólfs saga kraka ok kappa hans

The Great Indo-European Horse Sacrifice, A. & Oestigaard, T.



The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology, where lycanthropy is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the kóryos warrior class, which may have included a cult focused on dogs and wolves identified with an age grade of young, unmarried warriors. A few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and mythology. Herodotus, in his Histories, wrote that the Neuri, a tribe he places to the north-east of Scythia, were all transformed into wolves once every year for several days, and then changed back to their human shape. This tale was also mentioned by Pomponius Mela.